A Mean Girl Nuclear Bomb

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: dragons. Thanks to the appearance of Smaug in the book that first brought Tolkien to wider fame, dragons haven’t merely been associated with him in general but have found their way into wider modern fantasy as a whole, especially in the European tradition of the mythical beasts that he was deeply familiar with. Later writings further fleshed out the sense of how dragons operated in Middle-earth, especially via the cruel Glaurung in the stories that made up The Silmarillion, as well as providing an amusing counterexample outside the legendarium in the form of Chrysophylax Dives, the haughty but conniving dragon encountered by Farmer Giles of Ham. How exactly all these dragons found their place in his work and where Tolkien gathered inspiration from for them can vary, but there’s little question they hold a particular place worth considering. What does it say about Smaug that at the time of The Lord of the Rings there doesn’t seem to be any other dragon around – much less many other fearsome creatures of old? How do the destructive cruelties of Smaug and Glaurung in particular vary, and what are their particular overriding goals in service to others – if they serve others at all? What can be considered about the societies that aim to thrive and exist even under the seeming shadow of a destructive force like Smaug nearby, or is his presence considered much of a shadow at all in terms of the day to day? And just why is it that the one Pauline Baynes drawing of Chrysophylax sitting upright and looking like he’s trying to sell you term insurance rules so hard?