My vote is cast for Glaurung, I must say. I would consider him cruel, and he played a large part in the curse that Morgoth laid upon Turin.

A few words for Smaug, however; I do not cast a half vote for him, but I will say this: he was, if anything, an amusing character in my eye, and one who is overly obsessed with his hoarde.

GreatWarg

I vote for Scatha.

Chrysophylax was Tolkien's best Dragon. He's my favorite, thouh Smaug's is easier to pronounce. ;-)

Welcome to the Downs, radagast, and a very sensible first post, I might add. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I haven't read of Chrysophylax, though it seems now I'm going to have to.

I'd have to say Glaurung. He was the father of all the dragons, and was such a cunning & powerful beast. But mostly, he was cool!

I think that tons of people would be thinking of Smaug, only because he's the one everyone knows about.

Tolkeins best Dragon in my opinion is Ancalagon the Black.Glaurung is the father of Dragons and he's pretty cool but I still like Ancalagon better.

Thorongil: Maybe your vote will change after you've read Farmer Giles. I think you'll love it.

Smaug: 7 1/2
Glaurung: 8
Chrysophylax: 5 1/2
Scatha: 2
Ancalagon: 8 1/2

Ancalagon pulls away from Smaug but Glaurung slithers a neck ahead of Smaug, too, catching up to Ancalagon. Whoa! And look at ol' Chrysophylax, where'd he find that extra kick! Must have smelled unguarded treasure at the finish line....

So whens the deadline for voting?

Yeah, and when will the winners be announced? And what are the prizes?

I dont remember his name but the one in the Hobbit

Smaugs the name and now he is level with Angy and Glaurung. As for prizes. A dragon maybe?

From my view they're only on the back straightaway...

As for prizes, what prize do you give a dragon?

Gold? Jewels? Mithril? A chicken mcnugget?

I like Chrysophylax and all those others, but my vote has to go to Smaug because I'm currently in a play version of "the Hobbit" and where would I be without loyalty.
(By the way, add me to the list of people who want a dragon and for real dragonlovers, check out the Elvenbane series. The dragons are the principle characters.)

Smaug, definetly, because he has an interesting personality and he was, for a dragon, civil to Bilbo.

My vote definately goes to Glaurung. I like my Dragons evil, and Glaurung's just about as evil as they get. OK, he hasn't got the overbearing winged power of Ancalagon the Black, or the smug arrogance of Smaug. But for sheer, unrelenting malevolence, Glaurung beats them all hands down.

Indeed, Ancalagon wouldn't even make the shortlist for me, given that he couldn't even see out his first engagement in battle without getting himself slayed. Glaurung, on the other hand, hung around for thousands of years making the lives of Elves and Men alike (and the family of Hurin in particular) a misery.

Smaug comes a close second. But after his onslaught on the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and the Men of Dale, he became more concerned with protecting his pile of treasure than rampaging about like a proper Dragon should. And, becoming overly-confident in his arrogance, he allowed himself to be easily tricked into revealing his vulnerable spot. In order to defeat Glaurung, however, Turin had to come up with a very clever, and highly risky, strategy. And even when he lay dying, Glaurung was unrepentant, preferring instead to further the malice that he had wrought:

Now that's what I call a proper Draconian way to behave. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I vote for Glaurung - the perfect combination of malice, cunning, brute strength, and evil will. Smaug is a great character as well, but somehow Glaurung seems to me to be more intense, more starkly and dramatically drawn.

Glaurung definitely was an evil wyrm, and I'm sure Ancalagon the black was very powerful, but just for this comment:
I'll have to vote for Smaug the Magnificent, if only because he ruined the fortunes of my people for centuries. Anyway, Glaurung couldn't even fly!

Ancalagon the Black all the way.

Attaboy - er, Man [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] - Saucepan! Malevolent, malicious, malignant, merciless, murderous, monstrous, maleficent...who needs wings?

I like Acalagon the Black, though the guy in "Farmer Giles of Ham" was extremely funny
[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I'm glad to see new life breathed into this particularly enjoyable discussion. Allow me to raise the ante... thusly:

Everybody seems to think that since we're comparing Tolkien's dragons to Tolkien's dragons, that it's apples to apples, so to speak. But The Silmarillion is quite a different book from The Hobbit, and Farmer Giles of Ham is quite different from either of the other two. Thus, one may conceivably compare Ancalagon the Black and Glaurung without having to account for legendarious (new word, eh? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ) differences, but Smaug's milieu is that of a classic fairy tale with its happy ending, whereas Glaurung's is of mythic scope, and tragic. By comparison, Chrysophylax's milieu is unabashed farce. So...

Given the farcical underpinnings of Chrysophylax and the happy ending underpinnings of Smaug, and the mythic tragedy underpinnings of Glaurung, a lot of the arguments raised in defense of this one or that being best, is mitigated by these very underpinnings. Thus, Smaug letting Bilbo discover his weakness is part of the nature of fairy tale, and is not as valid a mark against him as Ancalagon losing his first battle. There are probably many more examples of just such a thing.

All of this to say, given the farcical nature of Farmer Giles of Ham, all the mitigations therein accounted for, such as Chrysophylax being a groveling, treasure loving sycophant set aside, his sheer wrath at the stupid giant, and cleverness at all times, not to mention his ability to stay alive in the face Caudimordax, Chrysophylax, is clearly the best dragon. Of course, I've already voted, so this is redundant. But necessary. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Ancalagon the Black's pretty cool, simply because he is great, but my vote goes to Glaurung. Why? It's already said here. I need not to add anything.

Ah, but they stand or fall by the style in which they are written. So a perceived fault derived from their legendarious (great word, lmp [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ) setting (such as Samug's weak spot) is nevetheless a valid fault for the person casting the vote. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

By my calculations, the scoreboard currently stands at:

Smaug: 11 1/2
Glaurung: 12
Chrysophylax: 5 1/2
Scatha: 2
Ancalagon: 10 1/2

So, Ancalagon drops from first to third, while Glaurung (yay! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ) takes the lead, with Smaug in close pursuit. "Who needs wings" indeed. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

Glaurung made Turin's life a wreck, and since I am quite fond of Turin in his better moments, I can never quite forgive Glaurung for it. So while he's quite good as dragons go, my vote goes for the far end of the spectrum and.... *drumroll*

Chrysophylax- an excellent dragon, and an excellent cook (as represented in Revenge of the Entish Bow [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]-- almost as funny as the original)

Sophia

:Sniff!: Excuse me as I :sniff: in indignation that such a nonentity as Ancalagon has so many votes compared to the ever wondrous Chrysophylax! [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

It seems to me there should be somewhere around here .... :: LMP peers around his mug of ale :: ... Ah! Yes! I have here a little bit of historolexicography that proves - proves! - mind you, that Chrysophylax is indeed the greatest of Tolkien's dragons. It was brought to my attention by a very, very short man (who just happened to wear very, very large shoes). It seems that there is this ancient booklet written in a rare form of West Saxon. The book's title is somewhat smeared, and the title page is worse, but I think I can just make it out: "Annals of the Wild Hills and Legendarious Accounts of Wyrms and Giants". So you see, the word 'legendarious' cannot be said to originate with this writer, much to my own chagrin. In any case, in this singular book it says that - excuse me, the pages are ever so delicate - seems to indicate that Chyrsophylax lived long years after the shortlived incident of the Little Kingdom, and that he routed out every last giant from Wales, sent them packing north where they shrank over time and turned into - Shetland ponies? No. I read that wrong. Scottish sheepherders is what is says. The writing is somewhat smeared right there. But I'm quite certain that it says Scottish sheepherders. There's a reference to the Highlands and Loch Ness. Something about Chrysophylax enjoying a good swim now and then. What that might mean I leave to your deductions. In any case, this book makes it quite clear that Chrysophylax had a most illustrious career and is perhaps still with us to this day. I'm sorry, but he must stand as Tolkien's best dragon. And if my illustrious colleague, The Saucepan Man, Esquire, is to be granted his contention that the legendarious mitigations must be allowed to stand, then this newly discovered "Annals" book must also be included as evidence. I wish I could show it to you... Respectfully, Littlemanpoet. Now where did that verrry little man with the verrrry big shoes get to? I swear I saw him just over ... there... He seemed ... English .... somehow.... OxfordShire, perhaps? Just a guess.

Glaurung for me, with Smaug a close second.

Sounds to me like littlemanpoet is asking for opinions obloquy. So voting for Scatha is legit, however misguided, and does not merit your sarcasm (not that you ever require merit), or your second guessing.

definitely glaurung, for all the reasons the saucepan man said. i mean, smaug was just... i dont know... he seemed weaker. i mean, he killed sheep or ponies or something didnt he? how noble and powerful is that? [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I'm gonna have to vote Glaurung, too. For me he is THE perfect dragon ; cunning, evil and mysterious...

'Kay, guy who be short, jush fer argumensh shake, who ever shez a drrrrragun is sh'posed te be noble? 'Scuze me while I go burry me face in me beer...

Ancalagon the Black - blatently, he was the first flying dragonthe when he arrived he was a new and evil force theres no way you can compare smaug to to him smaug just sat on his butt all day every day for however many years, you may say 'oh but he was feared by all peoples near him' that doesnt really say much, they didnt seem to need much scaring - the people only moved away as far a esgaroth thats not a great distance, plus he was camp [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ... who ever heard of a camp dragon? no, Ancalagon definitly has my vote.

Glaurung for me. Smaug was stupid, he was too arrogant and it lead to his death. The others, I don't know. What I do know is that GLaurung had much power and was golden. Well, that should be enough for me [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Suilad,

Anuion

Ancalagon for me! Now that Dragon died in style! It took Earendil and a fleet of Eagles to kill him, not just a random guy with a black sword like Glaurung, or a random guy with a bow and arrow like Smaug!

Turin's just some 'random guy'?

Chrysophylax of course! The most amusing dragon in all Fantasy, beaten by a farmer. Lovely dragon, Chrysophylax.

Heh heh, never underestimate a farmer with a mission. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Chrysophylax gets my vote too. Although Glaurung is the more 'dragony' dragon. Chrys is endearing. Sort of.
Peace

Smaug: 11 1/2
Glaurung: 16
Chrysophylax: 8 1/2
Scatha: 2
Ancalagon: 12 1/2

Glaurung now pulling away from the chasing pack. Just as it should be. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ June 25, 2003: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ]

My vote would have to go to Glaurung. He actively sought to make Turin's, Nienor's, and anyone else's lives he came across a living hell. (Dont ya love my abuse of the good old English language?) Just for pure nastiness, he gets my vote.

Although, Ancalagon's taking out mountains was pretty coolnull [img]null[/img]

My vote for Tolkien's best dragon goes to Glaurung. He was by far the cruelest of all the Uruloki, the father of the dragons and the epitome of all that Morgoth represented. In many ways he was the physical embodiement of Morgoth in the first age, since Morgoth never appeared from his fortress in Angband except for his battle with Fingolfin and in the War of Wrath. Glaurung's cruelty, malice and treachery, and his sheer cunning, make him the best dragon.

However, when I read about the battle between Ancalagon and Earendil, I did get chills, but there's simply not enough written about him to compare him to Glaurung. Smaug is more two-dimensional I think, since the Hobbit was (let's face it) a children's book, more so than LotR and DEFINITELY more than the Silmarillion. As for Chrysophylax, I don't think his personality was as well crafted as Glaurungs.

Shouldn't this be under Novices and Newcomers, as I am told that all "best/favorite" posts should be there? Just wondering....

Has anyone kept a running count of who has obtained the most votes of the 4 aforementioned dragons? I'm too lazy to go back and count, but my guess from skimming through entries is Glaurung.

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

But you have forgotten the best dragon of all Gandalf's firework [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] . But seriously I don't know much about this subject but in the Shadow of the Past Gandalf seems to think Ancalagon was the most powerful (or at least the one with the best fire breath) and I suspect he knows what he's talking about.