Quote:
Originally Posted by Zigûr
I think some people are getting a bit confused. There's probably a good chance Sauron helped Morgoth to breed the dragons in the First Age, because he "was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice." (Morgoth's Ring) That, however, has nothing to do with the devising of the Black Speech, which occurred in the Second Age, long after any possible dragon-breeding days of Sauron's.
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I also got the impression from this that Sauron was the "Enforcer" and "Major Domo" of Morgoth.
Morgoth was sort of the Chairman of the Board, while Sauron was the CEO and COO; the guy who actually did things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zigûr
At least, that's how it seems to my mind. I don't recall any evidence of Sauron having anything further to do with dragons after the First Age apart from a possible alliance with Smaug which never came to fruition. To be fair, there is some evidence in "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" that in the Second Age Sauron "gathered again under his government all the evil things of the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it" so I suppose it's possible he had under his command such dragons as survived the War of Wrath, although I do not believe we have any direct evidence of this. The fact that they went on to breed in the North beyond the Grey Mountains, far from Mordor, suggests that if any dragons did obey Sauron in the Second Age their allegiance was quite limited. It in fact suggests to me that Sauron did not command Dragons; it seems more probable that they never left their ancestral habitations in the North but rather bided their time, which would explain their prominence in the First and Third Ages, but not the Second.
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Or, it could be that Sauron specifically instructed, or left them in the North as the most effective means of establishing a Base of Power in that region, while Sauron's Base of Power remained further in the South, nearer to the Númenórean Dominions in Middle-earth (and to where he needed the Power of the Earth itself to forge the
One Ring.
Again, that is just speculation, and it could be that the Dragons just paid Lip-Service to his Dominion, while keeping to themselves.
The Dragons are a difficult Metaphysical Element of Middle-earth, as they suggest Embodied Consciousness, something that only existed in either the Ainur or the Children of Ilúvatar.
If the Dragons were a breeding of Maiar with Reptilian, Chimeric Monsters (Dinosaurs - or other Raptors, crossed with Lions, Alligators, Snakes, and Bats/Birds), then this could account for their respectable power and intellect.
But it could also make them co-evals of Sauron and the Balrogs.
It is an interesting area of speculation for which there is not a lot upon which to form any objective foundation of any solidity as yet.
MB