Tolkien's best Dragon

[The Saucepan Man]

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:

Hail, Nienor, daughter of Hurin. We meet again ere the end. I give thee joy that thou hast found thy brother at last. And now thou shalt know him: a stabber in the dark, treacherous to foes, faithless to friends, and a curse unto his kin. Turin son of Hurin! But the worst of all his deeds thou shalt feel in thyself.

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]