Why destroy Laketown's bridge?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Quempel

Why would Smaug need to land at all? I have never understood why he would need to land at all. Of course I am thinking that stealth bombers actually do better in the air than on land. I don't know if that is a fair comparison, but if I could breath fire, destroy towns and fly, I wouldn't be caught walking across a bridge.

Anglo-Saxon warriors rode into battle & then fought on foot. Even against enemy cavalry they would dismount, set up their shield wall & literally stand their ground. You may as well ask why, if they had horses they wouldn't use them in battle. They didn't use them because that wasn't the way they fought. Now, it may well be that Dragons, being originally earth-bound, naturally fought on foot & if they had the option only used their wings to get from A to B....or it may not. The point though, is that the mere fact that dragons had the capability of aerial assault doesn't mean they would choose to fight in that way.

Going back to the first mention of Smaug's attack on the Lonely Mountain we find:

One day he flew up into the air and came south. The first we heard of it was a noise like a hurricane coming from the North, and the pine-trees on the Mountain creaking and cracking in the wind. Some of the dwarves who happened to be outside (I was one luckily a fine adventurous lad in those days, always wandering about, and it saved my life that day) - well, from a good way off we saw the dragon settle on our mountain in a spout of flame. Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire. A Long Expected Party

Smaug flies to the mountain, lands on it, & then comes down the slopes & sets the woods on fire. I take that to mean that he landed & then crawled down. The alternative, that he landed, then took off & flew down to the woods doesn't make sense - why land on the mountain-top at all - why not just fly to the woods directly?

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

I have no "theory" about what that passage means.

Ok - but what do you think it means?

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by davem

Smaug flies to the mountain, lands on it, & then comes down the slopes & sets the woods on fire. I take that to mean that he landed & then crawled down. The alternative, that he landed, then took off & flew down to the woods doesn't make sense - why land on the mountain-top at all - why not just fly to the woods directly?

Excellent point. Not to mention that "came down the slopes" doesn't sound the least bit like it describes flight.