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Originally Posted by Raynor
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Originally Posted by skip
The tendency among artists seems to be guana/dinosaur-like creatures that walk upright with strong legs even though Tolkien clearly described long and slithering serpent-like dragons.
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In this familiar picture we see the dragon lying on his heap of treasure, with his belly toward the top of the pile, so that he is lying curled downwards, with his head resting on the hoard, smoke issuing from his nostrils and his ears pointed and alert, his right clawed foot extended.
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That's.. a matter of contention (emphasis added): |
You are referring to this painting I believe. In any case, I never claimed Tolkien's long-worms do not have legs, I only said that they did not walk upright like a dinosaur, rather crawled on the ground like a snake or possibly a lizard, at least in the case of Glaurung. And looking at Tolkien's Smaug, it kind of looks like he might have two pairs of legs (one of the hind legs can be guessed behind the pile of gold near his left wing?). But this is not a very convincing dragon anatomically, is it? You could imagine him walking/crawling like a lizard, but hardly flying... For that, the wings are much too small and positioned far too close to his head.
11-02-2010, 04:57 AM
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