Anybody for Dragon Chow?

[Gurthang]

I was just thinking.

Smaug stayed under the mountain for a long time. He didn't come out very often, and he didn't attack the lake-town, or they would have moved away. He just lived under the mountain for a long time.

So how did Smaug stay alive without eating for such a long time? If he did eat, then what? How could he have let himself leave to go find food?

This same question could be asked about many creatures. Such as, how did the Ents get their energy to move? Did the Nazgul need sustainance, and if so, then what? How did Balrogs stay alive?

As far as Smaug goes, I would guess that he basically hybernated. He slept soundly(but with one eye open) for long periods of time and did not use his energy.

[Lindolirian]

The Nazgul were more dead than alive and didn't need to rely on biological processes to stay alive, and I don't doubt the same is true for Balrogs and other spirits (which may or may not include Dragons). Smaug certainly ate the people of Dale until it was thoroughly ruined and knew the taste of dwarf well enough to smell it their ponies. I'm sure he did some hunting in his time and his prey probably included larger mammals like wild horses, possibly deer, even some bears, or maybe wanderers from Lake Town who had lost their way. Of course, he also seemed to hibernate a good deal on his bed of gold and such a sedentary lifestyle does not require much energy.
As for the Ents...photosynthesis.

[Elven-Maiden]

The ents also had the Ent-draughts that made Merry and Pippin grow so tall.

[burrahobbit]

They are magical creatures, it doesn't matter. But anyway.

Dragons: big snakes eat once every couple months.

Ents: do trees eat?

Nazgul: are dead.

Balrogs: do angels eat?

[obloquy]

Balrogs: do angels eat?

They might once they're incarnate.

[burrahobbit]

After a quick aim conversation with obloquy this is what I have.

There are different degrees of incarnation, and we don't know how far down the path any particular balrog has/had gone. The Moria balrog spent quite a while locked up in a cave without food, so they clearly don't need to eat all the time. That being said, he could have simply been hibernating. Bears do it all the time, and it does say that the Dwarves woke him. Aside from that period, though, there are typically always orcs around. Take that however you want. Long story short. Either they don't need to eat or they can go a long time without food for whatever reason or eat/be fed by orcs.

[The Saucepan Man]

The Desolation of Smaug is so-called because it was his hunting ground.

Originally Posted by burra

Ents: do trees eat?

We know that they had mouths. Assuming that they had leaves also, they would gain energy from both ingestion and photosynthesis. Thus they would be very interesting to a modern biologist.

[Nimrodel_9]

Sorry, I didn`t have time to read all of the posts, so if I repeat something that has already been said, please forgive me.
I have often wondered about Smaug. Perhaps he went out and picked off a couple of sheep once in a while. I do not think the Balrogs ate, and am pretty sure the Nazgul did not. They were neither living nor dead, so I do not think they would need food. As for Ents: Sunlight and rain water, like a tree.

[Gurthang]

If you're going down the path that Maiar don't need to eat, then I have to ask why did Gandalf eat?

He could have just been trying to appear more as a man. You know, it would be pretty weird knowing someone who never took some food. But it also comes to mind that he really didn't have to. As burrahobbit mentioned, it may depend on their level of incarnation. It would make more sense to me that since Gandalf was in a man's body he would have to take food to keep it running.

Also, I was kinda thinking photosynthesis for the Ents, because what would they eat? Meat doesn't make sense, and they wouldn't want to eat plants because they are almost a plant themselves. So they make their own energy with light and water.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Well, their water is foodlike (at least one of its variants), and satisfied hobbits (and what hobbits they were!), so I think the water the Ents manufacture/harvest/distill must be full of sustenance.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

We know that they had mouths. Assuming that they had leaves also, they would gain energy from both ingestion and photosynthesis. Thus they would be very interesting to a modern biologist.

I'm assuming just as interesting as the well-known Venus Fly Trap.

The VFT produces a short fleshy leaf that carries a modified tip that forms two sides of the trap, each side contains three hairs which when touched two to three times causes the two sides to spring shut in a very rapid motion fast enough to catch flies and other insects. The leaf once closed then exudes a series of enzymes that slowly dissolve the internal juices of the insect and hence supply the plant with food. After a few days the trap re-opens leaving the skeleton of the insect to be washed out by the rain. If no insect is caught by the trap the leaves re-open within a few hours to prepare for the next insect to arrive. The VFT comes from soils that are very poor in nutrients so the plant has adapted itself to finding nutrients from other means rather than starve. VFT's can easily grow without ever eating insects.

http://www.collectorscorner.com.au/C.../Venusmain.htm

Maybe the Ents don't really need the draughts... they just use them to augment their diets. After all, it is biologically precidented.

Fea

[obloquy]

Gandalf was fully incarnate and thus required physical sustenance. He was put in this state intentionally so it was complete. Balrogs of the Third Age were likely incarnate, but their incarnation was inadvertent, and due to repeatedly engaging in certain activities of the physical realm (eating and conceiving children, Tolkien says, are the most "incarnating" of all). Balrogs were, however, at one time only "clothed" spirits, with a self-fashioned physical raiment. We know that they were eventually fully corporeal because their later deaths were final and there is no indication that anyone feared their re-embodiment.

[Gurthang]

So then, what did they eat? They probably hybernated like dragons would have, but they would still need energy to function. In the case of Durin's Bane, it would only have had orcs to eat. Unless it ate rocks.

Also, it would seem to me that they would need a lot of energy to produce their clothing of fire. They weren't burning themselves, so they had to be emitting a flamable sustance from their bodies. Continually producing any substance takes enormous quantities of energy, so it would make sense that they had to consume a lot because they burned off a lot.

[Bêthberry]

I suggest carbohydrates, which, in humans at least, produce gas, which, in condensed and high quantities, is highly combustible. I bet they 'bulk up' before they flame up.

[Lalwendë]

I imagine a Dragon to be quite like a cat; sleeping for 20 hours a day, occasionally waking up and letting fly in a great spurt of fury and rage, charging about the place with its Dragon tail fluffed up angrily. Every so often he might eat a few fair maidens or foolish knights in armour, and maybe enjoy the odd turn at despoiling the local landscape.

Although:

I suggest carbohydrates, which, in humans at least, produce gas, which, in condensed and high quantities, is highly combustible. I bet they 'bulk up' before they flame up.

Now I can't get the idea of some fantastical reptile 'Thunderpants' out of my mind.

Balrogs maybe would consume the souls of orcs

[obloquy]

Balrogs were spirits of fire. The fire they produced is to be considered metaphysical and thus not a product of physical combustion.

[Selmo]

Didn't Bilbo observe a faint glow around the sleeping Smaug?

I think this gives us a clue about dragon energy sources. The glow was from burning hydrogen.
Dragon wings are too small to lift their great bulk. In order to fly, dragons must be lighter-than-air creatures. The gas that provided the flame in the early, non-flying dragons also provided the flight capabilities in the later, more evolved, Great Dragons. The slow combustion of hydrogen via a catalyst would also provide energy for metabolism.
The hydrogen is generated in one of the dragon's multiple stomachs by the action of gastric acids on certain minerals, so, apart from rare forays to obtain protiens and vitamins, dragons eat rocks.

.

[Rimbaud]

But I'll post anyway. On the dietary habits of fictional creatures. :/

I had always thought of dragons as snake-like, having a very slow digestive process, that allowed them to last for a considerable period on one meal. Multiply this by the vast life-span of a dragon, and a hugely sedentary/hibernatory lifestyle, and it only requires one set of pillaging and festing every so often to be more than enough. Add to this the occasional unwise forays of treasure-seekers, and you had a fairly robust diet, for a slow-lived creature.

Balrogs, on the other hand, had to eat plenty, to support those huge, somewhat redundant, wings. The clue is given later in the book - shadows and dust. So think of a Balrog as like a modern Dyson, with a little more flame.

[Mithalwen]

Actually this relates to a question I have pondered from time to time, could you starve an elf to death (don't try this at home children)? I mean I know they can be slain (although it takes more to kill an elf than a man) and die of grief but surely at some point their bodies must give out? Or could Maedhros have stayed on that rock forever? I know Legolas received all the sustenance he needed from Lembas and was less affected by other physical hardships but is the hardiness of the elves relative or absolute?

[Gurthang]

First off, I never realized that Rocks had Hydrogen in them!

All that about dragons producing hydrogen is pretty good, but all guess-work. I doubt it was really that way with dragons halfway floating. It would explain the balrogs fire though.

As for Smaug's glow.... I really have no idea. If it was hydrogen, it would probably be described more as a flame than a glow.

The elves on the other hand, were immortal, so it would make sense that starving couldn't kill them. But they had physical bodies that needed sustainance. So basically, they would not die from starvation, but they would be trapped in a nearly lifeless body. I don't know that that made much sense, but... that's all I can think of now.

[obloquy]

Elves were not actually immortal.

[Lindolirian]

Originally Posted by obloquy

Elves were not actually immortal.

He's got a point Gurthang. Elves were susceptible to disease, mishap, or famine although they were much more resilient than men. For example Beleg was wounded in the ambush on Amon Rudh and his wounds would have killed a man, but as we all know, his healing skills and Elf resilience let him come out on top. If Elves could not die of starvation, what is their motivation to make a sustaining treat like lembas, or even why would they eat outside of pleasure?
As for Maedhros, I think perhaps he might have been kept (barely) alive by Morgoth just so that he could stay and endure the torture rather than escape via death. Fingon just rescued him too soon for us to find out.
And as for dragon diets, see Rimbaud. His is the most sensible explanation.