Smaug: Wyvern or Dragon?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

How do envision Smaug from the Hobbit?

Do you see him as a wyvern-like two legged dragon (forelegs integrated into wings), as envisioned in the Peter Jackson movies? Or do you see him as more of a four-legged D&D dragon (with the wings as separate appendages)? Or something else entirely?

What do you think Tolkien intended?

 

[MarkB]

I don't envision him as being either a D&D wyvern or a D&D red dragon, but something much more sinuous - a wormy wyrm. Some of the earliest covers to The Hobbit certainly support that.

The original cover shows only two legs, but given how widely-spaced they are along his torso, I think we can take them to be the nearside legs, with those on the left side of his body being hidden.

This is the version I best remember from when I was growing up, which largely supports that earliest image.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I don't envision him as being either a D&D wyvern or a D&D red dragon, but something much more sinuous - a wormy wyrm. Some of the earliest covers to The Hobbit certainly support that.

The original cover shows only two legs, but given how widely-spaced they are along his torso, I think we can take them to be the nearside legs, with those on the left side of his body being hidden.

This is the version I best remember from when I was growing up, which largely supports that earliest image.

Crucially both of those pieces of art are credited to an artist by the name of J. R. R. Tolkien.

While that does not make them definitive expressions of his complete vision in as much as the expression was limited by his amateur skill in visual arts and he may have made slightly different decisions with his artist hat than his author hat, they can be taken as fairly definitive expressions of the broad strokes of his vision, which is (somewhat) clearly, cross-referencing the two, a long wyrm, with two small sets of legs, very widely spaced, and a set of wings right above the forelegs.

 

[Dioltach]

This is the version I best remember from when I was growing up, which largely supports that earliest image.

Yup, same here.

 

[Morrus]

Not sure what to say. He’s a dragon. The book says he is. Anything that contradicts that afterwards is its own thing.

 

[Andvari]

Since I got my own copy of the book I've seen him as that editon's cover.

His legs seem placed quite forward here, which lends me to believe he'd be in some trouble trying to stand unless he had a second pair further back.

 

[GMMichael]

He’s a dragon. The book says he is.

This is what I was going with.

But if the poll question is really, "does Smaug have 2 or 4 legs?" I guess I'd go with 2. Those 2-legged dragons look more realistic to me.

 

[Morrus]

This is what I was going with.

But if the poll question is really, "does Smaug have 2 or 4 legs?" I guess I'd go with 2. Those 2-legged dragons look more realistic to me.

I mean I guess that depends who’s drawing him?

But who decided dragons have 4 legs and wyverns have2? And why are they the authority on this?

 

[Tonguez]

But who decided dragons have 4 legs and wyverns have2? And why are they the authority on this?

The Great Roll in 1312 - the french term Wyver (viper) is used for two-legged winged serpents to distinguish them from Dragons (four legged winged serpents). Generally though its only the Brits who make the distinction


OP Smaug is a great Wormr and has 4 legs

 

[Hriston]

According to this Wikipedia article, "In Tolkien's works, dragons are quadrupedal," whereas the fell beasts ridden by the Nazgûl resemble wyverns more or less.