Smaug: Wyvern or Dragon?

[aco175]

I was just thinking that Peter Jackson's campaign had dragons with 2 legs. I like to think that mine would have had 4 legs in my Tolkien campaign.

 

[MGibster]

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

Are we sure Tolkien didn't just make an error when examining the Monster Manual for inspiration?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Tolkien's own drawings show Smaug having four legs.

 

[Umbran]

If I recall correctly, Tolkien had a lot of things that might be called a dragon, but it isn't like he used a clear and consistent taxonomy.

Some were great serpents with no limbs. Some had no legs, but had wings. Some had four legs, but no wings, and some had four legs and wings.

One thing he didn't seem to have was a thing in the dragon family that had two legs and wings.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

He may have associated wyverns with Norman heraldry.

Smaug is probably based on the dragon on the Welsh flag (the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr) given that Smaug is stated as being red-gold. The dragon on the Welsh flag has four legs.

The version of Smaug in The Hobbit movie is based on modern reconstructions of Pterosaurs. These are to recent for Tolkien to have been familiar with them.

 

[Umbran]

The version of Smaug in The Hobbit movie is based on modern reconstructions of Pterosaurs.

Similar reconstructions date back to the early 1800s.

Timeline of pterosaur research - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Hriston]

If I recall correctly, Tolkien had a lot of things that might be called a dragon, but it isn't like he used a clear and consistent taxonomy.

Some were great serpents with no limbs. Some had no legs, but had wings. Some had four legs, but no wings, and some had four legs and wings.

One thing he didn't seem to have was a thing in the dragon family that had two legs and wings.

They're pretty much described as enormous, stinking, featherless birds, but the "fell beasts" the Nazgûl use as flying mounts in the LR are about the closest thing Tolkien has to a wyvern, and they do seem to have bat-wings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Four legs, per the true authority, Rankin-Bass.


(Also, can we talk about the fact that there are no women in any of the scenes in Laketown? Was Laketown the Middle-Earth equivalent of Fire Island?)

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Four legs, per the true authority, Rankin-Bass.

Every RPG should have a feature to empower your weapon by giving it a rousing speech about its history.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Every RPG should have a feature to empower your weapon by giving it a rousing speech about its history.

I would give advantage for a character that wanted to do that during the big fight with the BBEG.