Smaug the Great is described: “There was a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm called Smaug.” When Biblo finally sees this terror with his own eyes:
Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his
underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed.
This is one of the classic poses in which artists like to paint Smaug, curled up on his gold in the ancient Dwarven halls. But there are others: attacking the side of the mountain with fire, and best of all, setting fire to the wooden village of the lake men, to be killed by Bard’s black arrow. But my favorite is the conversation that Bilbo and the dragon have, their riddling contest of sorts. Bilbo thinks himself well off after escaping with only a singed backside but of course he has given away the game. Smaug knows where to seek his revenge.
My very first image of Smaug, like many back in the early 1970s was that of the Brother Hildebrandt. I can still look at this painting and remember my body going all gooseflesh. Later I saw the originals by Tolkien. They have their own charm but Tolkien was a gifted amateur after all. Still, he left a wealth of details to inform later artists.
Smaug has now been immortalized in film, voiced by the amazing Benedict Cumberbatch. But to my mind I will always be fond of the old Rankin-Bass version. It has a fox-headed look that is pure Japanese. The cartoon was voiced by Richard Boone, who weren’t half bad either. (Have Ring, Will Travel.) It is too bad Frank Frazetta never did the scaly one.
