Smaug
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Smaug is a dragon and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, his treasure and the mountain he lives in being the goal of the quest. Powerful and fearsome, he invaded the Dwarf kingdom of Erebor 171 years prior to the events described in the novel. A group of thirteen dwarves mounted a quest to take the kingdom back, aided by the wizard Gandalf and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. In The Hobbit, Thorin describes Smaug as "a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm".
Beowulf fights his dragon to the death in a 1908 illustration by Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton.
Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir. Wood-carving in Hylestad Stave Church, 12th–13th century.
Detail of wampum bead girdle
A somewhat cat-like Smaug as seen in the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated film of The Hobbit
Dragons in Middle-earth
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J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium features dragons based on those of European legend, but going beyond them in having personalities of their own, such as the wily Smaug, who has features of both Fafnir and the Beowulf dragon.
Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir. Wood-carving in Hylestad Stave Church, 12th–13th century. Smaug resembles Fafnir in several respects.
A painting of Ancalagon the Black
Smaug in fan art