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Karen Rose Sague
Issues in British Literature
Professor Buck Beliles
06 October 2010
The Motivation of Dragons
In both the epic of Beowulf and The Hobbit, a major antagonist is the dragon. Both dragons portray typical European dragon characteristics in their appearances: armour-like scales, serpent-like bodies, weapon quality tails, powerful snapping jaws, and piercing knife-like claws. They both utilize flight to spread their path of destruction, and they both breath fire. Both dragons display similar personality traits: affinity for treasure, easily inflamed temper, gratification in destruction, and hatred of everyone and everything aside from themselves. Both dragons seem to have the same motivating factor: that of rage and revenge. It is the differences in the presentation of both creatures that distinctly separate the two dragons and in doing so, vastly change the tone of the story being told.
In Beowulf, the dragon is a nameless entity. The focus is directed upon the description of the dragon’s rage and behavior, its animalistic qualities that define the being itself. While we are not given a name, we are told that the dragon is male. This is really as far as the personification of the dragon goes. All other descriptions give insight the animalistic rage that drives his actions. The bestial characteristics of the nameless dragon are shown first when we are told of the dragon’s instinctual awareness that something is amiss in his lair upon his awakening. Sague 2
When the reptile roused himself, fresh strife was born./ He
snuffled along the rock (iron-heart!), saw then/ The footprint of
his enemy… (Beowulf 59-60).
The image of a dog sniffing along the ground is created, likening the dragon to less sentient being, concerned with desires of a lower consciousness.
We are further reminded of the dragon’s animalistic nature in the dragon’s intense need for revenge upon the humans who stole his treasure. It is similar to a lioness perusing another predator that stole or killed her offspring. Although the dragon is defending his material possessions, the instinctive response to defend one’s own that each living being is endowed with can be seen:
To burn the fair courts; the glare of fire/ Struck horror to men;
nothing living would escape/ If the persecutor flying in the
clouds had his will/.…/How the lawless war-bringer hated and
humiliated/ The folk of the Geats. He sped back to the hoard,/
To his great hidden hall before the light of day. He had lapped
the inhabitants of the land in fire.…(60)
This act of revenge speaks to the basest animal instinct of retaliation. We do not need any insight into the thought process of the dragon to understand his manner or his reasoning.
The nameless dragon cannot speak, cannot follow the path of logic, and does not exhibit desires beyond instant gratification.
By stark contrast to the nameless dragon, in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the dragon is named from the start. By giving the dragon a name, Smaug, Tolkien is automatically humanizing him. Another thing associated with the dragon that is named in Tolkien’s work Sague 3 but not in Beowulf, is the dwelling place of the dragon (Lonely Mountain). By naming both the dragon and his lair, Tolkien is personifying his antagonist in a way that causes the reader to become more involved in the story.
It is noted that Smaug does posses the same bestial qualities possessed by the nameless dragon: excellent eyesight, acute sense of smell, mammoth appetite, and well defined extra-perceptional skills.
He had passed from an uneasy dream…to a doze, and from a
doze to wide waking. There was a breath of strange air in his
cave. Could there be a draught from that little hole? He had
never felt quite happy about it…and now he glared up at in
suspicion and wondered why he had never blocked it up. He
stirred and stretched forth his neck to sniff. Then he missed the
cup! (Tolkien 195)
However, these qualities seem to add to add somewhat of a sense of grandeur to Smaug’s persona. This detailed description of Smaug’s thought process and interpretation of his senses and surroundings gives him a layer of depth and development that the nameless dragon does not have. Smaug also possesses the obsessive need for revenge that the nameless dragon possesses. Upon his discovery of the intrusion and theft, Smaug’s first reaction is one of rage and violence. The difference though, is that Smaug realizes that his revenge does not have to be imminent and he acknowledges that he can take his time:
Long had he hunted in vain till the dawn chilled his wrath and
he went back to his golden couch to sleep—and to gather new
strength. He would never forget nor forgive the theft, and not if Sague 4
a thousand years turned him into smoldering stone, but he
could afford to wait. (197)
Tolkien further characterizes Smaug by gifting him with the capability of eloquent speech. This ability overshadows Smaug’s animalistic tendencies and helps to develop a definite personality, whereas the nameless dragon is given no such luxury. He not only speaks, but he converses and he waxes poetic and is able to contemplate on his actions:
Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a
wolf among sheep, and where are his sons’ sons that dare
approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. (203)
Smaug’s ability to speak on a level equal to a philosopher shows that he is no mere animal, but a sentient being capable of comprehending the higher laws of existence. He seems to derive pleasure in conversing with another being, illustrating that he has the ability to temporarily set aside his visceral impulses in order to utilize his intelligence that might otherwise be overshadowed.
Smaug displays many other signs of humanistic intelligence other than his ability to speak. His weakness for solving riddles shows his desire to develop the logical portion of his brain.
This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don’t want to
reveal your proper name (which is wise), and if you don’t want
to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise). No
dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting
time trying to understand it. (200-201) Sague 5
When Bilbo peppers Smaug with perplexing riddles as to his (Bilbo’s) origin and species,
Smaug grows almost excited as he strives to deduce what matter of creature has infiltrated his lair and seems to enjoy the exchange of banter. He also displays the human-like weakness of pride and smugness. He is quick to boast about his prowess and strength, and to show off his armour in an effort to gain the admiration of his enemy,
I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows...My
armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws
spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a
hurricane, and my breath is death! (203)
It is this arrogance that eventually leads to his demise, since his readiness to show off his scaly plated belly reveals the flaw in his armour. Smaug’s ability to display pride and self- satisfaction is a further example of his existence as a cognizant being rather than acting purely on animal instinct. However, it is his pride that leads him to act upon the very animal instincts that are skulking behind his mask of intelligence, and eventually to his downfall.
What can be drawn from this is that while Smaug is indeed more highly developed and intelligent than the nameless dragon in Beowulf, his base animal instincts that lurk in the depths of his psyche can never be fully masked. Because of this, Smaug and the nameless dragon are brought down to the same level and dispatched in similar manners as mere animal antagonists.
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Works Cited
Morgan, Edwin. “Beowulf.” The Oxford Anthology of English Literature: Medieval
English Literature, Second Edition. Eds. J.B. Trapp, Douglas Gray, and Julia Boffey.
New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. New York: Houghton Co, 1937.