Podrozdzial 1.1

Dragons lived throughout the First, Second, and Third ages of Middle-earth and may have lived longer. They were originally bred by Morgoth during the First Age to serve as powerful war beasts.

Podrozdzial 1.2

During the First Age, the greatest heirloom of the House of Hador was the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, which was a helm of great weight that had as its crest an image of the head of Glaurung the Dragon. After Glaurung, even mightier dragons were bred to serve Morgoth.

Podrozdzial 1.3

The largest and most powerful dragon to ever live was Ancalagon the Black, who led his kind in the final charge against the Valar in the War of Wrath. Most of Morgoth's dragons, including Ancalagon, were killed in the battle. However, some survived and fled to the far north, where in later years they would slowly start to multiply.

Podrozdzial 1.4

Some, like Smaug the Golden and Scatha the Worm, went from the Withered Heath and invaded Dwarven kingdoms. Before the coming of Smaug, there had not been notable activities observed during the Second Age, as they are largely independent while they still posed threats to men along with "demons" and "misshapen beasts", and Sauron gathered "all the evil things of the days of Morgoth that remained on earth and beneath it", possibly including dragons, beginning the Accursed Years.

Podrozdzial 1.5

It is presumed that, after the death of Smaug in the Third Age, the great dragons had become extinct. According to Gandalf, the fire-drake race survived until at least just before the War of the Ring, and some lesser kin survived even after the war. It may have been possible that some races of dragon still existed into the Fourth Age.

Podrozdział 2.1

Dragons were long-lived, powerful, cunning, possessing subtle intelligence, great physical strength, and covered in nearly impenetrable scales everywhere except their undersides. They had an overwhelming lust for treasure, especially gold, and were known for sleeping on hoards of all they had stolen. By their very nature, they relished not only the theft of beautiful things, but the act of dispossession itself; it was more satisfying for them to steal treasure from others rather than find unclaimed valuables. According to Thorin Oakenshield, they had a very keen sense of the value of their hoard, but never themselves crafted so much as a brass ring.

Podrozdzial 2.2

The reasons behind their strong affinity for gold are unknown, but dragons often put a greater priority on possessing gold than on obtaining food, and they can survive without food (and maybe water as well) for decades or perhaps even centuries. This suggests that jewels may be primal sources of the great serpents' life forces (though they could also simply possess extremely slow metabolisms, similar to other reptiles but exaggerated). Due to this fact, dragons of Arda may or may not be immortal in ideal conditions, though they are known to live for very long periods of time. Not much is known about the lifecycle of dragons, but it is known that they hatch from eggs, and that Glaurung, the progenitor of the species, took three centuries to grow from infancy to adulthood, and that he was considered an "adolescent" after growing for around a century.

Podrozdzial 2.3

Many accounts of interaction between dragons and other beings makes mention of them speaking, using the Common Tongue. In conjunction, they also possessed a hypnotic power known as the "dragon-spell", by which weaker-willed beings could be put into a trance or bent to a dragon's will when the beast spoke. Even those of strong will could be subjected to this ability, especially if they were not prepared for it. Dragons could make even greater use of this ability through psychological manipulation, increasing the power of the spell by taunting a subject with knowledge of some inner conflict on the part of the subject. Glaurung, for instance, was not fully capable of bending Túrin to his will, but when the dragon began to taunt him with his own failings, Túrin became far more receptive to the dragon's suggestions. In addition, this dragon-spell seems to have had the ability to plant mistrust in the listener's mind. This power also extended to a dragon's treasure hoard, causing it to excite feelings of greed and animosity among others who would possess it.

Podrozdzial 2.4

Dragons evidently delighted in sowing discord and strife among others, and apparently had a love of riddles and puzzling talk, spending long hours trying to decipher it. Therefore, speaking in ambiguous riddles was the best way to converse with a dragon, as it was quite unwise to either tell the full truth or to directly refuse them. Bilbo Baggins used this knowledge to great effect during his confrontation with Smaug, entertaining him with vague doublespeak in order to keep him mentally occupied and avoid his rage.