Why did Smaug need a bridge?

It's a topical question as the final film of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit

The Hobbit
The Hobbit is set within Tolkien's fictional universe and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure guarded by a dragon named Smaug. Bilbo's journey takes him from his light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Hobbit
approach: Tolkien emphasises that the bridge over to Lake-town functions as a protection against enemies — and especially the dragon of the Mountain.

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Why did Smaug take over the mountain?

So, the answer to where Smaug obtained his treasure is actually very simple: It was already within the Lonely Mountain when he seized it from the Dwarves. In fact, the gold – not the Dwarves – was the reason that Smaug attacked.

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How did Smaug get his weak spot?

The famous Catholic martyr St. George was heralded in legend for slaying a dragon, after shattering his spear against its armor, by driving his sword into the dragon's underbelly (“under the wing where there were no scales”).

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How did Smaug survive without food?

Yet, with Smaug being a dragon, he may have shared the same traits as real-world reptiles -- most notably, their ability to go long periods without eating. Many reptiles have a form of hibernation called brumation, where they'll slow down to conserve energy over winter and not require any food.

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Was Smaug the weakest dragon?

Undeniably, Smaug is the Greatest Dragon left in Middle Earth during the Third Age. Yet, he is not the strongest in its history. That title falls to Ancalagon the Black, the largest dragon ever to have existed in Middle-earth.

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The Life of Smaug & the Dragons of the North | Tolkien Explained

25 related questions found

Can Smaug see Bilbo with the ring on?

He decides to go back down to Smaug and see if he can find his weak spot. Bilbo is invisible because he is wearing his ring, but Smaug can smell him.

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Could Smaug melt the one ring?

Smaug's dragon-fine would not have been hot enough to destroy the One Ring. The malevolence that Sauron put inside of the Ring could only be destroyed in the Cracks of Doom, so Frodo was compelled to make the journey to Mordor.

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Does Smaug have a weak spot?

The thrush told Bard the Bowman of Smaug's one weak spot, a bare patch on the dragon's belly. With his last arrow, Bard killed Smaug by shooting into this place.

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Did the bird wake up Smaug?

Towards the end of An Unexpected Journey, a thrush appears to the Dwarves and it is considered as a sign of hope. The bird flies to the Lonely Mountain and breaks an nut, which wakes Smaug.

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Was Smaug supposed to have 4 legs?

Smaug Lost Two Legs

The idea was to get the fear through his bulk. In fact, if you go back and look at the first film and the scenes that he was in, he was actually a four-legged dragon because we just had him stomping through Erebor in all of those flashback scenes," Letteri said.

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Is Smaug more powerful than a Balrog?

So, one glimpse into Smaug's eyes and the Balrog falls under the spell. Even if it's just for a second—a moment of hesitation or distraction, it'd be enough. Smaug would snatch up Durin's Bane and gobble him up with his sword-sharp teeth (and we know swords can kill Balrogs). There you have it.

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Was Smaug allied with Sauron?

Smaug. Smaug was considered to be the last "great" dragon of Middle-earth. Sauron allied with Smaug and intended to use the dragon's powers against the people of Middle-earth. But before that could happen, Smaug was slain by Bard the Bowman.

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Is Smaug bigger than Drogon?

Drogon Daenerys Targaryen's mount from Game of Thrones, ended up being 50 meters long, plus or minus 10. Smaug from The Hobbit is a staggering 140 meters long, give or take 15.

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Is Smaug the last of his kind?

Smaug was the last great fire-drake, but not the last of all. After his death, others of like kind apparently still survived in the world, but none came close to Smaug in power.

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Why is Smaug in gold?

In an attempt to defeat Smaug, the dwarves try to drown him in liquid gold. Yup, that's right. Apparently, there was a whole bunch of gold just waiting to be melted down and then poured into a GIANT cast of a dwarf statue.

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What does Smaug call Bilbo?

Smaug calls Bilbo a thief, and he is accurate in his judgment.

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Is Smaug the last living dragon?

Smaug was the last named dragon of Middle-earth. He was slain by Bard, a descendant of Girion, Lord of Dale.

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Why is Smaug called Smaug?

Deriving from the same Old English and Germanic roots as smial and Smeagol, the name Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole". It has been suggested that Tolkien likely thought of Old English smeag, a word used to describe a "worm".

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Can Smaug talk?

Smaug doesn't say very much when the dwarves are trying to apprehend him in the second film either. The only times he ever seems to address anyone in those scenes is when Bilbo is present. He says a great deal to Bard the Bowman while attacking Lake-town, which Mr.

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How long did Smaug sleep?

For 171 years, Smaug hoarded the Lonely Mountain's treasures to himself, staying within the mountain, until a company of Dwarves managed to enter the Lonely Mountain and awaken him from hibernation.

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Can Smaug breathe fire?

It wouldn't be easy–the most common descriptor of a dragon is “fire-breathing,” after all. But unlike other aspects of the book and now the film that are wholly magic, Smaug's burning breath is actually one of the least magical, and can be wrangled into plausibility.

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What can no dragon resist in The Hobbit?

No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it.

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How fast could Smaug fly?

Getting the necessary lift from wings requires air-speed and a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that air-speed scales as the square-root of body-size. A few more scribbles and comparisons with real flying creatures and out pops the air-speed required by Smaug to fly – 200kph.

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Could Gandalf have defeated Smaug?

Gandalf absolutely could have killed Smaug in a one-on-one fight. The grey wizard fought and defeated the Balrog of Moria, and a dragon was a lesser evil than that. As proof, Morgoth -- the original Dark Lord of Middle-earth -- created and bred dragons to his evil purpose in the First Age.

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Was Smaug alive in the First Age?

Smaug was actually quite average as far as dragons went. He was the last of the fire drakes and likely the only large dragon to survive past the first age. He was much smaller than Ancalagon.

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