Though 2012 is the year of the dragon, it has been confirmed that we will not get a glimpse of The Hobbit’s own dragon, Smaug, until 2013.
However, in one of Peter Jackson’s production diaries, crewmembers were sighted sporting this logo on their sweatshirts.
Many fans have speculated that this is how we can expect Smaug to look the film.
I think a more telling design is the Smaug the Golden statue that was released by Weta Workshop. The sculpture was based on artwork by John Howe, who is not only an esteemed Tolkien artist, but is also a conceptual designer on The Hobbit.
Friends of the network and artists Justin Gerard, Jon Hodgson, and Ted Nasmith have created their own interpretations of Smaug the Tremendous. One thing that they all have in common is the basic serpentine shape of the dragon and the reptilian head.
Though this shape is perhaps implied, but never detailed by J.R.R. Tolkien, I found that many fans consider a serpentine Smaug to be more canonical. Lending credence to this idea is that fact that a number of characters in The Hobbit refer to Smaug as a “worm.” He is the last of the Great Worms so he would be expected to be related in appearance to the dragons described in The Silmarillion. It has even been suggested that Tolkien’s inspiration for his name comes from the Old English word “smeag,” which means “worm.”
It’s obviously important to read what Tolkien himself wrote about Smaug.
From The Hobbit:
There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.
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.
I feel that there is really very little detail given in The Hobbit as to the particulars of Smaug himself; Tolkien takes much more time describing the treasure. In the recent article about the worth of Smaug the accessibly wealthy (he is #1 on Forbes’ Fictional 15 list), Michael Noer takes time to credit the internet commentary he received. When it comes to Smaug’s size, one commentator cites “the D&D sourcebook,” and while I believe this is a valid foundation for calculating a dragon’s measurements, it does not reference Smaug or Tolkien specifically. Probably because their are very few specifics to be found.
So what did The Professor think?
Tolkien’s dragon sketch is featured at the front of many editions of The Hobbit and has adorned t-shirts, jewelry, and other items for years.
Is this what Smaug should look like?
Back in 2009, when he was still billed as the director on The Hobbit, Guillermo Del Toro told Total Film, “Early in production I came up with a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made. The problem was implementing that idea. But I think we’ve nailed it.” There’s no knowing how much of Del Toro’s original design passed through to the film now that Peter Jackson is at the helm, but it may be that we are in store for something that none of us has even guessed at.
I’ve never been one to get bogged down in the intentions of the author. I think that once a story is out of the author’s hands, it’s up to the readers to perceive it in their own ways. I would go so far as to suggest that Peter Jackson and his creative team are readers like the rest of us, as are artists like Gerard, Hodgson, and Nasmith. You can be thrilled, upset, or ambivalent about their version of Smaug; at the end of the day, it doesn’t take anything away from the Smaug of your own imaginings.
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