Glaurung, Worm or Dragon ?

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

How do you imagine Glaurung looks?

I am asking, because I always pictured him more like a great worm, than like a “normal” dragon. Kind of like the dragons of the Norse Mythology, who also was called “great worms”. . . When I read the Silmarilion the first time; the thing that convinced me, was when Glaurung crosses the Teiglin. We hear how he drags his body over, kind of snake like and not in a fierce jump. This tells me that he must have been more like a worm than the classical dragon.

Then I read “Unfinished Tales” and it tells us, that when Glaurung passes the Teiglin; he has his front legs on one side and the rest of the body on the other (not that he is divided in two). This is kind of problem for my theory, as worms/snake normaly don’t have legs, but could it be that even though he has legs, he still moves more like a snake? I personally believe so. His legs does not seem to hold enough power to carry him like a normal animal, sure they must have a purpose. But if you look at how he crosses the river and the discretion on how all kinds of stuff is stuck to his belly, it seems like he more or less just uses them to drag him self around and not walk/run.

Please let me know, how do you picture Glaurung and why ?

[Mithalwen]

Because he was unwinged and I imagined him as a giant lizard - long and relatively short legged. A bit like a giant, extended Komodo dragon... but this may have been influenced by the cover to my first copy of UT....


see

[Thinlómien]

This picture by John Howe has shaped my image of Glaurung.


So that's kind of a mixture of a worm and a dragon-dragon.

I love the pic. It's very beautiful and portrays both of the characters very well in my opinion.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Thanks for replying, Mithalwen and Lommy.

I think this thread pretty much shows why I don't start threads that often, I am absolutely awful at expressing my self so that it will start a good discution/thread. In this case I did not know, wether to make it a discution about wether Glaurung was a worm or dragon, or if I should just ask people how they pictured him.

Now I am telling you, that you can do either, depending on what you find most intresting. Then maybe this thread will not die just yet.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

I think this thread pretty much shows why I don't start threads that often, I am absolutely awful at expressing my self so that it will start a good discution/thread.

Awww... Poor Rune. But I guess that image above doesn't count as a dragon or as a worm. I picture Glaurung komodo dragonish.

[Guinevere]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Because he was unwinged and I imagined him as a giant lizard - long and relatively short legged.

That's what I imagined him like too.