Fire-drakes

From Tolkien Gateway
Fire-drakes
People
Ted Nasmith - Searching Eye.jpg
"Searching Eye" by Ted Nasmith
General Information
Other namesUrulóki
OriginsDragons
AffiliationMorgoth, Sauron (partially)
MembersGlaurung, Ancalagon, Smaug
Physical Description
DistinctionsFire-breathing; later with wings
"...the fire-drakes of the North, issued from Angband's gates by night."
Of the Return of the Noldor

Fire-drakes (Quenya Urulóki) were fire breathing Dragons.

History and characteristics

The fire-drakes were the more powerful of the two fundamental divisions of dragon-kind (the other being the cold-drakes), who, as the name suggests, were able to breathe fire. Glaurung, the Father of Dragons, was the first of the species.[1] He first appeared in the middle of the First Age but the Urulóki were known to have survived even after the downfall of the Dark Lord Morgoth, troubling the Dwarves and a few drawn to the service of Sauron. Other dragons considered to be of the fire-drakes during the Elder Days were Ancalagon the Black and the terrible Beast of Gondolin.

Smaug, the last of the truly powerful dragons, was slain by Bard in the late Third Age.[2] We can be sure that he was not the last of the fire-drakes, though, because Gandalf refers to fire-breathing dragons in the time before the War of the Ring, nearly eighty years after Smaug's death.[3]

References