Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 6 months ago. Active 3 months ago. Viewed 29k times. Improve this question. Edlothiad Cleaned up the comments. I'd say that he killed the Balrog because he had to as a last resort. Killing Smaug would basically be murder.
Lack of reading effort, it's clear from the Lord of the Rings that it's not Gandolf's place to intervene directly in middle earth.
Gandalf might have killed Smaug on his own, but he could have died trying. To add to RichS's comment, Gandalf killed a Balrog, and did die trying. He didn't know he would be sent back until it happened. Show 4 more comments.
Active Oldest Votes. It was not his job. This is covered in Appendix A of Lord of the Rings : Among many cares he was troubled in mind by the perilous state of the North; because he knew then already that Sauron was plotting war, and intended, as soon as he felt strong enough, to attack Rivendell.
In the same appendix: It was even as Gandalf sat and pondered this [in the Inn at Bree] that Thorin stood before him, and said: 'Master Gandalf, I know you only by sight, but now I should be glad to speak with you. Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Werrf Werrf That conversation is interesting. I wonder if there is more than mere coincidence behind the chance meeting of Thorin and Gandalf.
Very likely there was; there is a partial version of an expanded form of that meeting published in Unfinished Tales , where Gandalf says "I did not more than follow the lead of 'chance' ". Quotation marks are in the original, as in Gandalf did not think it purely chance. I disagree with the first aspect that Gandalf would not have been allowed to fight Smaug.
I do believe that IF he needed to fight Smaug, Gandalf would have held them off. I think that his main goal was to put Thorin on the throne, re-establishing his reign over the region and securing the strategic asset that was the lonely mountain. Rather than kill the dragon, he wanted Thorin to come to power and unite the dwarves. What he planned to do with Smaug, is a mystery? Up near the top, you might want to add that during his battle with the Balrog, they literally broke the mountain - a perfect example of the destruction you refer to.
Werff Agreed - as much 'chance' as the west wind blowing away Orodruin's clouds at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. Show 5 more comments.
Because Gandalf might not have won This is an out-of-universe explanation based on what we know of the author. This explanation is totally antithetical both to Tolkien's beliefs and to Gandalf's character. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, Suggest you add to this the Beowulf did not beat the dragon, and that hero was prominent in Tolkien's background in myth and legend.
Where do you get the impression that maiar are stronger than dragons? Morgoth had balrogs at his command but needed to make dragons to win. And Gandalf didn't have a maiar's power execept under limited circumstances. Normally he was limited to human power. Old man human power not great human warrior and dragon slayer power. Gandalf may well have been "more powerful" than Smaug, but his power is almost never shown to be useful in a straight out fight to the death with a titanic fire-breathing beast.
Neal Gandalf's statements indicate he did more than return to Valinor. When Gandalf died, he died , and went where all Men go when they die, and it was Eru himself who sent him or perhaps allowed him the choice of being sent back to finish his task. That is why I settled on burglary … " page 26 in my edition It's not clear to me what battles were on-going in TA.
James K James K 2, 1 1 gold badge 10 10 silver badges 27 27 bronze badges. I'm not sure your answer allows for the fact that he did kill the balrog. And the Balrog killed Gandalf. Gandalf and the Balrog fell. In body both died. In the fall, they may have continued to fight, but I see that more as battle of spirits than of swords and whips. I know not what happened to the spirit that inhabited the Balrog, but Gandalf's spirit was reborn through the intervention of the Valar. I've now checked, Gandalf is a bit more bad-ass than I'd remembered.
He survives the initial fall from the bridge, the balrog's flames are extinguished in the waters at the bottom of the chasm. The balrog tries to leave by a staircase that leads to the top of the mountains.
Gandalf pursues him for over a week. From the peak of the mountain the balrog is thrown off lots of "fallen angel" parallels here but the body of Gandalf is broken. No, Gandalf was not restored to his incarnation by the Valar! In Letter Tolkien tell us: He was sent by a mere prudent plan of the angelic Valar or governors; but Authority had taken up this plan and enlarged it, at the moment of its failure.
Sent back by whom, and whence? The Powers are bound by time. It was the One alone who took up their failed plan, sanctifying it—and Gandalf the White. DeadMG "Perhaps the books show something radically different to the films.
That never happens. Show 2 more comments. The elves made friends among the current mortals. This made it easier to involve them later. Restored the friendship between the different tribes of dwarves. Without that, the races would have been even more divided and less prepared when Sauron rose. David Roberts 2, 16 16 silver badges 24 24 bronze badges. However, the Balrogs were Maiar that Morgoth corrupted to his service.
As such, dragons were powerful, but because of the Balrogs' preeminence, they commanded evils that the dragons only hoped to imitate. He -- along with the other wizards -- was sent from Valinor to oppose Sauron by stirring up resistance amongst the free peoples of Middle-earth. They were forbidden from matching Sauron's power because that would only have led to more destruction. Building off of that point, Gandalf needed Lake-town and Erebor to be future bastions against the evils that Sauron was bound to bring in his coming war.
Simply ridding Erebor of Smaug would have created a power vacuum between Men, Elves and Dwarves, and Sauron would have used such a scenario to his benefit. With that said, Gandalf needed to find a better way of involving others in his quest to rid Sauron of a future ally. Unusually, they choose to make Smaug hairy and cat-like in appearance, complete with whiskers. At first this comes across as an odd choice but it actually makes a lot of sense. Additionally, Tolkien does make at least one reference to catlike traits when describing Smaug.
Their work on the creatures of The Lord of the Rings is widely seen as a huge step forward for computer-animated characters. While Orcs and Gollum were at least rooted in something relatedly human, Smaug was a whole new challenge. Smaug went through some surprising changes in the movies. Originally, Smaug was envisioned as huge and intimidating, with six limbs four legs and two wings easily spotted in the prologue of the theatrical release of An Unexpected Journey.
Eagle-eyed viewers would notice that this was changed for the next film, where the dragon is revealed as having four limbs two back legs and two front legs with his wings attached. It can be gleaned from references that the Old Worm made that he is pretty old. It is known that Smaug drove the Dwarves out of their mountain stronghold over years prior to the events of The Hobbit so it appears that watching years go by was pretty average to the creature.
There is a general feeling in The Hobbit, which Smaug references, that he is a veteran now. He described how he fought the warriors of old when he was young and tender but now he is old and strong. We will never know how long Smaug might have lived undisturbed by Dwarves and Hobbit Burglars. It is possible that living "practically forever" is in comparison to mortal races, but perhaps he really would have lived for centuries more. In fact, four of the seven rings gifted to the Dwarves were described as being consumed by dragon fire.
The lesser Rings of Power were made by the Elven-smith Celebrimbor. These were grouped into three rings for the Elves, seven rings for the Dwarves, and nine rings for men.
It is revealed by Gandalf that no dragon's fire would be hot enough to melt the One Ring and so the only way it could be destroyed was in that same fire that forged it. After seven seasons of Game of Thrones , viewers might almost be getting dragon fatigue by now.
He's not just a mindless beast. He knows that, although his back has impenetrable scales, his underbelly is his vulnerable spot and so he has made sure that layers of gold and jewels from lying on his hoard have become embedded in his flesh, acting as a dazzling layer of armor.
For all his strength, he can be quite subtle. Smaug also possesses a hypnotic power known as the "dragon-spell". This can snare weaker-willed beings into a trance when the beast speaks, compelling them to do as he says.
This mess of a plot ends with Bilbo stealing the Arkenstone, shooting the Arkenstone through Slag's heart, killing him and saving the day. Bilbo finally returns to Hobbiton triumphantly with Princess Mika as his wife.
Smaug has almost topped the list as the wealthiest fictional character on multiple occasions. His treasure was calculated with a staggering value of over 62 billion dollars. Of course, many fans had a lot to say about how the figures were estimated, taking issue with everything from the size of Smaug to the estimated value of the Arkenstone.
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