In the universe of The Lord of the Rings, many dangers lurk that are not always seen in the movies. Among them is a special kind of dragon that has become a major problem, especially for the dwarves.
How did dragons come to be in Middle-earth? The first dragon of its kind was Glaurung, created by Morgoth in Angband. One can thus assume that he was the origin of dragons. Glaurung, along with Ancalagon and Smaug, was among the most powerful beings that ever existed in Middle-earth.
But there were many more dragons. A weaker yet no less dangerous group was the cold dragons. Although little is known about them, they posed a significant problem for the dwarves in the Third Age.
A group of dragons terrorized the dwarves in Ered Mithrin
What kind of dragons were they? The cold dragons were weaker than their fire-breathing relatives, yet they were still powerful. The claws, the hard scales, the strong tail, and the teeth were still deadly, and there was a kind of ice breath that could freeze their enemies. However, it is unclear whether this was a classic breath or a form of fear that caused the freezing.
At the end of the First Age, a great war broke out in which elves, men, dwarves, and Ainur fought together against Morgoth and his forces. Most of the dragons also died in this battle. However, a small group of cold dragons managed to survive.
The dragons fled to the northern regions, to Ered Mithrin, and multiplied. In the Third Age, they became a problem for the dwarves living there. In the year 2589 of the Third Age, a cold dragon killed King Dáin the First and his son Frór.
The war between the dwarves and the cold dragons lasted a few years, but ultimately the dwarves fled from Ered Mithrin.
What happened to the cold dragons afterward is unknown, but something is learned about a brutal representative of this group, mentioned in the poems of Tolkien before the war: Scatha.
A brutal cold dragon stole the treasures of the dwarves
Who was Scatha? Scatha was a gray, blind, and mute cold dragon who could not fly, but, like the other cold dragons, had the ability to freeze its prey
. Tolkien described that the dragon moved like a slow creeping death
. He was said to be so terrifying that one could not escape.
Scatha is said to have frozen his victims and then crushed them under his belly.
He had a lair in Ered Mithrin full of treasures and a silver horn of the dwarves. Merry later receives this horn from Éowyn in the Third Age. According to the final version of the poem about Scatha, he could smell gold. He played with the bones of his victims (dwarves and men), cleaned them, and built a bed from them.
Around the year 2000 of the Third Age, Scatha’s terror was finally ended. Fram, the fourth lord of Éothéod, ancestors of the Rohirrim, killed Scatha. Although peace returned to this region, a dispute arose between the Éothéod and the dwarves over who should claim the dragon’s treasure.
What happened to the cold dragons in the Third Age? It is unclear what exactly happened to the dragons during the time of the films. While none appear during the adventures of the Fellowship, a definitive fate is never mentioned. It is noted that there are no dragons strong enough to destroy the One Ring, but this could imply that there are still dragons in Middle-earth.
The ultimate fate of the cold and fire dragons may never be known. However, the world of Middle-earth is so vast that great dangers may still lurk away from the known adventures. You can find a ranking of the dragons here: The Lord of the Rings: The 4 strongest dragons in the power ranking that would even make Gandalf sweat
