Where Have All the Dragons Gone? - Page 11
© Michael Martinez
If, fueled by a small Dwarven hoard, Scatha decided to seek his fortune in the wider world, he should have come into conflict with the Eotheod. As a lord Fram would have had to take action against the worm, much as Turin had to take action against Glaurung in the First Age, and Bard would later have to take action against Smaug. Brave men just didn't go seeking dragons unless they were fools or desperate. Scatha was called "the great dragon of Ered Mithrin", so he must have been the most powerful dragon of his time. If he accumulated a hoard and grew strong from it, his malice could have led him to range farther and farther afield.
Fram's adventure might thus have played out similarly to Turin's. He would recruit a few brave companions to help him hunt the dragon. Perhaps there was more than one encounter. It may have come down to only Fram and Scatha in the end, as Fram's companions may all have perished or fled in terror. Fram would have to devise some means of killing the dragon, most likely piercing him from below. The final struggle would be a valiant battle, with the outcome in doubt. The mountains might have echoed with the dragon's roars, and the night sky may have been lit up for miles around from the dragon's flames. The Eotheod would huddle in their homes and sing songs to calm their children. The Dwarves would put down their hammers and harps, and listen as the stone of their halls resounded with the sound of man clashing with dragon.
In the end Fram defeated the dragon, and he lived to boast of the deed. And Tolkien writes that the northern "land had peace from the long-worms afterwards". The dragons had been dealt a devastating blow with the loss of Scatha. As when Azaghal wounded Glaurung and the dragons retreated to Angband in dismay, so the long-worms may have fallen back to the Withered Heath beyond the mountains. Would fear be their only reason for avoiding Men? Or would it be that Scatha had possessed the greatest power, and with his death that power was lost to dragon-kind? Could it be they had to share strength among themselves to survive, and if a dragon died far from the others they were rendered weak?
Smaug's departure from the north might thus explain why the dragons became less of a threat, not more. While they were together they were strong. But when the strongest among them
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