Make Room for Dragons - Page 6
© Michael Martinez
So, one can easily surmise there must have been battles with dragons in the Second Age, perhaps even grand battles where the dragons served as powerful war beasts much like elephants in the classical world (or the Oliphaunts of the Southrons in The War of the Ring). But these dragons lacked the great intellect of the more powerful creatures of legend. They would eventually recover that malice and cunning, and breed true to their kind. But it would be thousands of years before they could achive their comeback.
And so there should be no stories of great dragon-slayers from the Second Age. The dragons could not threaten the Eldar and the Dunedain, who were steeped in the lore of ages, great warriors, and capable of taking on the most dread of all Morgoth's servants. Dragons worked best for the dark lords when they had large numbers, and the Elves feared them, and Men could not withstand them. Without the guidance of Morgoth and Sauron, dragons must have learned to fend for themselves, much as the Orcs did. But whereas the Orcs could breed quickly and replenish their numbers, dragons may not have produced the numbers Sauron would have required to use them effectively.
Dragon-hunting should never have become a popular passtime among Elves and Men, but there had to be a reason dragons returned to or stayed in the far north for so long. Permitting a young warrior to kill a dragon as a right of passage would belittle the power and terror of these marvelous monsters. Tolkien would never have written a story about a Man killing a weak and mindless dragon. Better to let the dragons sleep quietly in the shadows until they were ready to burst upon the world once again.
And perhaps that is what really happened to dragons. Like the Balrog under Moria, maybe they fled to holes in the far north and laid themselves down to sleep, and so passed through the Second Age unscathed, unused, and only began to rouse from their ancient slumber in the Third Age when Men and Dwarves accidentally woke them. Instead of declining into a primitive bestial state, the dragons waited until a time came when they could once again make their mark upon the world.
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