A Dragon Tale

In ancient times, dim in the memories even of those who saw them and still walk upon Middle-earth, there were battles. Battles fought between the Firstborn Children of Iluvatar and one of the Ainur; he who fell from grace and was named Morgoth by Fëanor of the Noldor. Eventually, the Noldor lay siege to Angband and the Mighty One was held within his own realm, brooding over the making of weapons and creatures for when the time would arrive for him to burst forth upon his ancient foes.

Lord Morgoth had a love of fire.

Lovely fire that brought great physical pain to those it killed. Dear fire that brought to its base elements all that it consumed. Charming fire that could melt the very foundations of Middle-earth itself.

If only he could make it obey his commands. But it is ephemeral. Like a living being it needs air to breathe, substance to consume as it grows, yet . . .

. . . it is not a living being with a mind that can be manipulated. Yet, manipulated it must be. He had need to send it where he wished, when he wished. It must do his bidding.

One day, he saw a snake coiled in the sun, its bright red tongue flicking the air. A bright red tongue flicking.

Flickering.

Like a flame.

He killed the snake to examine how it was made. It was close to what he needed yet it was too limited. He thought. He schemed. He ordered a slave to fetch to him creatures that, like the snake, flicked their tongues in the air. After many months the slave returned with lizards.

Morgoth liked the lizards. They had limbs, particularly forelimbs, with which to grasp things. They could grasp and hold weapons - or enemies. He chose those the vile Firstborn called Iguanidae* and Corytophanidae* for his uses.  The Iguanidae were large, sturdy lizards; the Corytophanidae agile and cunning.

These lizards Morgoth would reform into the Creatures of Fire. They would be Dragons!

Long years the Great Dark Lord and his minions worked reforming, corrupting, the lizards as he had earlier corrupted the Elves he formed into Orcs. He cared not about the pain they suffered, nor about the deformed mutations his efforts often produced as he sought to increase the lizard's minds and infuse their bodies with flame.

He could not tell male from female, as was easy to do with the Elves. He had not intended that they should breed amongst themselves. There should be only males, as with the Orcs, bred by perverted means and at his command. But it was not so. He could not control their breeding and the females, smaller than the males, found it easy to escape. Most died in the wilderness as they were deformed and weakened by Morgoth's crafts. Those of these early corruptions who lived became the mothers of the Cold-drakes. They left Angband already bearing fertile eggs. Because of their corruption toward hugeness, and the evil implanted in their minds, they grew to be enormous and vicious, as did their descendants. There were now male and female of them and they bred amongst themselves. But, because of the corruptions of Morgoth, never were there many who survived to maturity.

Morgoth also did not realize what giving them intelligence would do. He did not have the control over his creations that he had intended. Unlike the Orcs to whom the idea of disobeying him never seemed to occur, the lizards did not give him the loyalty he had anticipated. They kept their own cunning and will to survive.

Eventually, the Great Dark Lord's efforts succeeded. Glaurung, The Golden, The Dragon-King, father of all Fire-drakes hatched forth. The heat of his being scorched his egg as he struggled to break free and he glowed and flickered with flame beneath his scales. Soon, he was roasting Orcs for his meals.

Morgoth was pleased. He treated his prize with due respect and so it was that the Fire-drakes, more than the Cold-drakes who had fled Angband, learned well the art of subtle speech and high-seeming manners. But too much of the Great Dark Lord's nature infected these creatures, both the cold and the hot. They were rebellious and would not always do as their maker commanded; particularly, the chafed at their captivity. They would not remain contained within his benighted realm. The Dark One could not control fire as he has sought to do.

Glaurung The Golden, left Angband before he was given leave to do so. He burned the fields of Ard-galen. He roasted and ate the Firstborn of Iluvatar who dwelt there. But, he was yet a youth. Though as large as he was ever to be - fierce and vicious, great and glorious - he was not yet to his full mental powers. Fingon led the Eldar against the Great Dragon, driving him back to his Maker's lands.

Morgoth imprisoned Glaurung, binding him limbs and neck with mighty chains of a metal the dragon's flames could not weaken nor melt. For two hundred years he kept the Great Dragon chained while he used what he had learned to make other Creatures of Fire. When at last he knew the time was ripe, he loosed them all upon the plains of Ard-galen.  He vanquished his foes in the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame, and for a while much of Middle-earth was under his sway.

But the Great Dark Lord's hold over Glaurung and the other Fire-drakes who had been born, was tenuous. Many were slain in Morgoth's battles, the others, having tasted freedom, soon left his realm. They found mountains to their liking and gave themselves over to serving themselves. The greed of Morgoth had infected them. They sought the treasure of the others to create for themselves vast hoards upon which to dwell.

To acquire their wealth they killed any who got in their path and so became hated by all the peoples of Middle-earth who have since killed every dragon they could.

Few now remain of either the Cold-drakes or the Fire-drakes.

*****

Yew sighed. "Now, young Pippin, you know the story of my kind. It is part of my instincts to know all this, although I think the peoples of Middle-earth reckon this all as myth. It is the tale of who and what I am."

The lad slowly nodded his head. "Yes. I can see that and yet there was the dragon I told you about that worked with the faeries to clear the Orcs from their lands. He wasn't evil . . . well, not totally evil. He wasn't tricking them. If . . ." Pippin shivered. "If Morgoth made the dragons, shouldn't you all be as evil as he is?"

Yew pondered this. "Perhaps, it is because we retained the ability to breed on our own. The Elves he corrupted into Orcs could not do this. He used only males to make the first Orcs so there are no females of their kind. All of the dargons now alive were born in the natural way and are not of his making. We are tainted but I think not wholly evil. Perhaps, Pippin, as time has passed and we are no longer born in his realms under his watch, something of our original nature is able to show itself. But to what degree, I do not know. I readily stole treasures from your family and the desire to obtain and hoard such things is growing stronger in me. If I did not know your family values the creature, I would have roasted and eaten your wretched cat last week as the infernal beast loves to walk around my cage and taunt me. I fear there is evil within me, my dear friend."

Pippin nearly chuckled aloud as the image of the cat taunting Yew in his cage was funny to him, though it obviously wasn't to Yew.

"Perhaps there is, but I think you're a very good dragon." Pippin said as he stood up. "Thank you for telling me this, Yew, but I need to go now. It's time for tea." He stopped at the door. "Would you like me to bring you some of Ma's crowberry jam? I know you like sweets and hers is the best crowberry jam in the Shire."

Yew's tongue flicked out of his smile as his eyes glowed from the fire within him. "Most noble Pippin, I will be forever in your, and your mother's, debt."

As the lad left the room, Yew whispered, "And I will never forget all that I owe you and yours. So swears Yew of the Dragons."

*********

* Iguanidae and Corytophanidae - Yes, I know - these names are Latin not Elvish. Also, the vast majority of these two animals are New World not Old World. But the map of Middle-earth just fades off on its eastern and southern edges, hinting at lands beyond. What was to stop Morgoth from seeking far afield for his subjects?

The reptiles used here are Iguanas and Basilisks. I used them because, to me, they look the most like the drawings of dragons that we have - both ancient and new.