[Zsinj]

Okay, I have a couple of questions reguarding a couple of monsters in the LOTR saga.

My first one is are all dragons in Middle-Earth considered evil and allied with the Dark God Morgoth and the Dark Lord Sauron? I know it's just a story, but it seems kind of unfair to me to classify all dragons as evil, however, when Tolkien wrote the LOTR Saga, at least to my knowledge, most people thought about dragons in what I like to call the "Saint George and the Dragon" formula, which is this:

"Dragon=evil
Human=good
Good must defeat evil, and dragon is inherently evil so human must slay dragon."

So, I wouldn't be surprised if this is what Tolkien intended. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to read stories about valiant heroes going up against evil dragons and the like, but to classify the whole dragon race as inherently evil just doesn't seem fair. Personally, I think it should be more balanced, like in the Dragonlance Saga and the Elric Saga, but that's just me.

Here's my other question:
In one of the LOTR books, I read this mention or reference to some monster in Middle-Earth called either a Wereworm. And my question is, what exactly os a Wereworm? My two guesses would be that maybe it's like one of the giant sandworms from Dune, or maybe, since the name worm also refers to a dragon, and the name Were usually refers to an anthropomorphic monster, i.e. werewolf, werecat, wererat. etc., maybe this is a anthropomorphic dragon, like one of the Draconians in the Dragonlance Saga?

Any help would be dearly appreciated. Thanx! :)

[Evil Agent]

Nice post, Z! :)

Well, yeah, you're pretty much right about the Dragon vs. St. George thing. That's how Tolkien portrayed them, even if it was unfair. All his dragons were evil, but highly intelligent! He even has a short story called "Farmer Giles of Ham" which is worth a read, and involves another dragon...not as smart as the others though. Have you read the Silmarillion? There is a terribly evil dragon in that series, named Glaurung. And there is Smaug from the Hobbit.

I think that it was really only Post-Tolkien that the idea of Good or Neutral dragons ever came about.

Also, I don't remember the use of the word "Were", but I definitely remember the "Worm" part. Worms were another common word Tolkien used to describe Dragons, so I think that's probably all he was referring to. No giant sandworms in Middle Earth as far as I'm aware, although that might have been cool.

[Zsinj]

Thanx for the info, buddy!:D
And no, I haven't read the Silmarillion, but I certainly plan to! However I have heard about the notorious Glaurung, and he sounds like a truly awesome villain! By the paintings/drawings and descriptions I've read about him, he sounds truly evil. Also , the term Were was used in the LOTR novels, I remember in FOTR, Gandalf telling the Fellowship of werewolves that served Sauron, and also, I've heard that a lot of werewolves show up in the Silmarillion, along with vampires! Now that's gotta be awesome!

[wolfshead]

Worm/wyrm is indeed just another Old English term for a dragon...famous folktale called 'the laidley worm' for instance.

[Evil Agent]

Hm... I don't think there are any vampires in the Silmarillion, Zsinj.. unfortunately. And by werewolves, I assume he means Wargs... but who knows?

[Eurytus]

Well there are both vampires and werewolves mentioned in the Silmarillion. For starters we know that Sauron took the form of both, once to a werewolf when he fought Huan the hound of the Valar and then a vampire when he fled back to Angband after losing the fight.
We also know of two others. Thuringwethil was Sauron’s messenger and flew from the isle of the werewolves (Minas Tirith as was though not the famous one) to Angand in Vampire form. Draugluin was the lord of the werewolves on the same isle. Both of these may have originated from earlier drafts of the Silmarillion and it is possible that Tolkien may have decided to remove them later as they do not really match to the later histories.

As for Wereworms. Well these were mentioned by Bilbo in the Hobbit but coming from a hobbit’s perspective this could be totally wrong.

[Tomsk]

I think dragons get called worms a lot is because originally they didn't have wings, the winged dragons only appeared in the War of Wrath. Glaurung didn't have wings, but he didn't really need them. All dragons were totally evil because they were made by Melkor, who was the origin of all evil. One thing though, how did he make them? The Sil says he can't actually make creatures, hence the corruption of the elves and the resulting orcs. So were do dragons come from?

Vampires were in the first age, maybe they all died in the War of Wrath? I think Beren and Luthien went to Angband disguised as a vampire and werewolf. Is this a real life transformation or was it just a cloak? I'm a bit confused about transformations in Middle Earth. Could Beorn actually change to a bear or was it a costume?

[Evil Agent]

Beor definitely COULD change into a bear.... that was a bit weird, granted.

But I just can't remember the Vampires from the Silmarillion... I guess it's time for a re-read.

[Soon Lee]

Eurytus is right about Thuringwethil being a vampire. AFAIK, that's the only time (in the Story of Luthien and Beren in "The Silmarillion") a vampire is mentioned in Tolkien's works.

As for the dragons, as Zsinj mentioned, all dragons were made/bred by Morgoth and so are evil by design. Yes, it's unfair but in LotR, the lines between good and evil were clear, e.g. elves=good, orcs=evil.

[kegasaurus]

Humans = ?