Cold-drakes: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Kevin Ward - Cold-drake.jpg|thumb|[[Kevin Ward]] - ''True Cold-drake'']]
[[File:Kevin Ward - Cold-drake.jpg|thumb|[[Kevin Ward]] - ''True Cold-drake'']]
'''Cold-drakes''' were, to the best of our knowledge, lesser [[dragons]]; those of dragon-kind who did not have the ability to make fire, yet some of this kind were possibly capable of flying.  
'''Cold-drakes''' were dragons that could not breathe fire. [[Morgoth]] bred and used cold-drakes in [[First Age]].<ref group=note>The only specific mention of them in this period in [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s published work may be found in ''[[Turambar and the Foalókë]]''.</ref> After the [[War of Wrath]], some cold-drakes were found in the [[Northern Waste|waste]] north of the the [[Grey Mountains]].


They were used by [[Morgoth]] in the wars of the [[First Age]], though the only specific mention of them in this period in [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s published work may be found in ''[[Turambar and the Foalókë]]''. After the [[War of Wrath]], in which most would have perished, some few seem to have escaped into the [[Northern Waste|northern regions]] of [[Middle-earth]], beyond the [[Grey Mountains]].
{{notes}}
 
As the millennia passed, their numbers grew, until they became a serious threat in the later centuries of the [[Third Age]] to the [[Dwarves]] that inhabited the Grey Mountains, whom they eventually made [[War of the Dwarves and Dragons|war]] against. In the year {{TA|2589|n}} of the [[Third Age]], [[Dáin I]], King of [[Durin's Folk]], and his second son [[Frór]] were slain at the gates of [[Dáin's halls|their halls]] by a Cold-drake. The attacks of these fearsome creatures persuaded most of the Dwarves to migrate eastwards from the Grey Mountains, and it was soon afterwards that the [[Iron Hills]] and [[Lonely Mountain|Erebor]] became the major dwellings of the Longbeards.
 
Of the history of the Cold-drakes after this period we are given no hint. Four hundred years later, at the time of [[Bilbo Baggins]]' journey to Erebor, they seem to have left the Grey Mountains (at least, [[Gandalf]] makes no mention of them when describing the dangers of that region). It is possible that the [[Orcs]] who colonized the mountains after the departure of the Dwarves drove them back into the cold wastes to the north, or that the Dwarves did after they retook them. However, we can do no more than speculate on their ultimate fate.
 
 
== References ==
 
*{{HM|AA}}
*{{HM|H}}
*{{LT2}} ''[[Turambar and the Foalókë]]''
*{{LT2}} ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]''


[[Category:Dragons]]
[[Category:Dragons]]

Revision as of 04:30, 20 April 2018

Kevin Ward - True Cold-drake

Cold-drakes were dragons that could not breathe fire. Morgoth bred and used cold-drakes in First Age.[note 1] After the War of Wrath, some cold-drakes were found in the waste north of the the Grey Mountains.

Notes

  1. The only specific mention of them in this period in Tolkien's published work may be found in Turambar and the Foalókë.