|style="color:#000"|[[Image:J.R.R. Tolkien - Conversation with Smaug (large).jpg|125px|left]]'''Smaug''' (birth unknown – [[Third Age]] {{TA|2941|n}}) was the greatest [[Fire-drakes|fire-breathing]] [[Dragons|dragon]] of the [[Third Age]]. Details of his origin are unknown, but in {{TA|2770}} he attacked the [[Erebor|Lonely Mountain]] and the town of [[Dale]]. He claimed the treasure of the mountain for himself and forced [[Thrór]], [[King under the Mountain]], and [[Durin's Folk|his people]] into exile. [[Thorin Oakenshield|Thorin's]] quest - with the help of his burglar [[Bilbo Baggins]] - to reclaim the treasure ended in success when Smaug was slain by [[Bard]] in {{TA|2941}}.

{{quote|[[Morgoth]] held hurled aloft [[Grond (Hammer of the Underworld)|Grond, Hammer of the Underworld]], and swung it down like a bolt of thunder. But Fingolfin sprang aside, and [[Grond (Hammer of the Underworld)|Grond]] rent a mighty pit in the earth, whence smoke and fire darted. Many times Morgoth essayed to smite him, and each time [[Fingolfin]] leaped away, as a lightning shoots from under dark cloud; and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds, and seven times Morgoth gave a cry of anguish, whereat the hosts of [[Angband]] fell upon their faces in dismay, and the cries echoed in the [[Northlands]].|{{S|Fingolfin}}}}