Thoughts on Dragon Souls by AndyC

Chapter 1

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Thoughts on Dragons

Dragons.  Some of Morgoth’s most powerful monsters, created by him for the Wars of Beleriand.  Huge, incredibly strong, armoured, with fiery breath capable of laying any green and pleasant land to waste.  Highly intelligent, malevolent, and potent of spirit; at least one (Glaurung, Father of Dragons) noted for an ability to cast evil magic – his words, will, and dark spells caused great harm, especially to the Children of Húrin.

Hold on.

 

The Problem of Souls

Morgoth couldn’t create life.  Oh, he could twist what already existed, but fashioning intelligent speaking beings – that was impossible for him.

“But what about Orcs?” we cry.  And Tolkien wrestled with that subject for years, with multiple potential solutions – all dissatisfying for one reason or another.  However, some of his thoughts and ideas while chasing down that problem can cast light on the Dragon problem.  If a solution can work for Orcs, it could work for Dragons.

The tenth book of History of Middle Earth, has his thinking on this.  In the latter sections of Morgoth’s Ring, the essays under the heading Myths Transformed, explore the motivations of Melkor and Sauron, and the problem of Orcs – amongst other seismic shifts in the mythology.  The motivations and the essays on Orcs can be separated from the rest of Myths Transformed; the huge changes in the mythology are not to the taste of many (including myself) and never seem to close down some of the problems and holes they uncover.  The essays tow which I refer, though, are fully compatible with both the “new” mythology and the old.

(And I definitely prefer the romantic and evocative myths of the Lamps, the Earth under the Stars, the Elves awakening in a world lit only by starlight, the Two Trees without the need for a Dome of Varda, and so on.  I believe this is up to everyones’ individual preference and no-one is “right” or “wrong” here).

Back to Dragons.  It seems clear that Glaurung (and the Dragons who followed him) were more than mere animals.  They had souls (of a kind), wit, and power.  But, as alluded to above, Morgoth could not create life; he could only twist and distort: “Melkor was impotent to produce any living thing, but skilled in the corruption of things that did not proceed from himself, if he could dominate them” ^{NOTE 1}.  However, Dragons are certainly speaking and self-aware creatures (see Smaug – or Glaurung).  What stock could Melkor have twisted to create Dragons?

Lizards?  I can accept that Morgoth, with his power, could mutate and twist lizards to staggering size – but he couldn’t imbue them with spirits and make them able to breed true.  They would only ever be animals.  From where could he get souls for them?

 

Morgoth-gobbets and Boldogs

Tolkien did consider that Orcs could be animals – but each with a tiny gobbet of Melkor-soul in them.  The Great Enemy fissioning and spreading out his own self amongst millions of otherwise soulless creatures warped from animal stock, able to recite words like pre-recorded ditties – that could work.  He also considered tortured and twisted Elves captured from Cuivenen, as well as (in later years, or under the alternative conception of the mythos) the same for kidnapped Secondborn.  A third option was using Boldogs.

What are Boldogs?  They were lesser Maiarin spirits in the train of Melkor.

 “For Morgoth had many servants, the oldest and most potent of whom were immortal, belonging indeed in their beginning to the Maiar; and these evil spirits like their Master could take on visible forms… Boldog, for instance, is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War.  But it is possible that Boldog was not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the Balrogs”^{NOTE 2}

In summary, then, the apparently-ensouled beings “created” by Morgoth could have, as their spirits, one (or more) sources:

- Tiny gobbets of Morgoth’s own will;

- Maia-spirits and/or be the descendants of Maiar;

- The fëar of corrupted Children of Eru.

Tolkien was troubled by the latter – would Eru send fëar for such corrupted races?  But under the rules of the world he’d written, if fallen Elves or Men were to reproduce, would Eru deny them children?  Would that deny the prospect of repentance or redemption?  Accordingly, could even Orcs turn “good”?  There could be much discussion of this, but for this particular article, I think we dispense with the third possibility for Dragons, leaving just Morgoth-Gobbets and Boldogs. 

 

Dragons: The Next Generation

But what about reproduction?  Glaurung was, after all, “The Father of Dragons.”   Animals might reproduce (and possibly the tiny gobbet of Melkor-spirit could be fissioned still further into new bodies).  Could Maia-spirits reproduce?  Or was Melian a special case?

Yes.  Ainur could reproduce once they had taken on bodily form – it’s just that it tied them to that form “The things that are the most binding are those that in the Incarnate have to do with the life of the hröa itself, its sustenance and propagation… Most binding is begetting or conceiving…. It seems clear that there was no axan [law] against these things.  Nonetheless it appears to be an axan, or maybe necessary consequence, that if they are done, then the spirit must dwell in the body that it used, and be under the same necessities as the Incarnate.” ^{NOTE 3} (It further notes that “The great Valar do not do these things: they beget not…”, but this leaves the door open for the Maiar – like Melian).

 

The Spirit Within

“Then suddenly he spoke by the evil spirit that was in him, saying: 'Hail, son of Húrin. Well met!” ^{NOTE 4}

The phrasing emphasises the spirit indwelling in the monstrous form of Glaurung.  The potent spirit of the Dragon is as much a factor in its evil as its physical power. 

Ah, but is there a hint that it’s not a separate Maia, but only a chunk of Morgoth?

“And there right before her was the great head of Glaurung, who had even then crept up from the other side; and before she was aware her eyes had looked into the fell spirit of his eyes, and they were terrible, being filled with the fell spirit of Morgoth, his master.” ^{NOTE 5}

Not necessarily.  After all, Glaurung doesn’t always leap to do Morgoth’s will.  After discharging his duty against Túrin, he happily sets about making his own bed in Nargothrond.  And we learn that Morgoth, unwilling to trust his servants, disperses his spirit into them as a matter of course:

“See Melkor. It will there be seen that the wills of Orcs and Balrogs, etc. , are part of Melkor's power dispersed. Their spirit is one of hate.  But hate is non-co-operative …. Orcs are beasts and Balrogs corrupted Maiar” ^{NOTE 6}

If the Balrogs are noted as their will being part of Melkor’s power dispersed, then all his Maiar (excepting Sauron?) have part of Melkor within them.  The quote above is compatible with either route: pure Morgoth-spirit, or fallen Maia-spirit tied to a hideous form.  There’s also precedent for a Dark Lord “souping up” his greatest followers with his own essence:

“There [The Witch King], put in command by Sauron, he is given an added demonic force” ^{NOTE 7}

In addition, Glaurung did seem to be focused on himself at times.  “But Túrin passed away on the northward road, and Glaurung laughed once more, for he had accomplished the errand of his Master.  Then he turned to his own pleasure…” ^{NOTE 8}

So, we can solve the Dragon problem, and in two different ways.  The former (which I prefer to call “the Morgoth-gobbet” within each Dragon) is fine, but the latter gives more prospect for further musing.  Inevitably, this appeals to me more.

 

Fallen Balrogs

A Maia-spirit required to inhabit Dragons would logically need to be one of great power.  As Dragons are so much greater than Orcs, the Maia-spirit needed for Glaurung would need to be as much greater than Boldogs.  As it happened, Morgoth had a number of the mightiest Maia-spirits in his train.  And they even happened to be rather oriented towards fire.  We know them as Balrogs.

A quick discursion: how many Balrogs were there?

“There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.” ^{NOTE 9}

After many years of supposing that vast hosts of Balrogs existed, Tolkien changed his mind.  Fewer Balrogs implied that they were more special and more potent.  Elevated almost to equal status with Sauron, these were now not just fallen Maiar, but of a powerful level amongst them.  It does, though, cause for some narrative problems.

Personally, I think that three is impractical – if we assume that Gothmog existed and was slain by Ecthelion, and that Glorfindel died slaying another Balrog ^{NOTE 10}, that leaves just one.  The Balrog of Moria would not, then, be a Balrog fleeing the field, but the Balrog. The only one left for the whole War of Wrath; his fleeing would be of nearly as great a note as that of Sauron himself.  It’s implausible (to me, anyway) that the Host of the Valar could have noticed that they failed to slay the only Balrog.  At least two Balrogs need to be left for this; three would make it more plausible (sending the original total to five, at least).   And, given that Tolkien seemed to like numbers with traditionally “special” meaning (like three (Silmarils and Elven Rings) and seven (as per the Sons of Fëanor, and the Palantiri), seven Balrogs just feels more right to me.  (Counterpoint: Five Istari… although only Three remained in North West Middle Earth).

This allows for the slaying of a Balrog outside of the walls of Gondolin by the House of the Hammer, which may well have been revised away with the downgrading of Balrog strength and numbers… but to me, the literary strength of the House of the Hammer venturing outside the walls and slaying a Balrog and its company (but dying in the feat) and remotivating the defenders of Gondolin when they saw that Balrogs could actually die is pronounced. I'd like to think that Tolkien would have retained that event, even in a highly rewritten form (Obviously Rog would be renamed; "Poldon" was linguistically very similar in the rewritten form of the languages and used for a name of a Numenorean boy (a friend of young Isildur) in the Lost Road), so in my personal headcanon, that’s the name of the leader of the House of the Hammer of Gondolin…).

And, importantly, it allows for the loss of at least one Balrog prior to that date, and prior to the appearance of Glaurung. 

 

Rebodying Balrogs

When an Ainu is slain, its spirit remains. If powerful enough, it can reclothe its fëa in a new hröa. “So it was also with even some of his greatest servants… they became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds, and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed, they were nullified, until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations, with which they could continue the evil courses in which they had become fixed.” ^{NOTE 11}. 

It does seem, admittedly, that doing so is further draining to the Ainu involved – fighting and the loss of the body would further hurt them until eventually they fall below the level where they can recover: “Thus Sauron was said to  have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered” ^{NOTE 12. NOTE 13}

With the guiding malevolent powerful will of Melkor available… could he provide a beacon in the Unseen World and lend his strength to his fallen Maiar servants?  But on his own terms, of course.

Ah – but: “ere that day never had any Balrogs been slain by the hand of Elves or Men” ^{NOTE 14}

Indeed.  But what about at other hands than Elves or Men (or Dwarves, before we go there)?  What about The War for the Sake of the Elves.  During which “they [Balrogs] were withered in the wind of his [Manwë’s] wrath and slain with the lightning of his sword.” ^{NOTE 15  NOTE 16}

It would also seem improbable that all of the Balrogs survived Manwe’s wrath (albeit somewhat “withered”).  In fact, I’d suggest that a number of them got so withered that they ceased to hold onto their physical forms.  Maybe, like Sauron, they were strong enough to reform their physical forms in time – once, at least?  After all, they were high-potency Maiar – the seven strongest (other than perhaps Sauron) of all of Melkor’s myriad of Maiar followers.  We know, as well, that there were Balrogs in Angband awaiting Melkor’s return as Morgoth:  “swiftly they arose, and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire” ^{NOTE 17}

It’s possible only two or three survived, or reformed on their own.  It’s possible all survived (unlikely, though, I’d suggest) – or reformed on their own.  It’s also very possible – in my opinion – that things fell somewhere between those extremes.  I am, at my own admission, building speculation on speculation now, but I would imagine that some or all of the seven Balrogs, at the time of Morgoth’s return to Angband with the Silmarils, had originally been slain.  And that, over the Ages of Morgoth’s absence, some or all of those slain had reformed their bodies.

 

When Balrogs Need Help

However, one or some of those that needed to reform may have been unable to do so (even just once) without assistance – which Morgoth could supply when he had returned. 

If he chose.  He also had the option, now he had returned, of choosing a route by which he could breed an entire new race of monsters – more powerful by far than the Orcs and Trolls he’d previously fashioned.  Monsters with power comparable to greater Maiar, yet more optimised to exercise that power in battle.  And now, for the first time, he had one (or more) of his most powerful spirit servants unbodied and desperate to interact again with the physical realm.

If he contemplated what physical form could most dominate a battlefield, it would not be at all surprising to alight on one much like a huge, oversized analogue of a tank.  This isn’t really speculation, other than of his thought processes – we know he did come up with Dragons.  Mutating lizards well out of their original scale and form over time, growing them, and embedding a Balrog’s spirit into one would give you Glaurung, Father of Dragons. 

A powerful, Fire-based evil spirit, housed in a monstrous form of destruction.  One enhanced by Morgoth further imbuing him with his own power and will.  And one that could reproduce, at the cost of fixing him forever in his hideous form (even if fëar would not be sent by Eru, the Dragon could conceivably sacrifice a portion of his own fëa into his children – diluting that spirit, of course, and meaning that the descendants of the Great Dragons would invariably be less potent than their mighty forebears, until they dwindled into animalistic existences and eventually extinction).

The Fire Drakes that assaulted Gondolin were certainly powerful beings, but they didn’t seem individually to measure up to Glaurung himself.  Not that they needed to do so in order to be horribly effective.

Which leads to one, final, speculation.

 

From Gothmog to Ancalagon

Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, died in the assault on Gondolin.  Killed by the heroic (and doomed) Ecthelion, Lord of the Fountain.  There was no hint that he – who could be assumed the most powerful of Morgoth’s Úmaiar followers behind Sauron only – ever returned.

However, another most powerful destructive tool of Morgoth appeared nearly a century later.  Ancalagon the Black, leader of the Winged Dragons, and noted as the greatest and most powerful Dragon of all time.

The above speculation could point to Ancalagon housing Gothmog’s spirit, used to provide Morgoth’s last, greatest monster.  Personally, I think that feels narratively satisfying.

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Chapter End Notes

1: [Morgoth’s Ring: Myths Transformed, p417]

2: [Morgoth’s Ring: Myths Transformed, p 418]

3: [Vinyar Tengwar 39: Osanwe-kenta: p30-31]

4: [Children of Húrin: The Fall of Nargothrond, p178]

5: [The Children of Húrin: The Journey of Morwen and Niënor, p208]

6: [Morgoth’s Ring: Myths Transformed, p411]

7: [Letters of JRR Tolkien, 210]

8: [Children of Húrin: The Fall of Nargothrond, p180]

9: [Morgoth’s Ring: Annals of Aman, p80]. 

10: There is always the possibility that the Balrog fought by Glorfindel could have been “downgraded” to not-a-Balrog.  Tolkien was changing “Balrog” to simply “Demon” when going over the history of Glorfindel [The Peoples of Middle Earth: Last Writings, p379] and noting that “The duel of Glorfindel and the Demon may need revision” [The Peoples of Middle Earth: Last Writings, p390]

11: [Vinyar Tengwar 39: Osanwe-kenta, p 31]

12: [Morgoth’s Ring: Myths Transformed, p407]

13:  The above goes on to explain what this means and why a lesser being such as Sauron or the other Maiar could become fixed in impotent desire, whereas Melkor could eventually renew himself ‘because of its relative greatness’. [Morgoth’s Ring: Myths Transformed, p404]. One can infer that the fear of such loss was part (but by no means even all) of Sauron’s fashioning of the One Ring – to anchor the greater part of his essence in Arda to make this easier if it ever happened.  If so, having that anchor destroyed was extremely unhelpful to him, to say the least.

14: [The Book of Lost Tales 2: The Fall of Gondolin, p179]”

15: [Morgoth’s Ring: Annals of Aman, p75] 

16:  Christopher Tolkien notes that this was written when his father had envisaged Balrogs in great numbers – but it would also beggar belief that the Balrogs, in any number, wouldn’t have at least tried to fight for Morgoth at Utumno.

17: [Morgoth’s Ring: The Later Quenta Silmarillion, p297]