Bred in ages past to be weapons in the war for Middle-earth, the Great Worms were huge, serpentine creatures, wrapped in scaly hides and possessed of wicked intelligence. Inside combined the cunning of thinking beings and the savagery of wild beasts.

Long horns, bladed claws and wicked maws of countless teeth they had. The sharp, slitted eyes of the Dragons were ever-watchful, their sense of smell keen, and their long bodies grew to a size unrivalled by any other creatures to walk upon the earth. Some were winged, able to take to the skies and travel vast distances like the wind. Others burned with fiery wrath inside, spewing conflagration and death from their outstretched jaws at will. And in some such abilities were paired to terrifying effect...

By the later years of the Third Age only a few remained, mostly sequestered in the scorched lands of the Withered Heath, far to the north and pinned between the spurred arms of the Grey Mountains. Great was their hunger and a lust for violence burned ever in their bellies. When rumour of the wealth of Erebor reached their ears, the greatest of the Fire Drakes yet living in Middle-earth took to wing and rushed south. Smaug was his name. a vast gold and red monster whose viciousness was matched only by his pride.

His coming was like a hurricane of fire. the cities of Dale and Erebor swiftly falling before his irresistible advance; countless Dwarves and Men consumed in his flames, or shredded by tooth and claw. Barely had the inhabitants realised what calamity was befalling them when they were dead or displaced. Then the Great Dragon, who called himself Magnificent, seized the riches of the Lonely Mountain and took up residence to lie coiled upon his hoard. Henceforth Erebor became a place of dread, and all about the lands became barren, parched and despoiled; the Desolation of Smaug.

Digitally sculpted in exquisite detail by long-time Weta sculptor Daniel Cockersell, Smau