Today comes one the crueler parts of Tolkien March/April — mocking Smaug! Of The Hobbit fame.
He’s been depicted many times over the years, and in my judgement most of the artwork has been appropriate for the story and, in many cases, superlative. But many renditions fall short in depicting the giant reptile’s majesty and malice. Like these.
How threatening can Smaug be when he’s carrying a teapot and bunch of flowers??!!
This illustration is from a Russian omnibus of children’s stories, of which The Hobbit was one.
More like “Pleasure in Vomiting” to me.
I’ve referenced this goofy wig-wearing Smaug elsewhere. That’s Bilbo in the foreground.
This one, from the cover of a Hebrew edition, is really weird. Bilbo stabs a dragon tail on the ground while another dragon flies overhead? With an elephant trunk and antlers coming out of its neck? None of that happened in the book.
Even weirder is the Czech Smaug, who looks like a centipede. Perhaps the artist is paying homage to this little creature by Dutch artist M. C. Escher?
This Smaug, which I think is on the cover of a French-Canadian edition, looks like a reject from Terry Gilliam’s animation studio for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Bilbo is either lecturing the creature or has been walking along and talking to himself — perhaps gathering his courage to enter Smaug’s lair — and been caught unawares.
This Smaug is… ummm… screaming “hack artist” to me. He looks like he should be standing on a solid surface, not hovering in mid-air. Plus something strange is going on with his tongue and the plume of fire coming out of his mouth. It’s like the tongue itself is creating the flames. This cover is from Indonesia, so I’m it was a mistake in translation, or with the European concept of fire-breathing dragons. Note that Bard looks very Indonesian though!
