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Smaug was supposedly the last of the true dragons in middle earth...

Yet, of the 7 rings of the Dwarves, Dragons devoured 4.

That means there's 4 Smaug class dragons out there who munched a dwarf ring.

What happened to those 4 dragons?

Angelalex242 wrote:Smaug was supposedly the last of the true dragons in middle earth...

Yet, of the 7 rings of the Dwarves, Dragons devoured 4.

That means there's 4 Smaug class dragons out there who munched a dwarf ring.

What happened to those 4 dragons?

Samug wasn't the last of the great dragon, by the time of War of the Ring there's at least another still alive - Gandalf mention this briefly at the Council of Elrond.
Aside from that I don't really remember.

Angelalex242 wrote: What happened to those 4 dragons?

Really, really bad indigestion?

Elfcrusher wrote:

Angelalex242 wrote: What happened to those 4 dragons?

Really, really bad indigestion?

Dwarven meat is notoriously hard to digest, especially with a side dish of sharpen axes and chainmail.

"Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has recovered, and the others the dragons have consumed."

"It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough; nor was there ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, for that was made by Sauron himself."

"...Smaug the Golden, greatest of the dragons of his day..."

http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2011/11/ ... dle-earth/

In Letter No. 144 he [Tolkien] wrote back to her:

…Dragons. They had not stopped; since they were active in far later times, close to our own. Have I said anything to suggest the final ending of dragons? If so it should be altered. The only passage I can think of is Vol. I p. 70 : ‘there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough’. But that implies, I think, that there are still dragons, if not of full primeval stature….

So, Smaug was probably the greatest but it's likely there could be other, lesser, Dragons still around.

Smaug wasn't as great as the dragons of the First Age, of whom we know at least two names: Glaurung and Ancalagon. Smaug was the greatest of the dragons of his day, only.

Speaking of adventure hooks....how does one know for sure that a Ring of Power has been consumed by dragon fire? Maybe, as is suggested with those quotes, the fire wasn't hot enough? Maybe the Wise just assumed those rings were consumed? Hmm? Hmm? Think about it...

Stormcrow wrote:Smaug wasn't as great as the dragons of the First Age, of whom we know at least two names: Glaurung and Ancalagon. Smaug was the greatest of the dragons of his day, only.

Absolutely; not sure how he compares to them but Glaurung and Ancalagon must have been far more terrifying creatures in their hey day. We're discussing dragons that devoured some of the dwarven rings so it 's going to preclude first age creatures as we're talking about dragons that are currently around in the TOR time period. The link I provided states "So, Smaug was NOT the last dragon in Middle-earth. However, he was probably (in Tolkien’s mind) the last GREAT dragon in Middle-earth". At least I'm not aware of any others around that are greater (than Smaug); I suppose there could be, but in NW Middle Earth? Not too sure about that and beyond may be a push as well.

You said

So, Smaug was probably the greatest

so I said

Glaurung and Ancalagon

If you meant Smaug was probably the greatest of the dragons of the Third Age, perhaps he was. He was the greatest that we hear about, at any rate.