I'm interested in what you all think about Glaurung's position in Angband's military.
From what I've read in other threads, the overall feeling seems to be that Morgoth is top dog, with Sauron and Gothmog being equal in rank (i.e. they cannot order each other to do anything and answer only to Morgoth), though they perform different functions. Gothmog is a general, and is the highest battlefield commander (as evidenced by his actual physical presence in many battles of the First Age), whereas Sauron is more of a governor, and is in charge of the more bureaucratic/strategic side of things.
But where does Glaurung stand? I've always thought that he should outrank Gothmog. At first I found this counterintuitive, since Gothmog is a fallen Maia whereas Glaurung's heritage is unknown--but of course, just being a mystery doesn't make Glaurung inferior. For all we know, he could be a Maia as formerly noble as Gothmog imprisoned in the Middle-Earth equivalent of an Iron Man suit. (At least, I think that's a possibility, given the vagueness with which dragons were explained in The Silmarillion. If anyone has more information though, please share.)
In terms of physical prowess, I always got the feeling that Glaurung--and the other dragons--far outmatched anything else Morgoth had at his disposal, including Gothmog. Consider:
The aforementioned instance of Glaurung's "dragon spell" leads to the other reason, besides physical might, that I'd rank Glaurung above Gothmog: he's more subtle. The whole deal with tricking Túrin and Nienor into committing incest was extremely devious, and certainly gave them both a much more horrible death than if he had just cooked them with his fire. Reminds me of the illusion Sauron used on Gorlim to convince him to betray Barahir's band of outlaws. With his dragon spell Glaurung could have wreaked similar havoc, and certainly had the wits to devise such plots. That's not to say that Gothmog is dimwitted or anything, but his approach is definitely more straightforward.
I'm still not sure exactly how the ranking would work though. Even though Glaurung strikes me as more impressive, I still can't see him giving orders to Gothmog. Actually I can't imagine any member of this unholy trinity of Sauron, Gothmog and Glaurung deferring to each other...
Thoughts?
From what I've read in other threads, the overall feeling seems to be that Morgoth is top dog, with Sauron and Gothmog being equal in rank (i.e. they cannot order each other to do anything and answer only to Morgoth), though they perform different functions. Gothmog is a general, and is the highest battlefield commander (as evidenced by his actual physical presence in many battles of the First Age), whereas Sauron is more of a governor, and is in charge of the more bureaucratic/strategic side of things.
But where does Glaurung stand? I've always thought that he should outrank Gothmog. At first I found this counterintuitive, since Gothmog is a fallen Maia whereas Glaurung's heritage is unknown--but of course, just being a mystery doesn't make Glaurung inferior. For all we know, he could be a Maia as formerly noble as Gothmog imprisoned in the Middle-Earth equivalent of an Iron Man suit. (At least, I think that's a possibility, given the vagueness with which dragons were explained in The Silmarillion. If anyone has more information though, please share.)
In terms of physical prowess, I always got the feeling that Glaurung--and the other dragons--far outmatched anything else Morgoth had at his disposal, including Gothmog. Consider:
- In The War of Wrath, Ancalagon and his winged brethren are singled out as the most devastating enemies encountered by the host of the Valar; the balrogs are hardly mentioned.
- We hear a couple of accounts about Balrogs falling in single combat to elves, but look at the parallel case with dragons. Ancalagon was defeated by Eärendil, but it took an entire day, and Eärendil's resume is one of the most impressive ever (first mortal to enter Valinor and live, possesses a Silmaril, half-elven of Noldorian stock, magic flying ship, eventually guards Morgoth's jail cell, etc). The only other case of a dragon being slain onscreen in TS was Túrin's stabbing of Glaurung, but that was a sneak attack; the first time they met in direct confrontation Túrin only endured the dragon fire because of his dwarven war-mask, and the second time Glaurung looked Túrin in the eye and had him paralyzed and helpless.
- It may or may not be significant that in the Dagor Bragollach, where Glaurung made his debut as a full-grown dragon, it was said of the Father of Dragons that "balrogs were in his train." I believe this might have been a holdover from an earlier conception of the legendarium in which balrogs were far more numerous and individually much weaker, but still it bears thinking about.
- You also don't hear accounts of balrogs burning forests down or decimating entire shield walls with the swing of a tail.
The aforementioned instance of Glaurung's "dragon spell" leads to the other reason, besides physical might, that I'd rank Glaurung above Gothmog: he's more subtle. The whole deal with tricking Túrin and Nienor into committing incest was extremely devious, and certainly gave them both a much more horrible death than if he had just cooked them with his fire. Reminds me of the illusion Sauron used on Gorlim to convince him to betray Barahir's band of outlaws. With his dragon spell Glaurung could have wreaked similar havoc, and certainly had the wits to devise such plots. That's not to say that Gothmog is dimwitted or anything, but his approach is definitely more straightforward.
I'm still not sure exactly how the ranking would work though. Even though Glaurung strikes me as more impressive, I still can't see him giving orders to Gothmog. Actually I can't imagine any member of this unholy trinity of Sauron, Gothmog and Glaurung deferring to each other...
Thoughts?
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