Was Smaug in the ⚔️War of Wrath?

[Elthir]

Ah, perhaps one of you Empire types, on whom the sun never sets, could actually define "well-nigh".

As an aside, this isn't the language JRRT used in any case. In 1937 Tolkien wrote: " . . . and all the dragons were destroyed, save two alone; and they fled into the East."

So "well-nigh" is an editorial change by Christopher Tolkien, and "and they fled into the East" has been lifted out as well. Tolkien's "save two alone" goes back to the 1930 Qenta Noldorinwa.

There's also an argument to be made that, again in 1937 at least, the flying dragons were at least partially made of steel (wings). The author of Arda Reconstructed seems to think the winged dragons were made of steel at this point -- maybe like the "things of iron" from the very early Fall of Gondolin (The Book of Lost Tales), that is, something like the serpents of bronze and iron in that tale, and things with "hearts and spirits of blazing fire"

Anyway, back to well-nigh, my total guess is that Christopher Tolkien found his father's choice of words a bit too exact here.

 

[Spirit of Fire]

@Elthir you never hypothesized on what these 20+ dragons were up to all those thousands of years. It's easier to imagine what one confirmed dragon was doing rather than a large number of potential massive winged creatures (remember the pines were roaring when Smaug attacked Erebor). Scientific investigation almost always avoids over complicating theories.