Tolkien--Concerning the Origin of Dragons

By Randall Johnson, cogitemusaccurate.blogspot.com

Introduction

Of all the mysteries that Tolkien left for us to solve, the origin of Dragons ranks somewhere in the middle. While more wars have been waged over the nature of such characters as Tom Bombadil and Ungoliant, fewer debates are sparked over the shoe-size of Hobbits (that is, if they wore shoes). The origin-of-Dragons debate is closer in popularity to the debates of how many Balrogs existed, how Orcs breed, and why the Eagles did not simply carry Frodo and the Ring to Mount Doom.

In this paper, I will briefly outline the cosmogony of the world created by Tolkien, especially concerning the taxis of created spiritual beings; then I will discuss the raiment of these spiritual beings shortly. Then I will explain the metaphysics of evil in Middle-Earth. Next, I will categorize the corruptions and perversions of the evil spirit, Melkor. Finally, I will classify the various theories of Dragon ontology, analyze them, and eliminate all but the best theory. I intend to prove that Dragons, though not Maiar themselves, originated from the union of Maia and beast. 

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