Estelyn makes a good point about the lack of Dragons in LOTR, something I had never considered before. But they aren't quite so far away in the past, after all Bilbo still lives, one who has conversed with one of the mightiest of Dragons; and apparently they were around during the War of the Ring, living beyond the Grey Mountains, a region which the Dwarves had abandoned when the Dragons came in search of gold.
Why did Tolkien not include any Dragons in his story? Perhaps he counted them as potentially too great a foe, considering those formidable enemies that would already have to be faced? Certainly Morgoth made use of Dragons in his wars, but maybe Sauron was too far removed from them, isolated in Mordor? Maybe the Fell Beasts are of a lesser Dragon breed? There were Fire Drakes, Cold Drakes, Dragons who could fly and those who could not, so this is quite possible. There is a whole natural history of miraculous beasts in Middle Earth that is not entirely explained or explored.
I loved the comments from Tolkien on the desire to see a dragon. I wonder how many 'Downers collected dinosaur models as children (I still have these actually - one by the bed to keep the cats away
)? Tolkien expresses the fascination with monsters that sometimes never leaves you. Funnily enough, in Harry Potter there is a perfect example of this in Hagrid, who is determined to have a 'pet dragon', no matter what the risks are. Dragons are always presented as potentially lethal creatures, but they have a 'glamour' which attracts us to them.
Dragons in Western myth are often seen as bad luck and associated with the devil; the tale of St George and the Dragon symbolises the triumph of Christianity over evil, which is intriguing considering Tolkien's own beliefs. Perhaps this shows how despite what we believe, the symbol of a dragon is just too powerful and magical to ignore. In heraldry the Dragon is commonly used, and it is the symbolic animal of Wales. With Eastern cultural elements, we see Dragons even more often, as they are lucky in Chinese culture - I think the Dragon is the only mythological creature used in the Chinese horoscope.
Also, following on from Boromir88's comments, I can't think of any examples of popular culture where people set out to
save any Dragons - they are usually the enemy, hunted down with weapons, as in
Reign of Fire, or portrayed as evil worms, as in (the wonderfully lurid)
Lair of the White Worm. And yet we, like Tolkien, so badly want to see them. This paradox is something I couldn't really begin to explain, but I do like it!