Dragon's Flame, Magical?

[A Little Green]

Interesting question, Groin. Actually, the points you brought up made me think about an additional question. If dragon flame could consume rings of power but not dwarven armour, then is the dwarven mail actually stronger (or rather, more endurant) than a ring of power?

I don't know about magic, though - I'd rather talk about power. The dragons were, after all, beings of a different time, a time when everything was greater, fairer, and younger. I find it perfectly reasonable to think that beings as mighty as the dragons would be able to destroy rings of power. It's the comparison to the dwarven mail thingy that feels problematic.

By the way - the passage "but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough" somehow makes me awfully sad.

Sorry, Groin - instead of answering your question I just made another. What is this, answering a question with a question? Brings me in mind of Rosencranz and Guildenstern...

[A Little Green]

I just cross-posted with, what, three people? Gosh, your thread is popular, Groin...

Oh, and sorry for the flood, but Aganzir's

Originally Posted by Agan

I'm not particularly sure about Tolkien's dragons (dragons are creatures of which I never bother to find anything out as I don't really like them), but were they fire spirits like the balrogs?

made me think more about the dragons. What actually were they? Who made them, and for what purpose? I guess that if some letters/HoME scholar had an explanation for that first, the rest should work out.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by A Little Green

Interesting question, Groin. Actually, the points you brought up made me think about an additional question. If dragon flame could consume rings of power but not dwarven armour, then is the dwarven mail actually stronger (or rather, more endurant) than a ring of power?

I don't know about magic, though - I'd rather talk about power. The dragons were, after all, beings of a different time, a time when everything was greater, fairer, and younger. I find it perfectly reasonable to think that beings as mighty as the dragons would be able to destroy rings of power. It's the comparison to the dwarven mail thingy that feels problematic.

Well, I think concerning the dwarven armour, it's rather a matter of "technology" - the mail was made on purpose to resist dragon fire. Think about all the military developement, or for a more peaceful example, the research of cures and antidotes. The Rings were not made as something that should resist dragon fire (like that you'd make an anti-dragon shelter from a pile of Rings or create for yourself a Ring-mail ), their resistance to fire is a "side power".

EDIT: x-ed since LG's post I am replying to. Yay, this is almost as a WW game thread!

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

This reminds me of the first thread I started. . .
http://www.forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=12245

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by A Little Green

By the way - the passage "but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough" somehow makes me awfully sad.

Yes, I've always thought that too. In Tolkien's world, everything deteriorates. He is quite traditionalist (And he kept to being a strict CAtholic, and looked with scorn at anyone who bent the religion a bit).

Morgoth is like an inventor. If he creates dragons that are made to destroy, they destro. Their fire goes under the same rule. It is obviously very hot and the green flames maybe mean that something is special in that fire that is not the same as in normal fire. Glaurung almost destroyed Gondolin by himself. ALso, how can you compare dragons to animals? (and I mean the regular type).
Here dragons can talk and think, and if I remember correctly, hypnotise people just by people looking in their eyes. That takes some brainpower.
The fire is obviously very hot, but mithril armour, in its nature, is magical to us. It may have had a very high melting point.
The rings, once made, could not be destroyed by the same heat that would melt gold, because they were infused with magic/power of an Ainu. This would mean that it would require more magic/power to destry it. Magic vs magic. And since the dragons were made to destroy, the rings would melt. But the one ring was made not to be destroyed, or a t least, Sauron infused it with so much magic that nothing except him, or the heat which made it (And could melt it in the first place) could destroy it.

So, as previous people havesaid, dragon magic is magic for us, but not in ME. They were made to destroy so they destroy*.



*this might be a bit irrelevant but it might be like a placebo. If you think you are better, you are better. If you think you can destroy a ring of power you can. There was once a man who held up a truck for a hours, until an ambulance came to save the person trapped inside. When you need to do something, your body finds away to do it.