Re: Could Smaug have averted the War of the Ring? <gulp>

"A Tsar Is Born" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> "Aris Katsaris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > If so, where were the others, and why didn't
> > > we observe Sauron using them in the war, as Gandalf feared he would
> > > have done with Smaug [UT:QoE]?
> >
> > *shrug* The smaller dragons probably weren't powerful enough to be of
> > that much use.
> >
> > Aris Katsaris
> 
> It is nowhere suggested that Sauron controls dragons (or, to take similar
> instances Shelob and the balrog) in the way that Morgoth did. He doesn't
> even control all the orcs. He has to have something to offer them, to win
> them over. He could offer booty to one or two, but more than that would only
> cause rivalries to arise. If Smaug were still around, he might be able to
> lure Smaug into his camp (Smaug certainly wouldn't have joined the other
> side, but might prefer to sit the thing out and eat the survivors). But he
> doesn't automatically run him.

I imagine Smaug's role in the War of the Ring to be something like:

1. Land on Minas Tirith in middle of siege.

2. Toast everything in sight - Dunedain, Rohirrim, soldiers of Gondor,
wizard, orcs, Nazgul, the lot.

3. Sit on treasure.

But only if the treasure of Minas Tirith is greater than that of
Erebor, of course.