Ancalagon the Black

The name "Ancalagon" is explained in The Lost Road and Other Writings as "impetuous jaws" or "biting storm", from Sindarin anc(a) "jaw, bite" and alag "impetuous" or alagos "windstorm".^[1] In his English-language version of the Quenta, Tolkien translates Ancalagon as Anddraca, from and-, an oppositional prefix, and draca "dragon". As with other names he has "translated" into Old English, Tolkien does not seek identity of meaning, but rather to achieve sounds close to those of the original names.^[2]

The description of Ancalagon is kept to a minimum. Considered "the greatest of all dragons",^[3] Ancalagon is the first of the winged dragons. Black in color, its name suggests an impressive jaw. Despite its power, in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf tells Frodo that Ancalagon would not have been able to destroy the One Ring:^[4]

"It has been said that dragon fire was able to melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is no dragon left on earth now whose old flame is hot enough; and there was never any, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have done harm to the One Ring, the Sovereign Ring, for that one had been made by Sauron himself."

— J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Shadow of the Past"

At the end of the First Age, in the year 587, a few years after the fall of Gondolin and the destruction of the kingdom of Doriath, Eärendil and Elwing set sail for Valinor to convince the Valar to save Middle-earth from the yoke of Morgoth. Thanks to their intervention, the armies of the Valar led by Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, Finarfin king of the Ñoldor of Aman, Ingwë king of the Vanyar, and Eärendil flying in Vingilot, march towards Thangorodrim, beneath which lies Morgoth's fortress, where they are joined by the armies of the Edain.^[3]

Morgoth brings most of his armies out of Angband, but they are quickly routed by the Valar forces. Sensing that victory was slipping from his grasp, he called in his reserve forces, the first winged dragons, led by Ancalagon the Black. So terrible was the force of the attack that "the armies of the Valar retreated before the thunder, lightning and hurricane of flames that preceded the dragons". However, Eärendil on his ship Vingilot, accompanied by Thorondor leading an armada of birds, battled Ancalagon and the other dragons for "a whole day and night of doubt", before piercing the dragon. Ancalagon, shot out of the sky, falls on the peaks of Thangorodrim, causing their destruction and ending the War of the Great Wrath. Angband is opened and Morgoth imprisoned by the Valar, sounding the end of the First Age of Middle-earth.^[3]

Tolkien makes no mention of Ancalagon in the 1926 Sketch of Mythology and the first version of the Quenta, in the 1930s. There is a draft of the attack of the flying dragons, but Ancalagon does not yet exist.^[5] Ancalagon appears in the second version of the Quenta, in the role it will play in the rest of the legendarium.^[6] In this version, as well as in its later rewriting, the pre-1937 Quenta Silmarillion, Ancalagon has wings of steel.^[7]

In later versions, notably in the 1969 essay The Problem of Ros, Tolkien suggests that Ancalagon may have been felled by Túrin, who returned after its death from the outer void of Arda to fight in the Final Battle, according to a prophecy of Andreth.^[8] However, it is not clear whether Tolkien is talking about the War of the Great Wrath (Christopher Tolkien's hypothesis^[8]) or the Dagor Dagorath, the battle that marks the end of the world (John D. Rateliff's hypothesis).^[9]

The figure of Ancalagon is compared with the dragon Miðgarðsormr, who confronts Thor at Ragnarök,^[9] as well as with its biblical counterpart, the dragon representing Satan, who is confronted by the Archangel Michael according to a prophecy told in the story of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation.^[10] The reference to Tolkien's linguistic essay, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, published in Morgoth's Ring, which brings Andreth's prophecy into play, enhances "Ancalagon's mythological importance within the legendarium", as does the parallel with Miðgarðsormr.^[9]

Despite its limited role, the character is of paramount importance, both for its role in its master's downfall, but also for the evolution of the dragon race, as the first flying dragon.^[11] Rateliff regrets that the fight between Ancalagon and Eärendil is not more detailed.^[12] According to Kristin Larsen, this confrontation is a euhemeric rendering of a meteor shower falling on Venus, the star corresponding to Eärendil in Tolkien's mythology.^[13] The battle is described by Evans as "titanic" and Ancalagon's fall as "cataclysmic".^[14]

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  Thor battles Miðgarðsormr during Ragnarök
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  Saint Michael slaying the dragon, a scene that possibly inspired the battle between Eärendil and Ancalagon

The battle between Ancalagon the Black and Eärendil has been illustrated by Ted Nasmith.^[15] Jenny Dolfen also drew the dragon.^[16]

The Ancalagon name was adopted by a French pagan metal band formed in 2000.^[17]

• Rateliff, John D. (2007). The History of the Hobbit. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-723555-1.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a). The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 9552942.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1986). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Shaping of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-42501-5.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1987). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Lost Road and Other Writings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-45519-7.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1996). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Peoples of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-82760-4.

• Evans, Jonathan (2000). "The Dragon-lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Tradition". In Clark, Georges; Timmons, Daniel (eds.). J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313308454.
• Evans, Jonathan (2007). "Dragons". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
• Houghton, John William (2009). "Book Reviews: The Mirror Crack'd: Fear and Horror in J.R.R. Tolkien's Major Works". Tolkien Studies. 6. West Virginia University Press: 272–277. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0047.