Ancalagon the Black vs. Smaug: A Comprehensive Examination of Dragon Sizes

Ancalagon was two-three times bigger than Smaug. Smaug was much smaller than Ancalagon as portrayed in the movies. The wingspan for Ancalgon might be 4500 feet while Smaug is 30 feet.

Both of them differ in size. A Smaug equals the size of a large house, whereas when talking about the size of an Ancalagon, keep in mind the picture of a stadium. Ancalagon When The Black died, his body smashed three mountain peaks.

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have been one of the most-watched series. So their fantasy creatures are also in trend. Ancalagon and Smaug were considered huge creatures who had various battles too.

I will be discussing all the differences i.e. specifically in the sizes of Ancalgon and Smaug. It is a quite interesting topic that will for sure peak your interest.

Ancalagon vs. Smaug-Which one is bigger?

Ancalagon is bigger than The Smaug, as it went over the three mountains. That’s how we can observe that Ancalgon is much larger than Smaug.

I believe Ancalagon was truly a sizeable dragon. Remember that the middle earth is not the same as our planet. For all we know, it could be much larger. The to-scale map demonstrates that the Ancalagon was infecting a massive number of people, contrary to popular belief.

That’s what made him frightening in the first place. And it took him 24 hours of fighting with a similar (probably spelled incorrectly) that contained the power of the two Valinor trees. Whose fruit could create a moon and whose tree could create a sun?

When Ancalagon the Black died, he smashed the three highest peaks in Middle Earth. That’s not a measurement, and it could be an embellishment, but if true, his wingspan would have to be over a mile wide! Smaug could fit inside his Lonely Mountain chamber. He was most likely much smaller than portrayed in the movies.

According to Vivdenn, the creator of the video Godzilla vs Ancalagon, Ancalagon was more than a match for a beast larger than Smaug.

Apart from that, he was Morgoth’s ace in the hole, his dragon, and who knows what kind of magic Morgoths used to change his size or if the pits were destroyed when Ancalagon emerged from them. He could be that big and just burst out, annihilating everything in his path.

Now, you know how Ancalgon appears, how can we have an idea of its size?

A balrog with its wings spread while flying
A dragon can spread its wings and fly around

What is the real size of Ancalgon?

We can have an estimate of the size in three different ways,

  • Ancalagon was slain in the air (meaning he could fly), and when he fell, he landed on the triple mountain peaks and thrashed them. Smaug is massive, but not mountain-destroying massive, even if he goes insane like Ancalagon.
  • Peter Jackson stated in the appendices of the third hobbit extended that he was filming the hobbit at the time. Ancalagon smashed the mountains after falling on them. The fact that Earandil and the Eagles killed Ancalagon lends credence to this theory.
  • Ancalagon was a massive dragon on any scale, and he wouldn’t be able to fly high enough. He was also so massive that the gods couldn’t kill him. I believe he collapsed on the three mountains, crushing them all and giving him the size as shown in different pictures.

This list gives a better understanding of the size of an Ancalgon.

Check out the video on 9 Dragons of Middle Earth

Can we say that Ancalgon was the size of a Thorondor?

Yes, I think so. The size of an Ancalgon is roughly the same as that of a Thorondor. Here’s why I have this opinion.

Ancalagon was a massive dragon on any scale, so he wouldn’t be able to fly high enough. He was also so massive that even the gods couldn’t kill him. I believe he collapsed on the three mountains, crushing them all and giving him the below size.

I know it’s not right to say this, but if Ancalgon can smash three mountains, that were the same as Thorondor, then why can’t it be the size of a Thorondor.

What was the size of The Smaug in The Lord of the Rings?

Smaug is described as being about 20 meters (66 feet) long in Karen Wynn Fonstad’s The Atlas of Middle-Earth. In the film, his original design length is mentioned to be 130 meters, which is longer than two jumbo jets.

The many illustrations of Smaug and the other dragons in Tolkien’s Legendarium are highly stylized, making them difficult to use as guides to their actual sizes. Whatever the case may be, Smaug is large enough to cause a panic and send entire armies fleeing in terror.

Have a look at the strength of all the dragons

Who would win in a fight between Ancalagon the Black and Ungoliant?

Ancalgon would win as he is much bigger than the Ungoliant and can breathe fire too.

Ancalagon has the benefit of size (except he may not be as huge as all people think). He has lethal firepower and may fly out of Ungolinat’s reach. Hence the power of Ancalgon makes him win at all costs.

Ungoliant is a malevolent entity that takes the form of a massive spider. She is shrouded in shadow and could make Morgoth shiver with fear. As a Maia, she is still tied to the world, as evidenced by Saruman’s death. This means Ancalagon has the ability to murder her. Ancalagon the Black is one of the largest dragons in fantasy, if not the largest.

During the War of Wrath, this beast led the rest of the winged dragons in repelling the Valar’s army. They were eventually defeated, with Eärendil killing Ancalagon.

When it comes to electricity, they could be kind of identical, with Ancalagon barely stronger.

Ancalagon’s flight is his greatest advantage, allowing him to avoid all of the spider’s attacks. Ungoliant’s only way out is to hide in the shadows, but even then she would be in danger. Ancalagon would simply keep raining down fire on her, with a good chance of landing a solid hit. As a result, not even the queen of darkness could defeat the black terror in the end.

Finally, Ungoliant outperforms him together with her agility at the floor, capability to cover in shadow, and poisons at her disposal.

Calgon was a huge dragon while Ungoliant was just a big spider, so I don’t find it difficult to think who loses and who wins considering the power and flight of Ancalgon, we can easily extrapolate the results of this fight.

An image showing a knight with a sword ready to attack a dragon
A knight looks down upon a mighty dragon

What do you know about the whips of balrogs?

During a fight between the Balrogs and the Ungoliant, the balrogs used only their flame whips to drive Ungoliant away. The same whip that only dragged Gandalf off the bridge; it didn’t appear to hurt him.

Meanwhile, Ancalagon the Black was the greatest dragon ever, with the most powerful fire. He can easily pull down an Ungoliant.

However, we don’t know if they lived at the same time; Ungoliant died soon after that incident, and Ancalagon appeared only during the War of Wrath.

The table shows five reasons which make “The Hobbit ” better and 5 reasons which make it worse than The Lord of the Rings (LOTR).

Why is it better?Why is it worse?
The Fan Service more than LOTRIt had unnecessary sub plots while LOTR didn’t
Funnier than LOTRIt came first so was better
It had one to one fight scenesA consistent tone of events
More actionStronger pacing
More advanced CGIIt was a Trilogy which made it better
Comparison between Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

Was Ancalagon the biggest creature in Middle-earth, or was it Ungoliant?

It is still confusing. But many pieces of evidence show that Ancalgon was the biggest creature in the Middle-Earth.

Ungoliant would have been significantly smaller than Ancalagon. After consuming the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, she would grow in power and size. She’d be big enough to seize Melkor and big enough to shroud them as they tried to flee the Vala.

Ancalagon was known as “the mightiest of the dragon host.” He was more powerful than the other winged dragons who fought in the War of Wrath. The fact that he fell and broke the Thangorodrim is not an indication of size; after all, the Balrog Gandalf killed fell from the top of Celebdil and “cracked the mountainside.” Balrogs were only about 5 meters tall.

Balrogs are not dragons, I know, but the example above demonstrates that Middle-earth does not require massive creatures to break up its landscape. Ungoliant is yet another mystery. She was large, and she grew larger with each consumption (either power source or the Noldorin stones). It’s also impossible to know her true size.

To summarize, Ancalagon was much larger than Ungoliant, as described in the legend of Melkor. She grew even larger after consuming the Fanor gems stolen from Formenos. When she died, she leveled the Thangorodrim peaks, an entire mountain range, many miles across.

All in all, it is not easy to measure the size of an Ancalgon the Black and the Smaug, all we can do is make an estimation. By doing that, we observe that Ancalagon seems to be the biggest creature in Middle-Earth.

A dragon attacking many knights
An Ancalagon breath out fire which make him unbeatable

Who would win in a fight between Ancalagon the Black and Balerion the Black Dread?

Honestly, we have no idea. But according to the information provided about Ancalagon, I think Ancalagon would win.

Balerion only needs to fly away and hide until Ancalagon dies of starvation if he is handled by a semi-competent dragon rider. A creature of that size would have to filter-feed on mammoth herds, which Balerion can deny to Ancalagon. Ancalagon collapses from exhaustion after a week and two tops, and Balerion wins by default.

Balerion is a little too large to be viable. However, as long as there are mammoth herds, large cattle herds, and whale pods to eat, it may be able to survive. A dragon the size of Ancalagon cannot be supported easily.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the Ancalagon is said to be bigger than the Smaug. Although Smaug was huge, he was not bigger than the Ancalagon. As observed, Ancalagon fell. He destroyed three volcanic mountains built by his master, as well as much of the surrounding landscape. So, he was massive. He was assumed to be the size of a Thorondor.

On the other hand, Smaug’s lifeless body was about to destroy a town. Ancalagon was terraforming a large area of land. But he was never able to defeat Ancalagon.

Godzilla and Ancalagon were also compared. The proof determined that the size of Ancalagon was bigger than Godzilla as well. During a fight between Ancalagon and Ungoliant, Ancalagon would always win. That accounts for the powerful traits it had and the fire he threw from his breath.

Thus, all these observations led us to believe that Ancalagon was the mightiest dragon.

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