Considering how insanely terrifying and devastating the wars of the first ages were, the battles during the third age sound more and more like a schoolyard fight in comparison
Well, considering the big boss of 3rd age war is just a servant of morgoth, yeah its just schoolyards fight compare to war on 1st age.. its just like saruman to sauron i think
My thoughts as to Ancalagon breaking the mountains is akin to a meteor crashing to earth. It doesn't have to be the same size as the mountain to break it. If Ancalagon were slain high in the sky, the force of his size and weight crashing upon the mountain could do significant damage.
He also may not have fell directly down on them. He may have been moving at an angle, especially if he were slain while flying toward Eärendil during their battle. His path could have been at a trajectory that had him breaking off the tops of the mountains with his inertia, but that doesn't require him to be miles in size. If he was moving fast enough mid tier kaiju size could do that, especially if they had some spin to them as they fell like a meteor. The speed and angle of a flying object has as much to do with how destructive it is as does it's mass. That's not even accounting for any magic energy he may have been giving off when he crashed as well. He was a magical creature after all. Now, he could have been miles in size, but one would think that had he been that big that such a thing might have been mentioned, but Tolkien barely mentions the dragon a couple times in exposition. He couldn't destroy the one ring, and he broke 3 mountains when he fell. Exactly how the mountains broke, and the extent of the damage is obscure.
@@mikerude5073 only mt.doom can destroy the ring but it can also be magic that makes it that way since it was made there. And a mid size kaiju would not destroy a 200mile mountain range.
@@karerabbe7829 This is cosmogony, it doesnt make any sense to speak about plot armor. This is like saying Athena being born from Zeus head is a plot hole.
I think some of the coolness factor comes from the mystery around this dragon... kinda like the 80s experience of Boba Fett. The mystery provides so much room for imagination.
I'm inclined to agree. Consider for example the damage dealt to Zirakzigil when Gandalf destroyed Durin's Bane. Different kind of creature, sure, but stick with me on this. Seems like beings capable of that kind of fiery destruction go off like a bomb when they fall to earth. Ancalagon the Black was a fire-breather -- and not just a fire-breather, but a dragon whose flames were exceeded only by the fires of Mount Doom. Consider the kind of explosive force that overgrown lizard must have had!
@@FuckGoogle2 I'm no chemist, certainly not in the field of explosives. But I imagine that acidic blood, in addition to whatever chemicals combine with oxygen to allow fire breath, plus a hard impact at terminal velocity into the mountainside, would shake everything up nicely, laying waste to the area faster than you can say 'violent exothermic reaction'.
I have to say, my mind literally BLEW UP when I first learned just how gigantic Ancalagon really was. I knew Dragons could get big, but I truthfully never, in all my wildest dreams, ever imagined them getting THAT big.
@@kenjikune2565 well, we don't know how large is ancalagon. some says that He's larger than 3 volcanic mountain everest. look how Ancalagon's death crushed monutain Thangorodrim
I want SO BAD, to have been given more info about ancalagon, but I think he was used perfectly-just as a last minute turning of the tide, and almost certain loss, and basically the “final boss” of not just the war of wrath, but the entire 1st age! The perfect role for him! And thank you! I’m SO glad that u pointed out that the wording of the second part was possibly (personally, I think “clearly”, since it actually says, with apparently zero metaphors, similes, euphemisms, whatever, that thangorordrim was destroyed by ancalagon falling on it)just referring to the host CAUSING thangorodrims destruction by killing ancalagon. I was worried there for a second lol. I’d also like to point out that i think his size being so massive that “his enemies are like bugs” seems most reasonable, not just since he had to b big enough to destroy the 3 mountain peaks, but also since we KNOW at least some of the valar were fighting, It would make sense that he would HAVE to b that massive and strong in order to actually fend off valar! I don’t know how many other winged dragons there were, so maybe there was an entire legion of them, but without something so absurdly huge and powerful, it just seems hard to believe that the valar would actually have been getting pushed back.
I love how we got the first big boi and the first Bad Boy in the 1st age And more big boi fights would have been cool. Because he seemed like a great foe
I really wish in the future someone would recreate the war of wrath battle in some type of animation or live action. It would be very interesting to see how Ancalagon and the fleet of dragons would look, as well as the flying boat of Earendil. ^.^
Well, is seeing that battle, well done even on the epic level of the Helms Deep siege, as important as black hobbits and strong women besting everyone and everything with ease while maintaining massive levels of smugness? Diversity or solid representation of proper lore? Good thing a new Amazon show is coming. What do you think all involved have been blatantly boasting about?
For those who are wondering ancalgon based on Tolkien's drawing would probably of been about 400 metres long, and if you take the quote of "thangorodrin shattered beneath him." Then he's probably about 150 miles long. Depends on how you interpret his great work. As for the silmarills that come from the light of the two trees which after their deaths at the hands of ungoliant and melkor released a golden fruit and a silver flower which then became the sun and moon, the silmarills are made of the same light and so I propose that the light shining on ancalgon in his fateful fate is hitting him with the energy of a sun as the silmarills are comparable to the light emitted by the sun and moon on Tolkien's works
Great comment. I like that you realize we are all allowed to interpret Tolkien's art how we choose. I also think we writers don't always put the literal description to paper. In other words, "thangorodrin shattered beneath him" is much more interesting, vivid, and fun than "the rocky ground shattered in the shape of a dragon roughly the size of a football field." Details details... where's the imagination?
You don't go after drawings, since they are just as wrong as his drawing of Smaug, wich he said himself.. He said how big he was, snd rhat he smashed the mountains, and that's the fact.... Also the gems are afracture of that power..
“With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down from on high in ruin. Full on the town he fell. His last throes splintered it to sparks and gledes. The lake roared in. A vast steam leaped up, white in the sudden dark under the moon. There was a hiss, a gushing whirl, and then silence. And that was the end of Smaug and Esgaroth…” Now, scale that up to whatever size Ancalagon the Black truly was and it’s little wonder that Thangorodrim suffered massively under his last agonies and death throes; for we see that “ruin” does not implies instant death or cessation of motion but rather imminent and inescapable death, often with vain struggle preceding it. Indeed, Ancalagon need not be as large as the three smoking peaks in order to decimate them; just large enough for his shriek to rend them, his fall to shake them, and his death throes to thrash them sufficiently. I’m sure no volcano or mountain side would be left unscathed (especially if he triggered fault lines to quake or magma to erupt).
He has to have been gigantic to do what that story describes, not just in Thangorodrim, but everything else. That fight lasted an entire day and night, with both a Silmaril and Eagles to boot, which at that time, were twice the size of those that fought in The Lord Of The Rings. Compare that to Charcharoth and the Silmaril, and you get the scale in how long it took to affect that dragon. Even then, the story states Earendil drove Vingilot through him.
Ancalagon was a creature of great magic. I have always thought that his falling from a great height and impacting one of the towers (Mountains) could cause it to domino the other two. They were described (if I remember right) as smoking slag piles at one point. At the end of the day, remember that one small ring cause the eruption/partial destruction of Mt Doom.
Umm... Tolkien explicitly said that the scale in that image of Smaug is off, and Smaug was much larger than the image makes him seem. From Letter 27: "The hobbit in the picture of the gold-hoard, Chapter XII, is of course (apart from being fat in the wrong places) enormously too large."
It always seems like evil is getting a debuff in LOTR. I mean the size and the horrifying way Ancalagon was described, make me angry that a few eagles and a single dude took him down that easy.
Morgoth ruled in terror for millenia before they finally got to that point... And was causing hell since the beginning of existence... Trust that this was no easy run... And Earendil wasn't just sent regular in his ship... The Valar upgraded him and gave him the Silmaril to use... It took a day to get a shot on Ancalagon, fighting in sub-orbit as they were, but he got the bastard... That let you know the Valar knew what their forces were facing... They knew about Ancalagon or had an inkling, in which case, they made Earendil into a living weapon...
actually no, book Smaug is far larger than this image suggests. Tolkien himself said that in one of his letters. Furthermore, you can calculate his size based on the passage with the secret passage to about 90-100 m long. Some guy on reddit did it.
Two animals are named after Ancalagon: Ancalagon, a Cambrian priapulid by Simon Conway Morris in 1977, and Ankalagon by Leigh Van Valen in 1980, a Paleocene mesonychid mammal.
I think it’s pretty definitive that the valar actually fought. That’s the ONLY way that belariand, a continent sized area of land, could have been destroyed. There’s literally no other possible way, from what we know about middle earth, that the landmass seemingly about the size of Europe was completely obliterated and sunk, than the gods themselves were actively fighting. Even aside from that common sense, it’s actually pointed out(maybe in a tolkien letter? Not sure)that they refuse to take any direct role in defeating sauron, because of fear of causing world-breaking destruction again, like during the war of wrath when they DID get directly involved.
Another interpretation of the Tolkien text is that because Ancalagon died, the Valar were able to finish destroying Melkor's forces. They almost won, then Ancalagon appeared and almost defeated them, then Ancalagon died, then the Valar finished off Melkor. So his death destroying the mountain was saying that he was the final wall holding together Angband- and when he died, the whole thing crumbled. The idea that he was so physically large as to crush an entire mountain brings in questions of food consumption, gravity and ability to fly with such a huge mass, the large area that held him as his "playpen" in Angband, as well as the idea that Eagles and a ship with a Silmaril can overpower a being as physically large as Mount Everest. I think the truth is a bit of both- he was large, but he was also the last line of defense for Melkor.
I would guess that, like Smaug, Ancalagon was vulnerable in the region of the chest. Earendil probably just had to dodge his attacks and manage to shoot him in a vital spot-or several vital spots-in order to bring him down.
I agree. While I'm not saying Ancalagon is more Powerful than the Valar (since Power is obviously more than just Raw Strength alone) I could definitely see him being above the Valar (even Tulkas) in terms of Raw Strength and Durability. A Weak Spot likely had to be exposed in order to beat him.
1: I've always assumed that since Thangorodrim was seemingly basically a "slag volcano" of refuse from the forges of Angband, that when Ancalagon fell, being a huge (but not gigantic as in some pictures), dragon he damaged the mountain and the internal fire, already under pressure from the constant creation of war gear and floods of fire then self destructed. 2: We know that the host of the west were mostly the Vanyar and Finarfins people with the surviving Edain but considering Morgoth had millions if not hundreds of millions in his armies (Anfauglith could not hold them and the plain was a good 300 miles by 50 miles wide iirc) there have to have been Maiar as well and probably Tulkas and Oromë (their personalities considered) as well; based on its success seeing that the Vanyar was always fewer in numbers than the other houses and Finarfins people was hardly a third of the Noldor and they had only had 500 years to enhance their numbers and elves do that SLOWLY, so they cant have been more than maybe 50-75 thousand in number if even that. And while they had the advantage of replenishing their numbers as Mandos could release the dead back into the fight, even with "the light of Valinor in their eyes" like the Fëanorians in the second battle, the numbers seems way to skewed towards Morgoth without Ainur support. ESPECIALLY also with the power clash that sunk the entire subcontinent. Mere battles of orcs and elves could not have done that.
@@Fracturedspleen Nah. If you play it like that it has a lot to do with the fact that this is a big mythological apocalyptic ending. It doesn't need specific numbers in fact those would probably be a detriment to the theme and feel. But we are fans so we have to nitpick😁
Honestly, hes cool and all but i like glaurungs lore. I know ancalagon doesn’t have much lore at all. Maybe tolkien could have wrote about him more but im ok with how it played out. Great video! Always love to see you notifications👏👏
Melkor probably should have ridden Ancalagon. Melkor could have nuked Earendil's ship before Earendil could kill Ancalagon Also, Melkor and Ancalagon could have destroyed the host of the Valar
Manwe was the King of the Winds, maybe Morgoth couldn't himself take the fight into the air like that without provoking a direct challenge from the Valar?
@@KS-xk2so possibly. However, Middle-Earth held more essence or influence of Morgoth than Aman did. The host of the Valar were on enemy territory. While Tulkas and Eonwe were greater skilled at direct combat than Melkor, Melkor's dragons would have made up for that. Melkor riding Ancalagon into combat against Tulkas or Eonwe would have given him the edge. It seems it was the holy light of the Silmaril of Earendil which provided the supernatural power to destroy Ancalagon. Melkor could have used his own power to destroy Earendil's ship. It would have taken the Silmaril off the chess board
@@maxmercer1931 I'd agree the Silmaril helped Earendil defeat Ancalagon... I do think people tend to over estimate the power of Ancalagon though. Sure he was powerful, and something new they'd never seen before, but he's a servant of Morgoth. No way he's stronger than Morgoth himself, and the other Valar had already proven more than once that together they could kick his ass. If Tulkas, Orome, and Manwe showed up, game over. I assume the reason they didn't is because all the Valar, even Morgoth, knew if they fought directly at that time, that fight would probably end up fully destroying the world they were fighting over. Hell it barely survived as it was.
I am currently trying to create a DnD campaign for the war of wrath and videos like this help a ton. Never thought to interpret the writing in that way but it makes sense.
What-if video idea for you to do: What if Gandalf never fell at the Bridge of Khazad-dum and continued with the fellowship to Lothlorien and on forward?
Take our money and start making tv series or movies(trilogy) of the story and events of the first age or second age, there is sooo much to cover, according to books, litteraly a gold mine for movie makers...
well tolkien simply told us "this tiny person killed this giant being" which is comical. so going into this entire universe, we know that absolutely impossible things happen all the time. "explaining" anything in that context is again, silly. but i am happy a few guys on youtube can make a living doing it ;)
I've heard a theory that the dragon is an externalization of the Morgoth Ingredient. In the same way that Sauron put some of his power/spirit into a ring, Morgoth did it with the dragons. The dragons would then be a simulacra of life. It would be the equivalent of Aulë's dwarves when they did not yet possess the breath of life granted by Ilúvatar. Only in the case of these creatures, they would be living beings corrupted with imprisoned spirits (as Sauron did with werewolves) or pieces of Morgoth's spirit. This explains why Dragons are so fond of gold. For this metal contains a lot of Morgoth Ingredient. The interesting thing is that Ancalagon faced a spaceship that used a jewel that contained a light analogous to the light of the Holy Spirit.
I really would have loved if there were more Ancálagon fragments. I find such an impressive dragon. even the mere name conveys mysticism, terror and imagining an incredibly imposing creature. I would have even liked "a drawing of ancalagon by Tolkien himself", to have even more information or a reference to his appearance. In my opinion, I did not like that it only appeared once and that's it. The same thing happens with "Bard" They mention him, he kills Smaug and disappears. At least in the books. in the Hobbit trilogy, it is given a little more prominence and a coherent story was created. I would love for them to do that with Ancalagon last. Because The War of Cholera is amazing and if they took it to the big screen and gave us a well-done audiovisual show, it would be fabulous.
"But I know the neighborhood; talk is cheap when the story is good; and the tales grow taller on down the line..." - REO Speedwagon, the band, not the JoJo character, on how Ancalagon might have gotten some legendary upgrades in size.
No, I would not have liked to have seen more of Ancalagon who was so great that Earendil had to come down and intervene. The history was that the First Age passed to the Second and then to the Third. The story had to be turned progressively over to elves and men and then to men.
The thing about Ancalagon is that since he’s so massive he would have moved tremendously slow. Think of the colossi from shadow of the colossus but much slower since he’s many times larger than those. Better yet, think of the stone giants from the hobbit. That’s how slow he would move. Unless he’s supercharged with fantasy overdrive where he’s just tremendously fast no matter his size.
The Valar probably joined or led the host that attacked the first dark lord Melkor in Angband in Middle Earth in the ""War of Wrath" at the end of the First Age, (as they did earlier against Melkor at Utumno in the ""Wars of Power") - as they were later denied permission to ever return again to Middle Earth by ERU (Illuvatar) and why they had to resort to dreams, visions, foresight and special Maiar agents or servants who could enter in the Third Age disguised as elderly men in the form of Wizards (or Istari) to do their bidding.....
Everyone always says he is the biggest "winged" dragon. I like to think a non winged dragon could get much larger than a winged one. Always bugged me how the biggest has wings haha.
Thangorodrim is a series of volcanic towers or pillars rising above the fortress of Melkor, not mountains in themselves. More like giant parapets on a castle or smokestacks on a factory.
I think that he is as big as the pictures describe. He was Morgoths ace in reserve for a good reason, his coming forced an army of superhuman warriors led by angels and very likely some of the Valar gods to retreat( I highly doubt that those such as Orome, Ulmo and certainly not Tulkas would sit this fight out. They would leave Eonwe to command the host while they went on their own to fight the greater beasts that the host would take great losses to defeat. Plus, if anything could tear open the gates of Angband, it would be the mighty bare hands of Tulkas.) Nonetheless it also displays the true strength of the Silmarils as well, once used by a noble hero, the full power of the 2 trees is unleashed, transforming the ship Vingilot into a comet of pure holy might and power. Unleashing balls of flame upon the titanic dragon while whisking past it at light speed, culminating in the ship itself crashing through its heart like a super heated blade. Killing the mighty dragon.
Yesterday I was pretty tired and looked at the thumbnail and for a second I thought it was some sort of giant crab monster, took me a while to figure out that it was supposed to be a dragon xD
Anacalgon is a rather obscure character, only mentioned a couple times. We know he broke some mountains, or volcanos when he fell, and that even his breath couldn't destroy the one ring. That's all we have to go on. No dimensions of his size were ever given, and that is why it is annoying that everyone brings up the "well what about Ancalagon" in the high effort thinking "my favorite fictional lizard beats up yours" arguments. For this dragon who's name is scantly mentioned in exposition. For all we know, Tolkien may have imagined Ancalagon as big, but like a relatively mid tier kaiju flying at a high velocity when he was suddenly slain by a magic weapon, then careened toward the volcanoes to break the tops of them, and had enough speed and thus inertia to keep going until he had broken the tops of all 3 that were in his trajectory, and may even have had some spin to him as he did so. It might not have been as simple as a dragon that was over a mile long simply flopped on to them for his mass and volume to simply crush the mountains due to sheer weight. Also, being larger would spread the mass out over a greater surface area. Moving at a high velocity would seem necessary almost regardless of how big he was, unless the dragon was practically an orbital body.
The Thangorodrim are described in other stories. Like Hurin and Maglor stories, when both were set on them at different parts. Their descriptions and dimensions are very clear, and they are gigantic. Ancalagon has to have been big enough to do that damage to such a huge trio of structures.
To be honest with you i never actually knew this kind of dragon ever existed in the movies untill now soo hearing about this dragon makes alot more terrifying then anything because out of all the dragons i have heared som much about this one dragon suprised me alittle because i didnt even know about it so thank you for explaining ehe😅😊
Yes ,this fantasy is like all of Tolkiens works.Your immlagination will swirl,and fill in the blanks withit it! That's what makes hiis stories come to life!
If Ancalagon the Black's dead corpse was on Middle Earth, where The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stories took place. Everyone would mind it as a normal thing of the land.
I think your videos are awesome. And I enjoy the content because it's a little different from what everybody else does I really wanted to know the topic on this one. I'd really like to know what the dragons are a corrupt form of. Since more guys could not make life what did he corrupt to make a dragon.?
Another amazing video, man we talked about it yesterday but IM SO HYPED up for this show, and if we could just see a flashback of Ancalagon that would trully be epic!!!!!! Jake another amazing video, see ya!!!
The First Age was, as Count Dankula has said was high fantasy on steroids; but I will go further, and say it was Tolkien setting the foundations for his own edda, placing the themes that could be played out time and again in distant order, much like The Lay of Aotrou and Itrounwas almost entirely replicate in The Lord of the Rings by Aragorn and Arwen. Like the eddas that inspired Professor Tolkien, he saw the validity of repetition in myth making as it helps solidify and in strengthening the myth.
maybe as ancalagon was bred to be even stronger than its predecesors, he might have been a tiny wyrm with still thousands of years of growth to be had.
I'm not overly knowledgeable in the lore but what would happen to such a powerful being's spirit? Or would it have one? Could it potentially inhabit/possess another creature or item if it wasn't banished etc? Potentially reform over a much longer period than Sauron for example?
My theory about Ancalagon real size might just the size of King Ghidorah since he needed to be a match for ereindil and his flying ship with the king of the eagles as well as being theoretically and physically fly even tho it's already far fetched I mean thorondor who's king of the eagles was 30 fathoms which is almost the size of a Boeing 747 that kinda give you the scale of the eagle Ancalagon was facing
I reckon he was biggest of all the dragons but when they killed him the valar might have dropped him on one which made a backlash which could have broken the towers which Tolkien wrote about
Excellent work Mellon! I'm glad there is only one event including Ancalagon. If there were more event he was involved then, I must say ME would be different. Vastly different. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK BRUDDAH! SIGNED, Lord Storm Crow the Brun
I think Ancalagon should have been a dragon that would lurk in the shadows that occasionally helped in some of the battles after Glaurung’s death as an infant dragon but when he was fully grown he made his presence clear and while his full size could be nerfed a little compared to the art shown, I still think Ancalagon should bigger than a mountain.
I enjoy how the 1st age was just high fantasy on steroids.
Well this is the weirdest cross over I've seen in a while.
Mad Lads: Gil-Galad soon?
Tell us more daddy dankula
Hell Yeah!! Also, thanks for checking out the video! Love your content! :)
Next mad lad episode on Elendil confirmed?
Feanor is the first age Mad Lad.
Considering how insanely terrifying and devastating the wars of the first ages were, the battles during the third age sound more and more like a schoolyard fight in comparison
Well, considering the big boss of 3rd age war is just a servant of morgoth, yeah its just schoolyards fight compare to war on 1st age.. its just like saruman to sauron i think
@@krisyannuruha5147 it's like comparing WW2 to bank robbery
@@Snp2024 like yeah a bank robbery can get pretty violent and destructive but a single battle/ charge in ww1 can dwarf any bank robbery ever
Tolkien himself said that Bilbo is "enormously too large" in his hand drawn picture. Smaug is closer to 100 meters in length
You know it's a crazy fight when a guy shows up in a spaceship and shoots Lazer beams in a dogfight against a mountain sized dragon. Pure badassery.
That's exactly what happened in one of the Godzilla films
Size doesn’t matter sometimes. It’s all about strength, intelligent, determination and durability.
If Ancalagon is ever put to screen I will remain in the camp of “Make him ENORMOUS” it’s a personal preference.
"how big do you want him
"yes"
My thoughts as to Ancalagon breaking the mountains is akin to a meteor crashing to earth. It doesn't have to be the same size as the mountain to break it. If Ancalagon were slain high in the sky, the force of his size and weight crashing upon the mountain could do significant damage.
You realize the 3 mountains he crushed were 35,000 ft in height? They were bigger than everest.
@@Mephisto579 and they were miles apart from eachother
a balrog could collapse a slope too
He also may not have fell directly down on them. He may have been moving at an angle, especially if he were slain while flying toward Eärendil during their battle. His path could have been at a trajectory that had him breaking off the tops of the mountains with his inertia, but that doesn't require him to be miles in size. If he was moving fast enough mid tier kaiju size could do that, especially if they had some spin to them as they fell like a meteor. The speed and angle of a flying object has as much to do with how destructive it is as does it's mass. That's not even accounting for any magic energy he may have been giving off when he crashed as well. He was a magical creature after all. Now, he could have been miles in size, but one would think that had he been that big that such a thing might have been mentioned, but Tolkien barely mentions the dragon a couple times in exposition. He couldn't destroy the one ring, and he broke 3 mountains when he fell. Exactly how the mountains broke, and the extent of the damage is obscure.
@@mikerude5073 only mt.doom can destroy the ring but it can also be magic that makes it that way since it was made there. And a mid size kaiju would not destroy a 200mile mountain range.
Ancalagon The Black is an example of what one simiril has the power to do to its enemies.
Like what?:) Pls describe what it does and how powerful it is without plot armor/holes..:)
@@karerabbe7829 This is cosmogony, it doesnt make any sense to speak about plot armor. This is like saying Athena being born from Zeus head is a plot hole.
@@afrenchkabyle2377 no.. it's like saying that new shit girl Ray in Star Wars beats Palpatine..
@@karerabbe7829 It literally has nothing to do with that.
Weirdo @@karerabbe7829
I think some of the coolness factor comes from the mystery around this dragon... kinda like the 80s experience of Boba Fett. The mystery provides so much room for imagination.
Maybe Ancalagon contained so much power that he simply exploded when he hit Thangorodrim.
I'm inclined to agree. Consider for example the damage dealt to Zirakzigil when Gandalf destroyed Durin's Bane. Different kind of creature, sure, but stick with me on this. Seems like beings capable of that kind of fiery destruction go off like a bomb when they fall to earth. Ancalagon the Black was a fire-breather -- and not just a fire-breather, but a dragon whose flames were exceeded only by the fires of Mount Doom. Consider the kind of explosive force that overgrown lizard must have had!
Acid blood which desolved even stone.
@@FuckGoogle2 I'm no chemist, certainly not in the field of explosives. But I imagine that acidic blood, in addition to whatever chemicals combine with oxygen to allow fire breath, plus a hard impact at terminal velocity into the mountainside, would shake everything up nicely, laying waste to the area faster than you can say 'violent exothermic reaction'.
😏
I have to say, my mind literally BLEW UP when I first learned just how gigantic Ancalagon really was. I knew Dragons could get big, but I truthfully never, in all my wildest dreams, ever imagined them getting THAT big.
The Witch King and the nine are fuck all compared to Ancalagon the Black imo
*Jormungundr has entered the chat*
@@kenjikune2565 well, we don't know how large is ancalagon. some says that He's larger than 3 volcanic mountain everest. look how Ancalagon's death crushed monutain Thangorodrim
@@kenjikune2565 Mind you,jormie was not a dragon so it was out of question. Plus they are from different universes
@@kenjikune2565 bro's comparing a dragon to a serpent.
I want SO BAD, to have been given more info about ancalagon, but I think he was used perfectly-just as a last minute turning of the tide, and almost certain loss, and basically the “final boss” of not just the war of wrath, but the entire 1st age! The perfect role for him!
And thank you! I’m SO glad that u pointed out that the wording of the second part was possibly (personally, I think “clearly”, since it actually says, with apparently zero metaphors, similes, euphemisms, whatever, that thangorordrim was destroyed by ancalagon falling on it)just referring to the host CAUSING thangorodrims destruction by killing ancalagon. I was worried there for a second lol.
I’d also like to point out that i think his size being so massive that “his enemies are like bugs” seems most reasonable, not just since he had to
b big enough to destroy the 3 mountain peaks, but also since we KNOW at least some of the valar were fighting, It would make sense that he would HAVE to b that massive and strong in order to actually fend off valar! I don’t know how many other winged dragons there were, so maybe there was an entire legion of them, but without something so absurdly huge and powerful, it just seems hard to believe that the valar would actually have been getting pushed back.
I love how we got the first big boi and the first Bad Boy in the 1st age
And more big boi fights would have been cool. Because he seemed like a great foe
The note on the “Light of Earendil” in LOTR was great to learn. I love the little details like that amongst Tolkien’s writings.
Earendil
@@herbthompson8937 thanks Herb
@@DOSHIELD haha Elendils a badass, but he's a couple levels lower then Earendil
I love the story of Earendil. Please do that one as well!
I really wish in the future someone would recreate the war of wrath battle in some type of animation or live action. It would be very interesting to see how Ancalagon and the fleet of dragons would look, as well as the flying boat of Earendil. ^.^
Well, is seeing that battle, well done even on the epic level of the Helms Deep siege, as important as black hobbits and strong women besting everyone and everything with ease while maintaining massive levels of smugness? Diversity or solid representation of proper lore? Good thing a new Amazon show is coming. What do you think all involved have been blatantly boasting about?
Well that will be 1 of the hardest tasks anyone can do since that war was something else.
I definitely would've liked to have ATM more of him. Massive dragons like that are so intriguing to me.
For those who are wondering ancalgon based on Tolkien's drawing would probably of been about 400 metres long, and if you take the quote of "thangorodrin shattered beneath him." Then he's probably about 150 miles long. Depends on how you interpret his great work.
As for the silmarills that come from the light of the two trees which after their deaths at the hands of ungoliant and melkor released a golden fruit and a silver flower which then became the sun and moon, the silmarills are made of the same light and so I propose that the light shining on ancalgon in his fateful fate is hitting him with the energy of a sun as the silmarills are comparable to the light emitted by the sun and moon on Tolkien's works
That was honestly an excellent breakdown.
I always thought that was a little over the top, describing his as big enough to smash Thangorodrin. Where did he hide that sum-bitch?
Great comment. I like that you realize we are all allowed to interpret Tolkien's art how we choose. I also think we writers don't always put the literal description to paper. In other words, "thangorodrin shattered beneath him" is much more interesting, vivid, and fun than "the rocky ground shattered in the shape of a dragon roughly the size of a football field." Details details... where's the imagination?
Sounds awesome 👌
You don't go after drawings, since they are just as wrong as his drawing of Smaug, wich he said himself.. He said how big he was, snd rhat he smashed the mountains, and that's the fact.... Also the gems are afracture of that power..
What an EPIC dragon! Great topic, guys.
Thanks! :)
“With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down from on high in ruin.
Full on the town he fell. His last throes splintered it to sparks and gledes. The lake roared in. A vast steam leaped up, white in the sudden dark under the moon. There was a hiss, a gushing whirl, and then silence. And that was the end of Smaug and Esgaroth…”
Now, scale that up to whatever size Ancalagon the Black truly was and it’s little wonder that Thangorodrim suffered massively under his last agonies and death throes; for we see that “ruin” does not implies instant death or cessation of motion but rather imminent and inescapable death, often with vain struggle preceding it.
Indeed, Ancalagon need not be as large as the three smoking peaks in order to decimate them; just large enough for his shriek to rend them, his fall to shake them, and his death throes to thrash them sufficiently. I’m sure no volcano or mountain side would be left unscathed (especially if he triggered fault lines to quake or magma to erupt).
He has to have been gigantic to do what that story describes, not just in Thangorodrim, but everything else.
That fight lasted an entire day and night, with both a Silmaril and Eagles to boot, which at that time, were twice the size of those that fought in The Lord Of The Rings.
Compare that to Charcharoth and the Silmaril, and you get the scale in how long it took to affect that dragon.
Even then, the story states Earendil drove Vingilot through him.
Ancalagon was a creature of great magic. I have always thought that his falling from a great height and impacting one of the towers (Mountains) could cause it to domino the other two. They were described (if I remember right) as smoking slag piles at one point. At the end of the day, remember that one small ring cause the eruption/partial destruction of Mt Doom.
The one ring had like 90% of Sauron's power so
@@hugo-pg5tv 75 at least..
Umm... Tolkien explicitly said that the scale in that image of Smaug is off, and Smaug was much larger than the image makes him seem. From Letter 27: "The hobbit in the picture of the gold-hoard, Chapter XII, is of course (apart from being fat in the wrong places) enormously too large."
He doesn't care about facts bro... He just makes crap theoryvids with clickbait and other crap to gain vievs and discussion..
? @@karerabbe7829
So Smaug was bigger than in the movies or smaller?
It always seems like evil is getting a debuff in LOTR. I mean the size and the horrifying way Ancalagon was described, make me angry that a few eagles and a single dude took him down that easy.
Morgoth ruled in terror for millenia before they finally got to that point... And was causing hell since the beginning of existence... Trust that this was no easy run... And Earendil wasn't just sent regular in his ship... The Valar upgraded him and gave him the Silmaril to use... It took a day to get a shot on Ancalagon, fighting in sub-orbit as they were, but he got the bastard... That let you know the Valar knew what their forces were facing... They knew about Ancalagon or had an inkling, in which case, they made Earendil into a living weapon...
actually no, book Smaug is far larger than this image suggests. Tolkien himself said that in one of his letters.
Furthermore, you can calculate his size based on the passage with the secret passage to about 90-100 m long. Some guy on reddit did it.
Two animals are named after Ancalagon: Ancalagon, a Cambrian priapulid by Simon Conway Morris in 1977, and Ankalagon by Leigh Van Valen in 1980, a Paleocene mesonychid mammal.
That's pretty cool thanks for the fact
Dragons make every story better!
I think it’s pretty definitive that the valar actually fought. That’s the ONLY way that belariand, a continent sized area of land, could have been destroyed. There’s literally no other possible way, from what we know about middle earth, that the landmass seemingly about the size of Europe was completely obliterated and sunk, than the gods themselves were actively fighting. Even aside from that common sense, it’s actually pointed out(maybe in a tolkien letter? Not sure)that they refuse to take any direct role in defeating sauron, because of fear of causing world-breaking destruction again, like during the war of wrath when they DID get directly involved.
No, not quite Europes size at all. Maybe Germany size, maybe even smaller. When you see the maps and the scales, its pretty clear.
@@greendishatibaia9899 I always compare Beleriand to the Iberian Peninsula, at the least... That and France at the most...
I like the link to Sam and the phial. Ancalagon, like the Tiger II tank in WWII, while outclassing the West, could not prevent defeat.
Another interpretation of the Tolkien text is that because Ancalagon died, the Valar were able to finish destroying Melkor's forces. They almost won, then Ancalagon appeared and almost defeated them, then Ancalagon died, then the Valar finished off Melkor. So his death destroying the mountain was saying that he was the final wall holding together Angband- and when he died, the whole thing crumbled. The idea that he was so physically large as to crush an entire mountain brings in questions of food consumption, gravity and ability to fly with such a huge mass, the large area that held him as his "playpen" in Angband, as well as the idea that Eagles and a ship with a Silmaril can overpower a being as physically large as Mount Everest. I think the truth is a bit of both- he was large, but he was also the last line of defense for Melkor.
And think about this melkor in his full power could be as big if not bigger and more powerful than anchalagon
Thangorodrim is volcanic towers or pillars like smokestacks or parapets, huge but not mountainous.
@@Nunya_Bidness_53 I think the towers were described as being the tallest peaks in Middle-Earth, and roughly 35k feet high.
@@Nunya_Bidness_53 you drunk or just making crap up..?:)
@@aaronsmall6532 no, not at all:)
I would guess that, like Smaug, Ancalagon was vulnerable in the region of the chest. Earendil probably just had to dodge his attacks and manage to shoot him in a vital spot-or several vital spots-in order to bring him down.
I agree. While I'm not saying Ancalagon is more Powerful than the Valar (since Power is obviously more than just Raw Strength alone) I could definitely see him being above the Valar (even Tulkas) in terms of Raw Strength and Durability. A Weak Spot likely had to be exposed in order to beat him.
I would love a video on Earendil!
1: I've always assumed that since Thangorodrim was seemingly basically a "slag volcano" of refuse from the forges of Angband, that when Ancalagon fell, being a huge (but not gigantic as in some pictures), dragon he damaged the mountain and the internal fire, already under pressure from the constant creation of war gear and floods of fire then self destructed.
2: We know that the host of the west were mostly the Vanyar and Finarfins people with the surviving Edain but considering Morgoth had millions if not hundreds of millions in his armies (Anfauglith could not hold them and the plain was a good 300 miles by 50 miles wide iirc) there have to have been Maiar as well and probably Tulkas and Oromë (their personalities considered) as well; based on its success seeing that the Vanyar was always fewer in numbers than the other houses and Finarfins people was hardly a third of the Noldor and they had only had 500 years to enhance their numbers and elves do that SLOWLY, so they cant have been more than maybe 50-75 thousand in number if even that.
And while they had the advantage of replenishing their numbers as Mandos could release the dead back into the fight, even with "the light of Valinor in their eyes" like the Fëanorians in the second battle, the numbers seems way to skewed towards Morgoth without Ainur support.
ESPECIALLY also with the power clash that sunk the entire subcontinent. Mere battles of orcs and elves could not have done that.
I think it’s just a case of power slide and JRR Tolkien not knowing how numbers work.
@@Fracturedspleen Nah.
If you play it like that it has a lot to do with the fact that this is a big mythological apocalyptic ending.
It doesn't need specific numbers in fact those would probably be a detriment to the theme and feel.
But we are fans so we have to nitpick😁
@@SageKronsell I don’t think you understand what I was saying.
@@Fracturedspleen guess not
Yea was manwe's herald there too one of the strongest mair so a few were also there.
Thanks for uploading this 😂 I'm really sick right now with a bad cold and it give me something to do it makes my misrable day better
Same, stay hydrated and medicated ❤ feel better soon
@@loveconqueror thank you! I will
Honestly, hes cool and all but i like glaurungs lore. I know ancalagon doesn’t have much lore at all. Maybe tolkien could have wrote about him more but im ok with how it played out.
Great video! Always love to see you notifications👏👏
I wish they would make a 3 part series about morgoth that would be absolutely the best ever
He’s my favourite character in middle earth and I would of loved more but you know I just love the dragons I love Smaug as well
The valar took place during the war of wrath, who else could have cut off morgoths feet? Obviously it was Tulkas, Tulkas has ONE JOB!!!!!
Melkor probably should have ridden Ancalagon. Melkor could have nuked Earendil's ship before Earendil could kill Ancalagon
Also, Melkor and Ancalagon could have destroyed the host of the Valar
That's a good point I neve thought of that 🤔
There’s probably some commentary on the hubris of evil in there somewhere
Manwe was the King of the Winds, maybe Morgoth couldn't himself take the fight into the air like that without provoking a direct challenge from the Valar?
@@KS-xk2so possibly. However, Middle-Earth held more essence or influence of Morgoth than Aman did. The host of the Valar were on enemy territory. While Tulkas and Eonwe were greater skilled at direct combat than Melkor, Melkor's dragons would have made up for that. Melkor riding Ancalagon into combat against Tulkas or Eonwe would have given him the edge. It seems it was the holy light of the Silmaril of Earendil which provided the supernatural power to destroy Ancalagon. Melkor could have used his own power to destroy Earendil's ship. It would have taken the Silmaril off the chess board
@@maxmercer1931 I'd agree the Silmaril helped Earendil defeat Ancalagon... I do think people tend to over estimate the power of Ancalagon though. Sure he was powerful, and something new they'd never seen before, but he's a servant of Morgoth. No way he's stronger than Morgoth himself, and the other Valar had already proven more than once that together they could kick his ass. If Tulkas, Orome, and Manwe showed up, game over.
I assume the reason they didn't is because all the Valar, even Morgoth, knew if they fought directly at that time, that fight would probably end up fully destroying the world they were fighting over. Hell it barely survived as it was.
I am currently trying to create a DnD campaign for the war of wrath and videos like this help a ton. Never thought to interpret the writing in that way but it makes sense.
Been waiting for this video thanks
Kinda sad Ancalagon's apperance was so short lived but having something like that living in the world would cause some serious problems
I would love to see a series on the 1st age would be amazing to see it made into maybe a 2 part film
What-if video idea for you to do:
What if Gandalf never fell at the Bridge of Khazad-dum and continued with the fellowship to Lothlorien and on forward?
Take our money and start making tv series or movies(trilogy) of the story and events of the first age or second age, there is sooo much to cover, according to books, litteraly a gold mine for movie makers...
well tolkien simply told us "this tiny person killed this giant being" which is comical. so going into this entire universe, we know that absolutely impossible things happen all the time. "explaining" anything in that context is again, silly. but i am happy a few guys on youtube can make a living doing it ;)
I've heard a theory that the dragon is an externalization of the Morgoth Ingredient. In the same way that Sauron put some of his power/spirit into a ring, Morgoth did it with the dragons.
The dragons would then be a simulacra of life. It would be the equivalent of Aulë's dwarves when they did not yet possess the breath of life granted by Ilúvatar. Only in the case of these creatures, they would be living beings corrupted with imprisoned spirits (as Sauron did with werewolves) or pieces of Morgoth's spirit.
This explains why Dragons are so fond of gold. For this metal contains a lot of Morgoth Ingredient.
The interesting thing is that Ancalagon faced a spaceship that used a jewel that contained a light analogous to the light of the Holy Spirit.
HA😱
Are you a reader of Edmund Husserl or any such philosophers?
Literally nothing to do with the light of the Holy Spirit.
The problem with that is that dragons reproduced and were found in Middle-Earth long after Morgoth was sent to the Void.
Ancalagon the black size is 2000 meter and almost said that it is 10 000 meter but I think it size is between those sizes , maybe 8000 meter
Why is HBO wasting time and money on Rings of Power, when we could get a series about Morgoth and the First Age?
I really would have loved if there were more Ancálagon fragments. I find such an impressive dragon. even the mere name conveys mysticism, terror and imagining an incredibly imposing creature. I would have even liked "a drawing of ancalagon by Tolkien himself", to have even more information or a reference to his appearance. In my opinion, I did not like that it only appeared once and that's it. The same thing happens with "Bard" They mention him, he kills Smaug and disappears. At least in the books. in the Hobbit trilogy, it is given a little more prominence and a coherent story was created. I would love for them to do that with Ancalagon last. Because The War of Cholera is amazing and if they took it to the big screen and gave us a well-done audiovisual show, it would be fabulous.
"But I know the neighborhood; talk is cheap when the story is good; and the tales grow taller on down the line..."
- REO Speedwagon, the band, not the JoJo character, on how Ancalagon might have gotten some legendary upgrades in size.
No, I would not have liked to have seen more of Ancalagon who was so great that Earendil had to come down and intervene. The history was that the First Age passed to the Second and then to the Third. The story had to be turned progressively over to elves and men and then to men.
This channel is top tier good
The thing about Ancalagon is that since he’s so massive he would have moved tremendously slow. Think of the colossi from shadow of the colossus but much slower since he’s many times larger than those. Better yet, think of the stone giants from the hobbit. That’s how slow he would move. Unless he’s supercharged with fantasy overdrive where he’s just tremendously fast no matter his size.
The Valar probably joined or led the host that attacked the first dark lord Melkor in Angband in Middle Earth in the ""War of Wrath" at the end of the First Age, (as they did earlier against Melkor at Utumno in the ""Wars of Power") - as they were later denied permission to ever return again to Middle Earth by ERU (Illuvatar) and why they had to resort to dreams, visions, foresight and special Maiar agents or servants who could enter in the Third Age disguised as elderly men in the form of Wizards (or Istari) to do their bidding.....
Everyone always says he is the biggest "winged" dragon. I like to think a non winged dragon could get much larger than a winged one. Always bugged me how the biggest has wings haha.
Thangorodrim is a series of volcanic towers or pillars rising above the fortress of Melkor, not mountains in themselves. More like giant parapets on a castle or smokestacks on a factory.
A video on earendil would be awesome!
I think that he is as big as the pictures describe. He was Morgoths ace in reserve for a good reason, his coming forced an army of superhuman warriors led by angels and very likely some of the Valar gods to retreat( I highly doubt that those such as Orome, Ulmo and certainly not Tulkas would sit this fight out. They would leave Eonwe to command the host while they went on their own to fight the greater beasts that the host would take great losses to defeat. Plus, if anything could tear open the gates of Angband, it would be the mighty bare hands of Tulkas.)
Nonetheless it also displays the true strength of the Silmarils as well, once used by a noble hero, the full power of the 2 trees is unleashed, transforming the ship Vingilot into a comet of pure holy might and power. Unleashing balls of flame upon the titanic dragon while whisking past it at light speed, culminating in the ship itself crashing through its heart like a super heated blade. Killing the mighty dragon.
This. Comment. Right. HERE!
Great video! Keep it up!
cool vid Jake and yeah it would of been awesome if the father of dragons was in more battles
Glauron was the father of dragons
Ancalagon : I'll destroy anyone!!!
Some dude with light jewel in his brow: bet
New subscriber!! I just discovered your channnel. Huge lotr fan cant wait for the show
Just for the heck of it, I kinda wanna see King Ghidorah vs. Ancalagon The Black.
All I know is that if Ancalagon was around during the third age... the forces of good would of been screwed.
Yesterday I was pretty tired and looked at the thumbnail and for a second I thought it was some sort of giant crab monster, took me a while to figure out that it was supposed to be a dragon xD
Anacalgon is a rather obscure character, only mentioned a couple times. We know he broke some mountains, or volcanos when he fell, and that even his breath couldn't destroy the one ring. That's all we have to go on. No dimensions of his size were ever given, and that is why it is annoying that everyone brings up the "well what about Ancalagon" in the high effort thinking "my favorite fictional lizard beats up yours" arguments. For this dragon who's name is scantly mentioned in exposition.
For all we know, Tolkien may have imagined Ancalagon as big, but like a relatively mid tier kaiju flying at a high velocity when he was suddenly slain by a magic weapon, then careened toward the volcanoes to break the tops of them, and had enough speed and thus inertia to keep going until he had broken the tops of all 3 that were in his trajectory, and may even have had some spin to him as he did so.
It might not have been as simple as a dragon that was over a mile long simply flopped on to them for his mass and volume to simply crush the mountains due to sheer weight. Also, being larger would spread the mass out over a greater surface area. Moving at a high velocity would seem necessary almost regardless of how big he was, unless the dragon was practically an orbital body.
The Thangorodrim are described in other stories. Like Hurin and Maglor stories, when both were set on them at different parts.
Their descriptions and dimensions are very clear, and they are gigantic. Ancalagon has to have been big enough to do that damage to such a huge trio of structures.
Perhaps Ancalagon had so much force upon impact he exploded and triggered an eruption to the volcanos blowing them apart like Mount St. Helens.
I wish there was a new entry into the Legends, like a book centered around the stories of the dragons .
I would love to have him in more battles in the 1st age
To be honest with you i never actually knew this kind of dragon ever existed in the movies untill now soo hearing about this dragon makes alot more terrifying then anything because out of all the dragons i have heared som much about this one dragon suprised me alittle because i didnt even know about it so thank you for explaining ehe😅😊
Good stuff!
He probably could've bitten Smaug in half with his vast JAWS!
Yes ,this fantasy is like all of Tolkiens works.Your immlagination will swirl,and fill in the blanks withit it! That's what makes hiis stories come to life!
The fall of Ancalagon is simply absurd.
If Ancalagon the Black's dead corpse was on Middle Earth, where The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stories took place. Everyone would mind it as a normal thing of the land.
oh hey, nice to here from you again buddy :)
tolkiens imagination was second to none. To have imagined it all in a lifetime seems impossible.
I think your videos are awesome. And I enjoy the content because it's a little different from what everybody else does I really wanted to know the topic on this one. I'd really like to know what the dragons are a corrupt form of. Since more guys could not make life what did he corrupt to make a dragon.?
Thank you
Incredibly difficult goal of 3.5k likes.
4k likes as of now 😆
Keep them coming my dude! 👏
Another amazing video, man we talked about it yesterday but IM SO HYPED up for this show, and if we could just see a flashback of Ancalagon that would trully be epic!!!!!! Jake another amazing video, see ya!!!
Thank you!! :D
Best one-paragraph character ever.
Ancalagon is more akin to a kaiju like Godzilla than a typical dragon.
I pictured him crashing into the cone of the volcano-mountain of Thangorodrim and setting off a volcanic eruption
That's the sound of every ecologist pulling their hair out.
The First Age was, as Count Dankula has said was high fantasy on steroids; but I will go further, and say it was Tolkien setting the foundations for his own edda, placing the themes that could be played out time and again in distant order, much like The Lay of Aotrou and Itrounwas almost entirely replicate in The Lord of the Rings by Aragorn and Arwen. Like the eddas that inspired Professor Tolkien, he saw the validity of repetition in myth making as it helps solidify and in strengthening the myth.
Absolutely, Elendil feature.
maybe as ancalagon was bred to be even stronger than its predecesors, he might have been a tiny wyrm with still thousands of years of growth to be had.
Awesome stuff! Keep it up! New subscriber here!
Bro can can literally eat smaug in one bite thats how huge he is 💀
🐉🐉It would be great to see the new TV in the series (in retrospect)🐉🐉
I'm not overly knowledgeable in the lore but what would happen to such a powerful being's spirit? Or would it have one? Could it potentially inhabit/possess another creature or item if it wasn't banished etc? Potentially reform over a much longer period than Sauron for example?
My theory about Ancalagon real size might just the size of King Ghidorah since he needed to be a match for ereindil and his flying ship with the king of the eagles as well as being theoretically and physically fly even tho it's already far fetched I mean thorondor who's king of the eagles was 30 fathoms which is almost the size of a Boeing 747 that kinda give you the scale of the eagle Ancalagon was facing
Bruh his size blocked out the sun and he sunk a whole country
I like how the named dragons were defeated by men.
I reckon he was biggest of all the dragons but when they killed him the valar might have dropped him on one which made a backlash which could have broken the towers which Tolkien wrote about
Ancalagon would make Godzilla look like a green anole.
You should make a timeline of the kings of durin folks
Does anybody believe that first era of middle-earth will ever get adaptation in any form? Like I think it would great with 2d animation.
I thought only Illuvatar could create new creatures from scratch. Melkor could only subvert existing ones. So how did Melkor create dragons?
It’s implied that he twisted and corrupted some of the great eagles into becoming dragons.
Excellent work Mellon! I'm glad there is only one event including Ancalagon. If there were more event he was involved then, I must say ME would be different. Vastly different. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK BRUDDAH!
SIGNED,
Lord Storm Crow the Brun
I think Ancalagon should have been a dragon that would lurk in the shadows that occasionally helped in some of the battles after Glaurung’s death as an infant dragon but when he was fully grown he made his presence clear and while his full size could be nerfed a little compared to the art shown, I still think Ancalagon should bigger than a mountain.
He was...