Dragons have become a staple in the fantasy genre, and while each franchise tackles them differently, they usually share similar traits — intelligence, fire breath and a towering height. And easily one of the most iconic of them is Smaug from The Hobbit, with numerous franchises taking inspiration from Tolkien’s 1930s creation. Because of this, it’s interesting to compare Smaug to fiction’s most notorious dragons, including Drogon and Balerion from Game of Thrones.

While the dragons from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon cannot talk, they share many similar properties to Smaug. Some even surpass him in height and destructive power. Those seen in Game of Thrones have more varying sizes, but when fully grown with a strong bloodline, they can far outmatch the Middle-earth dragon, who single-handedly stole a Dwarven kingdom and destroyed Lake-town.

Smaug Was One of Middle-earth’s Largest Creatures

Smaug’s size was so overwhelming that entire kingdoms and towns could not destroy the beast alone, at least not without the rare black arrows used by Bard. However, Tolkien never provided an exact size for the dragon and only ever alluded to rough estimates. The fact Smaug took over an entire kingdom and was able to protect a treasure hoard all by himself suggests a towering height, and it’s also said that much of Lake-town got destroyed when the defeated dragon fell, again hinting at his enormity.

In Tolkien’s original illustration of Smaug, his long serpentine-like body stretches far over a huge mound of gold. Bilbo is also in the image and appears almost the same height as Smaug, although Tolkien later explained that “The Hobbit in the picture of the gold-hoard… is of course (apart from being fat in the wrong places) enormously too large.” So, ignoring the awkward Hobbit-scaling, most use the image to predict a height of around 140 meters, which was used for his depiction in The Hobbit movie trilogy.

How Game of Thrones’ Dragons Compare to Smaug

Daenerys’ three dragons are all equally important to the story, but Drogon has always been the stand-out. Used as Daenerys’ personal mount, this dragon continued to grow with every new book and season, ending up as the largest of them all by the finale. In the fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, Drogon is said to have a wingspan of 20 feet. And in Season 8 of the show, he stands roughly 50 meters high, which is tall but only a third of the size of Smaug.

However, there’s yet another Game of Thrones dragon who completely overshadows Smaug — Balerion. This beast, often referred to as the Black Dread, was ridden by Aegon the Conqueror even before House of the Dragon and can be seen as a huge skull hung in King’s Landing. While an exact size has never been given, it’s said that the shadow caused by his wingspan would engulf entire towns as he took flight. So, while that leaves a vague estimate for fans, it’s likely Balerion is even larger than Smaug, who only covered around a quarter of Lake-town.

Smaug is still a huge and devastating beast, especially compared to little Bilbo Baggins, but Balerion’s height comes out victorious. However, Smaug was far from the largest Dragon in Middle-earth, as some are said to be as big as a mountain. But when it comes to the more notable dragons, few overshadow the Black Dread.