2

The Hobbit movie ends with Smaug being awoken by a bird who was knocking on a wall with snail, right?

So, was Smaug awake when Bilbo entered Erebor Halls to find the Arkenstone in the 2nd movie?

As in the extended-version scene: Gandalf tells Thrain that he would be very proud of Thorin, and his quest, but Thrain becomes upset and tells Gandalf that no one should enter the mountain.

"He is waiting for them! They are in league – the dragon and the one!" - Thrain

I understand that scene as he is waiting for them in Erebor and faking that he sleeps. Also, he didn't seem that sleepy and confused about Bilbo's presence when he opened his eyes in 2nd movie.

2
  • I note that you've un-accepted my answer, despite it directly answering your question with a quote from the film's director. Was there something else you were wanting to see?
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 31, 2018 at 10:39
  • At first your answer seemed +- good enough although i didnt get the answer i wanted. That 'cat-napping' doesnt explain it all to me. And when other people added their answers it all mixed up to me and so did i un-accept. I think that i need answer in your own words as simple as possible. Also i think that Thrains quote isnt counted into account. For example: how could they be in legue when Smaug hasnt been awake? I imagined that once Smaug was awoken he would go out and burn something down. Or did he just 'chilled' there untill the Dwarves came?
    – wttf
    Commented Jan 1, 2019 at 3:05

2 Answers 2

7

It's pretty unambiguous in the book that Smaug was asleep (my emphasis):

It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. ... after a short halt go on he did; and you can picture him coming to the end of the tunnel, an opening of much the same size and shape as the door above. Through it peeps the hobbit's little head. Before him lies the great bottommost cellar or dungeon-hall of the ancient dwarves right at the Mountain's root. It is almost dark so that its vastness can only be dimly guessed, but rising from the near side of the rocky floor there is a great glow. The glow of Smaug!

There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.

Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed. ... Bilbo had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before, but the splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure had never yet come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of dwarves; and he gazed motionless, almost forgetting the frightful guardian, at the gold beyond price and count.

He gazed for what seemed an age, before drawn almost against his will, he stole from the shadow of the doorway, across the floor to the nearest edge of the mounds of treasure. Above him the sleeping dragon lay, a dire menace even in his sleep. He grasped a great two-handled cup, as heavy as he could carry, and cast one fearful eye upwards. Smaug stirred a wing, opened a claw, the rumble of his snoring changed its note.

4

According to the film's director, Peter Jackson, Smaug wasn't sleeping sleeping, he was just cat-napping. Bilbo moving the cup (and causing the dragon's head to become slightly uncovered) was sufficient trigger to return him to full consciousness within a few seconds.

Jackson: Revealing Smaug was a moment we...

Boyens: We used the gold cup. Which I loved. The homage to the book.

Jackson: The gold cup has a bit more story in the book, but OK. And I love the idea that too, that it's an homage to the end of the first film. That we're replaying the end of that first movie. Now the dragon, he's just like a big cat. He nuzzles into warm cosy things. Gold must have quite a good heat transference. And I mean it's like he's warm in gold. ... It's like the dragon is so comfortable in gold. He just adores it. It's like on of those TV commercials for a feather mattress one of those scientifically designed mattresses, well, he's got his. It's all these coins and he's just very, very happy there.

Desolation of Smaug: Official DVD Commentary

5
  • 1
    The quote doesn't really say much about his state of sleep, more about how he feels towards gold? Cats can be fully asleep too.
    – Longshanks
    Commented Dec 29, 2018 at 12:58
  • 1
    @Longshanks - It talks about him being really happy and snuggly but the clear implication is that he's not slumbering deeply
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 29, 2018 at 13:02
  • How do u explain: *Thrain: "He is waiting for them! They are in league – the dragon and the one! " *
    – wttf
    Commented Dec 30, 2018 at 22:21
  • @wttf - Why do I need to explain it? We know that Sauron has sent out a range of emissaries to various 'players' including Smaug and we know that Smaug wakes periodically to go out and hunt and eat.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 30, 2018 at 23:12
  • @Valorum oh. he does wakes periodically to go out and hunt... I imagined him more like a bear which snugged in for long winter nap. But in the movies it didnt seem that the lakesman ever saw the dragon, moove out of the Erebor. How did he get out when the front enterance was blocked and there was no way in or out? Everything looked like it was when Smaug first came..
    – wttf
    Commented Jan 1, 2019 at 3:11

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.