Dragon size

Smaug (Hobbit book)

Some claim that Smaug is quite small by fantasy standards, a mere 30-50 feet long. They cite a drawing by J. R. R. Tolkien himself, which shows Bilbo next to Smaug, and he appears to be about the size of the dragon's head. However, Tolkien wrote the following in a letter:

"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. But (as my children, at any rate, understand) he is really in a separate picture or 'plane' – being invisible to the dragon."

So the scale is off in the picture. Tolkien wrote in The Hobbit, Chapter XII:

"...[Bilbo] had not gone nearly far enough to be comfortable before the ghastly head of Smaug was thrust against the opening behind. Luckily the whole head and jaws could not squeeze in, but the nostrils sent forth fire and vapor to pursue him, and he was nearly overcome, and stumbled blindly on in great pain and fear."

This gives us a size range for Smaug. He is big enough that only his snout could fit into a door "five feet high and three broad". However, his snout could fit in.

Using the built of the dragon in the drawing, I have estimated that Smaug's head is, at most, one-eleventh of his total length. If his head is about five feet tall in the middle, then it's around 11-13 feet long. That gives us a minimum size of:

11 x 11 = 121 feet

And an approximate upper limit of:

12 x 13 = 156 feet

Length: 121-156 feet

Wingspan: Probably about the same

Smaug (Hobbit films)

Joe Letteri of Weta Digital stated in an interview:

“He’s huge, twice as big as a 747. Peter wanted his physical size to dominate. Then we had to figure out how to build the environment around him, so he had the room to move. It was like the size of Monaco.”

Weta has also made a size chart for Smaug. It and the interview show Smaug as being 426-498 feet long, with the smaller figure likely being more accurate. His wingspan is thus about 393-459 feet, possibly more.

Smaug does change size from scene to scene, with one estimate putting him at 246-328 feet (wingspan). However, this is inexact and non-canon, so we will use the size from his largest scenes.

Length: 426-498 feet

Wingspan: 393-459+ feet

Weight: Unknown, but very high (sank in molten gold, which requires a density greater than that of solid lead)

Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon films)

Toothless is 26 feet long and has a wingspan of 45-48 feet.

Length: 26 feet

Wingspan: 45-48 feet

Red Death (How To Train Your Dragon film)

Most reference books put the Red Death at 400 feet long, weighing 20,000 pounds, with a wingspan of 320 feet. Though one book gives a figure of 999 feet long, this has been debunked.

However, going by in-universe assumptions, how would the Vikings know exactly how big the Red Death was? One estimate puts the dragon at 160 feet long and 50 feet tall. I estimated a length of 495 feet.

Length: 160-495 feet

Wingspan: A little smaller

Drogon (Game of Thrones)

Director Matt Shakman said in an interview that Drogon is the size of a 747 in season 7. A 747 is 184-250 feet long.

However, we'll need something more exact than that. From a scene when Jon Snow stands next to Drogon, I calculated a length of 128 feet.

Length: 128+ feet

Wingspan: About the same

Balerion (Game of Thrones)

Balerion has been estimated at nearly twice Drogon's size. That gives us at least 200 feet.

Length: 200+ feet

Wingspan: About the same

Darkstalker (Wings of Fire)

In Talons of Power (p.7) he is described as being at least three times the size of the next largest dragons Turtle had every seen. If the average dragon is about 40-50 feet long, then the largest dragon Turtle has seen is probably about 70 feet, and so Darkstalker is at least 210 feet long.

Length: 210+ feet

Wingspan: Around 180+ feet

Yurgen (The Wingfeather Saga)

Yurgen's teeth are longer than Leeli is tall. I estimated a size of 840 feet from that.

Length: Approximately 840 feet

Celebrant (Fablehaven, Dragonwatch)

On the cover of Dragonwatch, Celebrant is seen breathing flames at Marat. If Marat is 6 feet tall, then Celebrant's head is 8 feet, from which we get a total length of 72 feet. However, several passages from the book hint at a size greater than this.

Length: 72+ feet

Wingspan: About the same