The size of Glaurung

I just wanted to share some of my thoughts considering Glaurung, probably known to anyone who has read The Silmarillion and/or The Children of Húrin as the father of dragons. His size is never clearly specified by Tolkien and different people seem to have widely different opinions on this. That being said I do not claim to have a correct answer to this, I just want to say what I think and why.

This chart is quite a common sight for size comparisons of the dragons of Tolkien. The smallest dragon in the chart is Smaug and the exact size of him is never clear either. Karen Wynn Fonstad (author of The Atlas of Middle-earth) suggests a length of about 60 feet, which would mean that Glaurung is longer than 300 feet according to this chart. I have on the other hand always considered Glaurung to be smaller than Smaug.

The title father of dragons could be reason to believe that Glaurung is larger than most other dragons but it does not really tell us anything. He was the first dragon, which might as well mean that he is smaller than most other dragons as Morgoth could have created larger and larger dragons over time. These are obviously loose speculations that completely lack support in the writings of Tolkien. I do believe that Glaurung's title is the main reason for the perception of him as enormous.

I have noticed two things in The Silmarillion that could tell us something about Glaurung's size, and there could be more that I have not yet taken into consideration. The first one is Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battle where Azaghâl manage to wound Glaurung. We are told that Azaghâl drives a knife into Glaurung's belly so that he has to retreat. We are also told that the armour of Glaurung is not yet fully developed, which could also mean that he is not yet fully grown, but he is indeed badly wounded by a knife. A stab with a knife can of course be lethal but I am not sure that a knife would deal considerable damage to a dragon the size of a football field. The second thing is the fall of Nargothrond where "Glaurung came in full fire against the Doors of Felagund, and overthrew them, and passed within". Assuming that Glaurung did not also destroy the cliff wall, he must have been small enough to go through the gate.

This illustration of Glaurung and Nienor by John Howe is how I have always imagined Glaurung. I do not know when I first saw this illustration and it is possible that it created my perception of him in the first place. I know that the first illustration I ever saw of Smaug was also made by John Howe and how I imagine Smaug has always been how he looks in that particular illustration. Perhaps my opinions on Glaurung would have been different if my encounters with illustrations would have been different. In the end, this is one of the things that make literature such a great medium, every person can have a unique image in their head of a specific creature or character without a single one of them being wrong.