# “The splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure” by J.R.R. Tolkien

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/03/02/the-splendour-the-lust-the-glory-of-such-treasure-by-jrr-tolkien/
- Published: 2009-03-02T19:54:31-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“The glow of Smaug! There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a 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 an 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. Behind him where
the walls were nearest could dimly be seen coats of mail, helms and and axes, swords
and spears hanging; and there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a
wealth that could not be guessed.

To say that Bilbo’s breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no
words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language that they 
learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful. 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.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit; Or There and Back Again _(Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1966), 227-8.

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