“He’s readying his breath! Get to the sides. No Bilbo God…damnit!! If you get behind him he’ll tail-swipe you!!..hhhhhhh…we lost Bilbo.”
“Billllllbooooooo Jenkinnnns!!!”
How long do dragons live in the Tolkien world? They are not immortal, but I’ve never heard of one dying of old age.
Even if it was one Nazgul against Smaug, being an immortal undead would surely give the Nazgul the advantage. It might take a thousand pokes of his sword over the course of a thousand years, but I’d have to go with the Nazgul
But on the other hand, that allows Smaug to spawn-camp the Nazgul, right?
Not if the spawn point is secure. It’s probably inside the Tower. If necessary, they could keep one Nazgul off-tank on standby near the Mountain to go in and mess with the hoard to taunt him away briefly.
Thorin thinks they are immortal: “Dragons… guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically for ever, unless they are killed) and never enjoy a brass ring of it”.
The Hobbit, chapter 1.
I’m going to go with Smaug, here. The great power of the Nazgul is fear, but against anyone or anything that can stand up to that fear, they’re nearly powerless. Even someone like Farmer Maggot can best a Nazgul-- He can’t destroy it, of course, but he can render it moot. Smaug, though, can give you damn good reason to fear, and dragonfire will roast you crispy even if you don’t fear it.
Plus, although Gandalf says that there’s no dragon left with fire hot enough to melt a Ring of Power, he notably said that after Smaug was already dead. It’s quite likely that Smaug could have melted the Nine.
If there’s one thing I learned from the Hobbit movies, it’s that all ancient formidable stone architecture is actually made from Styrofoam.
The idea of the Nazgul and Smaug fighting in Mordor is hilarious.
Sauron: 'What the HELL is going on out there???!!"
I’m going to put my money on Smaug. He doesn’t have to wait for orders or travel in secret. He is ancient and steeped in cunning, and would be a lot more cautious facing down Nazgul than he is flying over a highly flammable town peopled with puny humans while pissed off. Over-confidence helped bring him down, not something he would be likely to be guilty of when facing the 9.
Also, are we talking of the 9 at their fullest power, or the 9 and Smaug at the time of the Hobbit? Nazgul seem to get stronger when close to Sauron, especially once he openly declares himself and starts setting up Barad-Dur again. They might be pretty negligible in the Dol Guldur days.
Well, the same is true for the movie Nazgul. . . they didn’t do anything in the movies. And Strider basically kicks their ass, not like in the book where they barely escape.
So maybe they wouldn’t fight at all. Maybe it would be a Nazgul / Smaug lovefest!
I’m picturing a lawnchair and popcorn on top of Barad-dûr.
I don’t think the Nine were wearing their rings by this point. Sauron had them.
Have you ever had Nazgul shits? It makes Mexican heartburn feel like a week of Metamusal. I wouldn’t call that winning.
Yeah, that point is endlessly debated. I think the overall voting is toward Sauron having them, but not at this point in time as Sauron had no physical form yet.
wiki *“It is not clear whether the Nazgûl continued to wear their rings. Tolkien says both “the Nine the Nazgûl keep”[6] and that Sauron had gathered the Nine to himself,[2] though in the latter case his meaning may be metaphorical. When the Nazgûl are destroyed, no mention is made of their rings.”
*
also
*It is unclear where the Nine were physically kept. At the Council of Elrond the history of the Rings of Power is discussed, and it is stated that Sauron has “gathered the Nine to himself,” although it is also said that “the Nine the Nazgûl keep.” This could mean either that the Nazgûl wear their rings while in the service of Sauron, or it could mean that after they fell and became enslaved to his will Sauron took their rings and kept them in Barad-dûr as he did with the remaining Dwarf rings and set the Nazgûl to guard them. There is no mention of any of the Nine when the Nazgûl are seen, and most notably when the Witch-King was slain Tolkien does not describe him wearing a ring, nor did either Gandalf or Aragorn express concern about what happened to the ring afterwards. This implies that at the very least the Nazgûl don’t wear their rings constantly, although they may sometimes put them on still… *
That gave me a good laugh, thanks.
The OP asked who is the greater threat? I assume that means “to the good guys” rather than “to each other.” The answer might not be the same for each question.
I personally laughed when I started imagining Sauron leaning out the window and yelling, “Hey you kids! Get offa my lawn!”
Wow, someone does read my fanfiction!
There’s also the point that several of the Dwarven Rings were destroyed when their wearers were eaten by dragons… I think that kinda voids the warranty, if the Nazgul are still wearing their rings.