Specific plot elements and features in The Hobbit that show similarities to Beowulf include the title thief as Bilbo is called by Gollum and later also by Smaug, the underground path into the mountain, and Smaug's personality which leads to the destruction of Lake-town.

Similarities to the works of other writers who faced the Great War are seen in The Hobbit, including portraying warfare as anti-pastoral: in " The Desolation of Smaug ", both the area under the influence of Smaug before his demise and the setting for The Battle of the Five Armies later are described as barren, damaged landscapes.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are scheduled for release late in 2012, late 2013, and summer of 2014, respectively.

In, Gandalf arranged ( and frequently accompanied ) a band of thirteen dwarves and the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to reclaim from the dragon Smaug the Dwarves ' lost treasure in Erebor.

Smaug is a fictional character in the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and the main antagonist within the story.

These events occurred some 150 years before the events of The Hobbit, and Smaug was already centuries old at the time.

While neither of these appeared in the original printing of The Hobbit due to cost constraints both have been included in subsequent editions and Conversation with Smaug has been used extensively.

Death of Smaug was used for the cover of an early UK paperback edition of The Hobbit.

In the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, Smaug was voiced by Richard Boone.

Smaug will appear in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, and on 16 June 2011, it was announced that he will be voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Hobbit relates how Bilbo Baggins, in comfortable middle age at 50 years old, is hired in spite of himself as a " burglar " by the wizard Gandalf and 13 dwarves led by their king Thorin Oakenshield on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ( 2013 )

* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ( 2013 )

* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ( 2013, screenplay, producer )

Another reason was that Smaug would not recognize the scent of a Hobbit, advantageous to a stealthy operation and likely to distract the dragon's attention.

* The Hobbit ( voice of Smaug the Dragon ) ( 1977 )

He voiced Smaug in the 2003 video game adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

He will portray Smaug the Dragon through voice and motion capture and will also provide the motion capture for the Necromancer in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

He will play Smaug the Dragon through motion capture and voice the Necromancer in The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

* He illustrated the scene of a dragon, a wizard and an armored archer on the first Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, " A simple composition, it shows a wand-waving magic user and a knight, his longbow drawn, squaring off against a dragon who sits – à la Smaug from The Hobbit – atop a vast pile of gold coins and jewels.

Boone was also the voice actor for the mighty dragon Smaug in the 1977 animated film of J. R. R.

He stands midway between Smaug, evil and greedy, and The Reluctant Dragon, comical and timid.

These talking creatures include ravens, spiders and the dragon Smaug, alongside the anthropomorphic goblins and elves.

Smaug is the main antagonist.

In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf, and Tolkien uses the episode to put into practice some of the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Anglo-Saxon poem and its early medieval portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence.

Smaug the dragon with his golden hoard may be seen as an example of the traditional relationship between evil and metallurgy as collated in the depiction of Pandæmonium with its " Belched fire and rolling smoke " in Milton's Paradise Lost.

If Rivendell were to be attacked, the dragon Smaug could cause great devastation.

One of the last great dragons of Middle-earth, Smaug rose to prominence by laying waste to the town of Dale and capturing the Lonely Mountain ( Erebor ) with all of its treasure.

In the book, he is sometimes called Smaug the Golden or Smaug the Magnificent.

When Smaug attacked the town, Bard shot his Black Arrow into Smaug's left breast, the armour's weak spot, killing him.

This created a conflict with Bard and the Elven king Thranduil of Mirkwood, who each wanted a portion of the gold as reimbursement for all the damage Smaug had caused their kingdoms over the years.

Smaug was intimately familiar with every last item within his hoard, and instantly noticed the theft of a relatively inconsequential cup by Bilbo Baggins.

Tolkien created numerous pencil sketches and two pieces of more detailed artwork portraying Smaug.

The latter were a detailed ink and watercolour labelled Conversation with Smaug and a rough coloured pencil and ink sketch entitled Death of Smaug.

Radagast appears in The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales, and is mentioned in The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.

However, more than just supplying names, the " Catalogue of the Dwarves " appears to have inspired Tolkien to supply meaning and context to the list of names — that they travelled together, and this in turn became the quest told of in The Hobbit.

The title is derived from the subtitle of The Hobbit, by Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien ; the title also appears in the film Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King.

Tolkien's painting of an eagle on a crag appears in some editions of The Hobbit.

His story is told primarily in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, and he appears briefly in The Hobbit.

Tolkien used Boffin as a surname for the Boffin family in The Hobbit ( 1937 ), and a Sergeant Boffin in appears in Mr. Bliss ( written circa 1932 ).

However, because of his commitments to filming The Hobbit Armitage only appears as a guest star in the second series.