Discussion Main / DragonHoard

Pulled this addition to the J. R. R. Tolkien entry in Literature. If this really was a general thing in Tolkien's works, it would belong into the head entry for J. R. R. Tolkien, not among the individual examples. But I doubt it is something that Tolkien established as 'fact' to begin with. When Tolkien writes in The Hobbit that the Master of Laketown 'caught the dragon-sickness', he simply means that he succumbed to greed. This does not require an actual curse, only that the temptation was too big for a character who was predisposed to avarice to begin with (same with Thorin). There's no proof that something supernatural is going on. If by any means this references the Hobbit movies, it should be added in the Film folder.

• Dragon Hoards are usually more trouble than they are worth. This is because the dragons' greed infects their treasure with a curse known as "dragon-sickness" that amplifies the greed of others to self-destructive extremes.

If you wanted to justify this trope, you could have it so that the dragon is hoarding the treasure as a lure. No need to capture prey if you can just sit on a pile of money and watch the silly humans come to you.