Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
As such this is not a separate theme but another aspect of Smaug’s music in BotFA but it speaks to the evils of greed and the blindness that it causes in Thorin Oakenshield’s and how succumbing to the dragon-sickness leads to much suffering and sorrow not only to Thorin and his kin but also to the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
Thorin’s delusions of kingship and obsessive love for the treasure threatens to destroy everything he holds dear but finally in the darkest hour he is able to shake off the effects of the dragon-sickness and redeem himself for all the suffering his obstinate and haughty actions have caused. This aspect is addressed musically with a haunting, fatefully chilling call for orchestra, soprano soloist and chorus derived from Smaug’s themes that presages and underscores the key scenes where Thorin finally breaks the insidious spell of Smaug’s treasure and is freed of his blindness and leads his people against the common foe, even in the end nobly sacrificing his own life for greater good, achieving the kingly status and honour that his greed had deprived him of before.
This music carries in its ghostly siren call a feel of the other world, foreshadowing Thorin’s ultimate fate and perhaps the price he has to pay for his blind pride and greed.
As such this is not a separate theme but another aspect of Smaug’s music in BotFA but it speaks to the evils of greed and the blindness that it causes in Thorin Oakenshield’s and how succumbing to the dragon-sickness leads to much suffering and sorrow not only to Thorin and his kin but also to the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
Thorin’s delusions of kingship and obsessive love for the treasure threatens to destroy everything he holds dear but finally in the darkest hour he is able to shake off the effects of the dragon-sickness and redeem himself for all the suffering his obstinate and haughty actions have caused. This aspect is addressed musically with a haunting, fatefully chilling call for orchestra, soprano soloist and chorus derived from Smaug’s themes that presages and underscores the key scenes where Thorin finally breaks the insidious spell of Smaug’s treasure and is freed of his blindness and leads his people against the common foe, even in the end nobly sacrificing his own life for greater good, achieving the kingly status and honour that his greed had deprived him of before.
This music carries in its ghostly siren call a feel of the other world, foreshadowing Thorin’s ultimate fate and perhaps the price he has to pay for his blind pride and greed.
