Scatha

"The Slaying of Scatha" by Wouter Florusse
Dragon
Scatha
Biographical Information
Titles	The Worm
Location	Grey Mountains
Affiliation	Long-worms
Hoard	Dwarf-hands, Human skulls, and "sharp bright stones"
Death	20th or 21st century of the Third Age
Slain By	Fram
Physical Description
Type	Cold
Winged	No
Colour	Grey with a white belly
Gallery	Images of Scatha

”

He crawled
like a slow creeping death, too
horrible to flee from, froze Men with
fear and his icy breath, and then
crushed them, ground them, under
his long white belly.

J.R.R. Tolkien; Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond (eds.), The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, "177. Scatha the Worm (c. 1954)"

Scatha, known as the Worm, was a blind and silent Long-worm of the Grey Mountains and one of the greatest Dragons to infest that range of the north.

History

Little is known of Scatha's life, except that he had a vast den in the Grey Mountains that "stank like a dark tomb" and contained a hoard of treasure which included "sharp bright stones" and a horn made by the Dwarves. He also collected bones as "toys", particularly "hands of dwarves and skulls of men" which he "piled in his den" as a "bed" and licked them clean.

After Scatha was slain by Fram son of Frumgar in the early days of the Éothéod, peace came to the land, though his recovered hoard was the subject of great dispute between the Men of Éothéod and the Dwarves of that region, The Dwarves claimed it as their own, but Fram rebuked their claim, refusing to even "yield them a penny" and instead sent them a necklace made from "the teeth of Scatha" along with an insulting message. It was rumoured that the Dwarves killed him for this insult.

It is likely that the Men of Éothéod had retained at least some of the hoard since the horn taken by Fram from the hoard was brought south by Eorl when they settled in Rohan. Many hundreds of years later, the Horn of the Mark was given to Meriadoc Brandybuck by Éowyn in the final months of the War of the Ring.

Etymology

Scatha, which represents a name in the language of the Éothéod, is a modernization of Old English sceaða, meaning "injurer, enemy, robber".

The name scatha may be related to Modern English "to scathe". According to Mark Fisher on the Encyclopedia of Arda, the name scatha may be derived "from Old Norse skaða, meaning 'harm' or 'injure'".

Other versions of the legendarium

In an early draft of the chapter "Many Partings", Éowyn claimed that the Horn of the Mark was made "in the deeps of time…by the dwarves of Dale" for the forefathers of the Rohirrim. Tolkien subsequently struck out "of Dale" and wrote "on the galley proof" that the horn "came from the hoard of Scatha the Worm".

Speculation

Robert Foster speculated in The Complete Guide to Middle-earth that Scatha's hoard was "a large Dwarf-hoard" and he was slain around T.A. 2000, but there is no writing by Tolkien which backs this up. Mark Fisher stated in a note on the Encyclopedia of Arda that

There is no annal or record of Scatha's death, so identifying the correct date is problematic. The only known date that's remotely related is that of Frumgar's foundation of the Éothéod in III 1977. Frumgar was the father of Fram, who slew Scatha, but these bare facts leave considerable leeway for speculation.
The earliest possible date for Scatha's death, then, would be III 1977, the year of the Éothéod's founding (though we might expect the event to be specially remarked if this were the case). At the other end of the scale, we might assume that Frumgar was a young man when he led his people northwards, that Fram was born late in his father's life, and that he didn't slay Scatha until advanced in years himself. Under those conditions, the date might extend as far as - at a real stretch - III 2100. As a compromise, we've assumed a date here of roughly III 2000, a few decades after the establishment of the Éothéod.

Portrayal in adaptations

Scatha in The Lord of the Rings Online

1995-8: Middle-earth Collectible Card Game:

Scatha appears in Middle-earth: The Dragons. His lair was identified as Gondmaeglom, a glittering cavern in the Grey Mountains that was once held by Dwarves. Unbeknownst to both Scatha and the Dwarves, the cavern actually led into the Grey Road of the Under-deeps.

2020: The Lord of the Rings Online:

Scatha appears as a fire-drake in a flashback narrating the history of Fram and the Éothéod. He attacked Framsburg and mauled Frumgar's sword-arm, after which Fram swore revenge and hunted Scatha for two years before ultimately killing him with the aid of one of Sauron's servants. In the present day, the player locates the remainder of Scatha's hoard, which Fram was unable to bring with him.