How Rich is Smaug?

[GrayMouser]

8.6 billion US dollars

According to calculations by Forbe's magazine, publisher of lists of the world's wealthiest people in various categories, Smaug is number 7 on their "Fictional 15" richest list.

http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelnoer/2011/04/06/how-much-is-smaug-tolkei-dragon-worth/

Favorite line:

At one point, Bilbo Baggins, the book’s hero, addresses him as “O Smaug, the unassessably wealthy” and his gold is described as being “beyond price and count.” But how much, exactly, is that dragon worth? (Forget the “unassessably wealthy” nonsense; I once valued Donald Trump for the Forbes 400, so I’m used to billionaires that blow a lot of smoke.)


See how he compares to Tony Stark, Scrooge McDuck and others:


http://www.forbes.com/lists/fictional15/2011/forbes-fictional-15.html

[Valandil]

He neglects to account for the real estate... Solitary mountain commanding 360 degree views of landscape all around... LOT$ of acreage!!! Improvements made by previous tenants including numerous subterranean chambers of all sorts and sizes, a sort of mysterious tunnel heading up to the west from the lowest chamber and a spring of water flowing out of the main gate and down on the south side of the mountain. Woods have been mostly cleared for ease of further development.

Gotta be worth SOMETHING!!!

[GrayMouser]

Good point! Not to mention convenient access to Laketown.

Though the neighborhood might not be the best- "The Desolation of Smaug" lacks a certain cachet. Might best be described as a "fixer-upper."

[Rían]

Cute! Go Smaug!!

[Valandil]

Oooooo... did he also fail to calculate in the value of the mithril shirt??? :eek:

[GrayMouser]

double post

[GrayMouser]

Then they'd have to calculate the value of the whole Shire and everything in it- there's probably enough information to get a reasonable estimate.

Find a comparable agriculturally fruitful but industrially undeveloped area of 18,ooo square miles....

[Logkhya]

I want to know the exact answer

[hectorberlioz]

The Forbes guy recently went back and re-assessed Smaug's wealth, calculating the mithril shirt, Arkenstone, and at least several other chambers of comparable wealth.

[Lotesse]

Smaug is hella rich. Smaug is like the one percent's one percent. He makes Bill Gates look like a slumdog hundredaire.

[Logkhya]

Smaug is hella rich. Smaug is like the one percent's one percent. He makes Bill Gates look like a slumdog hundredaire.

That sounds funny:D

[Lotesse]

Smaug's wealth would shame the Apple enterprise, or the nouveau-riche Chinese, but was he happy? Did alll those treasures make Smaug's heart burst with love and joy and lightness? If not, then aLl the wealth in his world was worth less than the toilet paper he (god I hope) wiped his dirty post-poo bum with.

He had no freinds, no remaining kin/family, and every living thing freaked out when they saw him. No wealth could ever assuage such inside wounds.

Team Smaug.