Glaurung is the dragon slain by Túrin in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin.
Glaurung is described as the first of the great dragons bred by Morgoth in the First Age of Middle-earth. He is a wingless fire-drake and uses both physical power and enchantment. His speech and hypnotic gaze allow him to manipulate and deceive his enemies, making him a particularly important villain in the story of Túrin Turambar.
Túrin confronts Glaurung at Cabed-en-Aras after the dragon attacks the people of Brethil. He kills the dragon by stabbing it from below, but Glaurung’s influence continues to shape the tragedy that follows. The episode is one of the central events in Tolkien’s First Age mythology.
Glaurung is not Smaug, the dragon of The Hobbit, nor Ancalagon, the enormous winged dragon associated with the War of Wrath. These dragons belong to different stories and periods, so identifying the correct one requires attention to Túrin’s narrative.