Smaug, the dragon of Middle Earth

There has been a lot of confusion among my friends about the nature of dragons in the Middle Earth. Smaug especially has caused many arguments between people. However, in "The Hobbit" Smaug is very clearly described and so is his obsession with gold and jewels. Smaug's love of treasure can be compared to Gollum's love of the Ring - they both end up living alone, in a cave, away from others, and have gone insane because of it.

   "There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned party on one side so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long, pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his lost laying on his costly bed." - J.R.R. Tolkien