When it comes to dragons, size is completely subjective to the whims of their origin; whether that be cultural folklore, standard mythology, or the imaginations of the writers and illustrators who bring them to life.
There are plenty of famous dragons out there, and what has sparked my curiosity more than once, is how big they are in comparison to, well, to other famous dragons for starters, but also how big they are when placed next to a standardized adult human.
So, because I’ve always been curious, and I’m sure others have too, I’ve gone ahead and created a few size charts of some well-known dragons (as well as a couple of my own).
Choosing a standard height of 6′ 3″ for an adult man (which is the average height of the human-like hemlans in my fantasy series), here are the charts of eleven dragons, and how I came about estimating their sizes.
*Take note of the word estimate, because that’s exactly what this is. I know I’m not spot on, but at least these pictures will give you a rough idea of the different sizes of these well-known and well-loved dragons.
- UPDATE: For more dragon size comparisons, check out my Dragon Size Chart 2, and Dragon Size Chart 3! And for the latest edition, my Dragon Size Chart 4!
Dragon Number One: Fa’Luffy (Reviewer of Fa’Luffy Review)
FA’LUFFY
Okay, this one isn’t really meant to be serious. But I couldn’t help myself. My fat, cushion-loving mascot is, when all is said and done, a dragon. And estimating his size was easy because he’s currently sitting in my lounge room.
Dragon Number Two: Mushu (Disney film, Mulan)
MUSHU
Mushu was relatively easy, seeing as he is seen throughout the movie, in close proximity to Mulan. But I made sure to take into account Mulan’s smaller stature and created Mushu’s size chart silhouette accordingly. I used this as a reference picture:
Dragon Number Three: Spyro (The Legend of Spyro Trilogy)
SPYRO
Spyro was a little more tricky to figure out. There are several Spyro games, and the stories take place over an extended period of time. I haven’t played all the games and so do not know the exact timeline progression, or how old Spyro is at the start of each of his adventures, but luckily his age is not an important factor. I decided to choose Spyro from The Legend of Spyro games (the games I’ve actually played), the most recent Spyro story-line (excluding Skylanders) and worked out his height using this picture (placing Hunter at the approximate height of 6’2″):
Dragon Number Four: Laeka’Draeon (Dragon Calling series)
LAEKA’DRAEON
Laeka’Draeon was pretty easy, seeing as he is my beloved protagonist. I just had to make sure his height was accurate in comparison to the standard height of the adult unicorns in my story because his and Ubi’s (his unicorn companion) shoulder height are close. And in his silhouette, his is crouching slightly, so I had to take that into account.
Dragon Number Five: Haku (Spirited Away)
HAKU
Haku was a bit of a challenge, but nothing I couldn’t overcome with a little research. Again, what makes it helpful is his close contact with the people in the movie (namely the young protagonist, Chihiro). But Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl, which obviously makes her smaller in stature than my standardized human silhouette. So, I researched the average height for a 10-year-old girl, and measured her height beside Haku in accordance with the reference picture (see below). From there, it was simply a matter of replacing Chihiro’s height measurement with the taller height of my human silhouette. Ta-da!
Dragon Number Six: Flemmeth (Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2)
FLEMMETH
Okay, so for those who’ve played the Dragon Age games, you know that Flemmeth isn’t actually a dragon. She is the famous Witch of the Wilds who has the power to shape-shift into a dragon. But what a dragon it is! A large, sleek creature with incredible power and a flame hot enough to melt Dark Spawn armour! I used this image (plus a couple of others at different angles) to help establish her size in dragon form:
Dragon Number Seven: Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon, movies)
TOOTHLESS
There was no way I was not going to add Toothless to the list! One of my all-time favourite dragons, he is both feisty and adorable. Toothless was easy to estimate in size. There are plenty of reference pictures out there, with Toothless standing next to Hiccup, so all I did was work out the average of Hiccup’s size (according to his age in the first movie), and then re-size my human silhouette accordingly. Here is one of the reference pictures I used:
Dragon Number Eight: Alduin (The World Eater, from Skyrim)
ALDUIN
Fierce and terrible, Alduin was a must-have for my chart. I’ve played the Skyrim game and fought Alduin, and yet despite my direct encounters and experience, I was surprised when I worked out Alduin’s size. He’s actually smaller than I thought he would be. A good thing for Skyrim’s residents, I suppose, seeing as he is terrifying and destructive enough as it is. This is the reference picture I used:
Dragon Number Nine: Draco (From the movie, Dragon Heart)
DRACO
Draco is an awesome dragon, and a wonderful character, too. It broke my heart when he sacrificed his life, but I guess that only added to his enduring spirit, even after all these years. As I was googling images from the movie, I came across one that was perfect as a reference to work out his height. He’s a good size for a European dragon. Reference picture:
Dragon Number Ten: Faclor (From the movie, The Neverending Story)
FALCOR
A childhood favourite of mine, there was no question about his addition to the size chart. Falcor’s unusual shape, and a limited amount of reference pictures, it took a while to figure out his exact size (well as close as I could manage). I estimated Atreyu’s height (in accordance with his age), and with the help of the reference picture (below), was able to work out roughly how big our beloved Luck Dragon is.
Dragon Number Eleven: Smaug (From the movie, The Desolation of Smaug)
SMAUG
Smaug was probably one of the most difficult, simply because the more I researched, the more I came to realise just how enormous he is! He could eat all the other dragons on my chart for lunch, and will likely still be hungry afterwards. I looked at numerous screenshots from the movie, as well as the below picture as a reference. According to those who worked on Smaug’s design for The Hobbit movies, Smaug is twice the size of a 747. YIKES!
So there you have it. The individual size charts of eleven awesome dragons. But let’s not forget my original intent! Just how big are these dragons, in comparison to one another? Well, the chart below will show you!
I hope you enjoyed my little project! I found it fascinating, and altogether quite fulfilling. But there are so many more dragons out there! Who are some of your favourites? Which dragons would you have liked to be on the chart?
Whims from Valadae 
Always enjoy your stories and posts and insights. Thank you for the adventures.
Very insightful and helpful. Thanks for the post.
This is fun! Have you thought about dragons from McCaffrey’s Pern series? Or what about a classic, The Dragon and the George (Gordon Dickson)?
Great suggestions, Deby! As you can imagine, I had a difficult time choosing which dragons to put on the chart. There are SO many awesome ones out there, especially in literature! I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing another chart in the future, to which more of the well-known legends will be added, like Kilgharrah (from the Merlin series), Grigori (from Dragon’s Dogma), and of course more dragons from popular books (including Pern dragons!). 😉
Thanks for your work here, really enjoy it. Other fun suggestions for size comparisons could include:
– The hungarian horntail from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
– Maleficent’s dragon form from the classic Sleeping Beauty
– Saphira from the misguided Eragon film
– Balerion the Black Dread or Drogon from A Song of Ice and Fire
– The Unnamed Dragon from the Saga of Beowulf
– Fafnir, the dwarf-turned-dragon from Norse mythology
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the suggestions, Coronus. Will definitely consider adding some of those to my next Dragon Chart.
What about Ramoth from Dragonriders of Pern
Great suggestion! I’m planning on doing another chart in the not-too-distant future. Will definitely consider Ramoth.
I notice there’s more very large dragons like :
1. Deathwing from Warcraft
2. Ancalagon the Black from Lord of the Rings
3. Red Death from How to Train your Dragon
4. Bewilderbeast from How to Train your Dragon 2
The LotR? More like the Silmarillion. He would be too big for this size chart. Smaug is 320 ft tall and Ancalagon is 17,500-35000+ ft in height. Ancalagon is 54.7 TIMES his height, at the very least.
I’m writing a story with at least four dragons in it, and I have to say, this is actually helpful for me to figure out sizes for my own. Like the main character is somewhere between Toothless and Alduin, while two of the dragons are Draco’s height, and the fourth is the largest and hardest to picture, now easily represented as half of Smaug. Thank you!
Glad I could be of assistance! I love the incredible variety of dragons, both in literature and movies. Not just in size, but morality and temperament, too. I made a second Dragon Chart with eleven other dragons, too, if you’re curious. The size of your own dragons sound ideal (and I love that you have four of them!)
I really like your size Chart. But I would like to ask you for a Little favour: Could you do a size comparison chart between me (male, 5’8″ tall) and Ancalagon the Black? I would Need this for a fanfiction, but I’m very bad at imagine the size of Ancalagon the Black. Hope you can do this.
Greetings from Germany
Achim Kern
Hi Achim,
I hope your fanfic is going well. As for a size chart, I’m afraid Ancalagon is just TOO big; my human-ratio silhouette would be just a speck in comparison. For my charts, I go out of my way to pick dragons that will fit onto the chart, and still have the little human icon distinguishable. Rubendevela’s amazing artwork gives you and idea of just how big Tolkien’s ‘ultimate’ dragon was.
Thanks a lot for your quick reply. Maybe you could make the Human only one Pixel high with a circle, which makes him better to see (exactly like in this Picture: http://imgur.com/4oj5SD2, if you zoom very much, you can see it). I would use this Picture in the link, if it would exactly meet my requirements. But I Need a size Chart where only me and Ancalagon are pictured and no other creatures. So maybe you could do me this Little favour and draw such a size comparison, because the Picture, which you attached above is not the type of Picture, which I’m looking for. I would really like, if you would do me this Little favour.
Greetings from Germany
Achim
Based on the pic, http://winteriscoming.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Dragon-Size-Chart.jpg
Game of Thrones dragons are here, I wonder it would be nice if you include the World of Warcraft dragons, Deathwing maybe the most badass, but there are others, I do know some :
2. Nefarian (DW’s son)
3. Onyxia (DW’s daughter)
4. Ysera
5. Alexstrasza
6. Nozdormu
7. Kalecgos
If you have a new compilation of all dragons from all movies & games, you can turn it into something like the spaceships chart here, http://dirkloechel.deviantart.com/art/Size-Comparison-Science-Fiction-Spaceships-398790051 (All spaceships from all sci-fi movies & series)
Thanks for the recommendations, Arrowghost! I have, in fact, done a second Dragon Size Chart See Here (that includes Deathwing). I may, in the future (when there is time to spare) work on a 3rd chart! 🙂
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The one i would have liked here is dragon mode (beast mode) Predaking from Transformers Prime: Beast Hunter (and Predacons Rising)
Hi Callico Jack,
Great suggestion! I’ll put that down as a potential dragon to add to the next Dragon Chart I work on.
Cheers!
Thanks for this! Funny story, I’m writing a pilot script about dragons and I was trying to gauge how big she should be. She’s four years old currently. I might go with Toothless’s dimensions to be honest
You’re welcome, Jay! It can be tricky trying to decide what size to pick for your dragon; age, gender, species, and origin are all things to consider.
All the best with your pilot script!
Yes. I’m writing a fantasy book and there’s going to be a guy who trains dragons. I think toothless is def a good size thx.
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I don’t know half of these characters but I am a big Tolkien fan.
The perspective in the books about Smaug is told more from the stand of a Hobbit and Dwarves, who are half-sized humans at height at best. Hobbits are often even shorter than Dwarves. It is true though that Smaug is considered “The greatest calamity of the (Third) Age”, and with not an awful lot to go by I guess it’s open for everyone’s interpretation. Mine is that he’s not quite as big as two 747’s, but big enough for his scales to withstand arrows and spears and stabs from most foes.
That said, if you found Smaug interesting, I recommend looking up his far ancestor Glaurung the Father of Dragons, as well as Ancalagon The Black. Those two are the next most famous/infamous dragons mentioned in the Tolkien Legendarium. No spoilers, I will let you enjoy the journey to finding them!
Hi Warren! Great to hear from a fellow Tolkien fan! You bring up some excellent points. It is pretty tricky to narrow down a dragon’s size when specifications are never given. So, I just went with the specs provided by Peter Jackson and Weta Deigital, who brought to life Smaug in the Hobbit movies. Estimating his size was a lot easier to do, when going by their design.
There are so many unique and interesting dragons out there. My charts have barely scratched the surface. In my 3rd dragon chart, I’ve done an estimated size for Ancalagon the Black. But again, it’s just an estimate. All we know for sure is that he was HUGE! lol
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Interesting size chart. 🙂 I’m sure it took some work to get those all figured out.
I have a race of beings called the Dra’kans that appear in my sci-fi novel series, “Daggers of Darkness” (the title refers to the stealthy black, dagger-like shape of the long-range scout ships in the books). The Dra’kans are one of the Elder Races in our galaxy and (in the story) they gave rise to the legends and myths of dragons and their kind on many worlds. I have character portraits of several of them, most are in their smaller anthro form, though I have Erlanna in both her anthro and full dragon-like (or wyvern-like) form. She’s a sweet gal who is 50 meters long, nose to tip of her tail in full form, covered in scales that are like brightly polished silver, has a mane of hair that goes from her head down her back and almost to the end of her tail. When she’s in her full form, she appears to be bathed in light. Her eyes are sapphire blue and her claws are like crystal (much harder and tougher than diamonds).
If you want to check them out (and my other artwork), you can do so here:
https://ancientwolf.sofurry.com/
…or here:
https://www.deviantart.com/ancientwolf-1959
Hi Ron,
Size charting is quite the challenge to undertake, but also fun and satisfying. Your Dra’kans sound really cool; I always enjoy learning about other dragon races created by fellow authors and artists. Erlanna sounds particularly splendid in her full dragon form!