tolkiens legendarium - How is Smaug aware that there is a war coming when all he did was lie in all the dwarves gold at Erebor?

How is Smaug aware of the fact that there is a war coming when all he has done is lie amongst the gold that he stole from the dwarves at Erebor?

He mentions that there is a war coming but how would he know this?

Answer

There's some evidence that that is not all he did; see my answer at What did Smaug eat for 60 years?, for example.

Even so, Tolkien doesn't need to explicitly describe Smaug coming out from time to time in order for us to accept that he does come out. He doesn't explicitly describe Aragorn going to the toilet, for example, but yet we can accept that Aragorn does do so. Why shouldn't we accept that Smaug likewise comes out to get news and food too?

Comments

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