Editing Smaug (section)

===''The Song of Hiawatha''===

{{further|Tolkien's modern sources}}

[[File:Wampum peek bead girdle (detail).jpg|thumb|Detail of [[wampum]] bead girdle]]

Tolkien's biographer [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] notes the similarity between Smaug's death from Bard's last arrow and the death of Megissogwon in [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s 1855 poem ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''. Megissogwon was the spirit of wealth, protected by an armoured shirt of [[wampum]] beads.{{efn|Jeff Thompson drew illustrations of Megissogwon's wampum shirt deflecting arrows for ''[[National Geographic]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Thompson |first=Jeff |title=Hiawatha & Megissogwon |url=https://www.jefthompson.com/book-illustration?lightbox=i01qou |publisher=[[National Geographic]] |access-date=23 February 2020 |date=2001 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024210955/https://www.jefthompson.com/book-illustration?lightbox=i01qou |url-status=live }}</ref>}} Hiawatha shoots in vain, until he has only three arrows left. Mama the [[woodpecker]] sings to Hiawatha where Megissogwon's only weak point is, the tuft of hair on his head, just as Tolkien's [[Thrush (bird)|thrush]] tells Bard where to shoot at Smaug.<ref name="Garth 2014">{{cite news |first=John |last=Garth |author-link=John Garth (author) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/dec/09/tolkien-death-of-smaug-began-america-middle-earth |title=Tolkien's death of Smaug: American inspiration revealed |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=9 December 2014 |access-date=1 July 2018 |archive-date=1 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701140244/https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/dec/09/tolkien-death-of-smaug-began-america-middle-earth |url-status=live }}</ref>