Beowulf, DnD, and Rowling's dragons

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 179105

I just watched the movie Beowulf, where the monster is essentially a DnD 
polymorph gold dragon. It's intelligent, can change shape, and plots the 
downfall of man via seduction. They breathe fire and can swim underwater, 
although in the movie, it was called a water spirit (which would have been a 
DnD "naga").

Then I think of Rowling's dragons- basically they are your run of the mill 
animal. It breathes fire, but by contrast to the DnD/Beowulf movie variety, 
they aren't intelligent or sentient. Rowling seems to have picked other 
creatures to be the intelligent interactors with the wizards, mainly the 
house elves.

How would the series be different if she had created the dragons be sentient 
or intelligent? The dragons certainly wouldn't have been the stooges for the 
goblins- being kept in the dark against their will to guard the gold inside 
Gringots, and the whole tri-wizard tournament would have been different, as 
the dragons would have been smarter not to step on their own eggs. Certianly 
if dragons were intelligent, they might have been recuited for the use of 
Voldemort, filling the role the giants did for that final battle at 
Hogwarts. And, Harry would not have had his excape from Gingotts on the back 
of a dragon (or could he have, if the dragon was in on the financial gain?)

Shelley