A collection of gold, jewels, weapons and other valuable items used by dragons as a bed.

A dragon-hoard contains only items of value, unlike a troll-hoard which along with the treasure, may include bones and junk, or a barrow-hoard, which may have some quite modest items thought to be of use to the deceased in the after-life.

A dragon usually takes over the underground hoard or treasury of someone else, and having killed or evicted the rightful owners, augments the collection with treasure from the surrounding area. A dragon-hoard seems to give the dragon no pleasure other than the satisfaction of withholding it from everyone else.

The two most famous dragon-hoards in Middle-Earth were the hoard of Smaug in The Hobbit, gathered within the halls of Erebor, and, in The Silmarillion, the hoard of Glaurung in the caves of Nargothrond.
Encyclopedia entry originally written by cirdaneth