Warg

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A warg (or worg) is a mythological creature that resembles a wolf, but is generally larger and more intelligent.

In Old Norse Warg (vargr) is a euphemism for wolf (ulfr), still used in modern Swedish as a word for wolf. Also cognate is Old English warg "large wolf".

The Proto-Germanic *wargaz meant "strangler", and hence "evildoer, criminal, outcast".

Tolkien's Wargs

Image:Warg.jpg Taken from the Old English warg, the Wargs or Wild Wolves are a race of fictional wolf creatures in J.R.R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth. They are usually in league with the Orcs or Goblins whom they permitted to ride on their backs into battle. The Wargs speak a rudimentary language of their own. It is probable that they are descended from Draugluin's werewolves of the First Age.

In The Hobbit, the Wargs appear twice, once in chasing Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and the dwarves just east of the Misty Mountains, and once at the Battle of Five Armies. In The Lord of the Rings, they are most prominently mentioned in the middle of The Fellowship of the Ring, where a band of Wargs, unaccompanied by Orcs, attacks the Fellowship in Hollin.

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, wargs appear to be more like a "hyena/bear/wolf hybrid" rather than wolves, in an effort to distinguish them from regular wolves by presenting them as some sort of distant cousin. It should be noted, however, that although Tolkien never gave a fully complete description of the Wargs (he simply noted that they were demonic wolves) they do seem to have a somewhat regular wolf-appearance in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings passages where they are mentioned.

Warg was the name given by men to the giant beasts of Rhovanion which were akin to wolves.

During the War of the Ring in 3018-19, wolves prowled outside the walls of Bree.

Saruman kept wargs in dens beneath Isengard, and during the War of the Ring he sent Orcs mounted on wargs into battle. Saruman's warg riders were ferocious and deadly.

Horses feared the warg-riders because the wolves tore at their bellies. The wolf-riders usually attacked individuals or small groups.They could also attack larger companies by charging through gaps in the ranks. They were intelligent predators with some capacity to understand basic orcish and Westron although they also had a language of their own. They varied in colour, white Wargs have been mentioned. Wargs formed an alliance with the Orcs of Misty mountain and were a mode of Cavalry for Saruman and Sauron's armies. Orc Captains used Wargs as beasts of burden to communicate between lines.

The cavalry only consisted of a few Captains under Sauron's army and were not trained to fight mounted troops on horseback, an oversight of Sauron which cost him victory.

Some of the smaller orcs of the misty mountains had a culture revolving around Wargs. They were Saruman's elite troops second to his Uruks.

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, wargs are in particular the demonic wolves Fenrir, Skalli and Hati. In the Hervarar saga, king Heidrek is asked by Gestumblindi (Odin),

What is that lamp

which lights up men,

but flame engulfs it,

and wargs grasp after it always.

Heidrek knows the answer is the Sun, explaining

She lights up every land and shines over all men, and Skalli and Hatti are called wargs. Those are wolves, one going before the sun, the other after the moon.

But wolves also served as mounts for more or less dangerous humanoid creatures. For instance, Gunnr's horse was a kenning for "wolf" on the Rök Runestone, in the Lay of Hyndla, the völva (witch) Hyndla rides a wolf, and to Baldr's funeral, the giantess Hyrrokin arrived on a wolf.

Wargs in other popular media

In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, worgs appear as a minor enemy. They are depicted as evil, intelligent wolves that speak their own language.

Worgs also appear in World of Warcraft as specific species of trainable wolves.

Wargs are large wolf like enemies in the Castlevania series.

In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin wargs are people who can live through a particular animal if they choose in a symbiotic relationshipfr:Wargs he:וארג