Warg

"Varg" redirects here. For the Norwegian black metal musician, see Varg Vikernes.

In Old Norse, vargr is a term for "wolf" (ulfr). In Norse mythology, wargs are in particular the demonic wolves Fenrir, Skoll and Hati. Based on this, J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction used the Old English form warg to refer to a wolf of a particularly evil kind.

Etymology

The Proto-Germanic *wargaz meant "strangler", and hence "evildoer, criminal, outcast". Varg is still the modern Swedish word for "wolf". Also cognate is Old English warg "large wolf". In Dutch wolverines are sometimes called Warg, although the name Veelvraat is more commonly used. In modern Faroese, a pyromaniac is called a brennivargur. The Icelandic word for pyromaniac is 'brennuvargur'

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, wargs are in particular the demonic wolves Fenrir, Skoll 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 Skoll 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.

Tolkien's Wargs

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 whom they permitted to ride on their backs into battle. It is probable that they are descended from Draugluin's werewolves, or of the wolf-hounds of the line of Carcharoth of the First Age.

The concept of wolf-riding Orcs first appears in The Tale of Tinúviel, an early version of the story of Beren and Lúthien written in the 1920s, posthumously published as part of The History of Middle-earth.

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. They are said to have their own harsh language.

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 Eregion. During the War of the Ring in 3018–19, wolves prowled outside the walls of Bree. Saruman admires the Warg, a terrible creation that mocks the wolf. He unleashed them to ravage the lands around Isengard. Saruman kept Wargs in dens beneath Isengard, and during the War of the Ring he also sent Orcs mounted on Wargs into battle.

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Wargs appear to be more like giant spotted hyenas or the extinct Sarkastodon rather than wolves. Jackson explained that the hyena design was chosen due to it looking more powerful., but in the behind the scenes DVD, an artist explained that it was "like a mix between a hyena, bear and wolf, which itself, matches the look of the Warg. In the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Hobbit, they are portrayed as larger than average wolves and with ominously glowing eyes. 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 regular wolf-appearance in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and they are regularly called "wolves".

Wargs in other popular media

Subsequent appearances of the creatures in popular culture often owe much to Tolkien. In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, worgs appear as minor enemies. Similar to Tolkien's works, they are depicted as evil, intelligent wolves that speak their own language, and are often allied with goblin tribes. The large wolf-like enemies in the Castlevania video game series are also called Wargs.

In the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novel series by George R. R. Martin, wargs are humans who have a telepathic-empathic bond with one or more individual animals. While this link is active, the warg perceives and experiences what the animal perceives/experiences.

In World of Warcraft worgen are intelligent, wolf-like, forest-dwelling creatures similar in look to Tolkien's wargs; they form an important part of one of the game's early dungeons. Worgs are mainly located in the undead inhabited areas of the game. Many worgs (mainly in the plaguelands) are undead also; with the general appearance but with minor differences such as rotting flesh or bones showing in their abdomen. Wargs also appear as mounts in Everquest and Everquest 2.

Warg also refers to a popular comic strip called Fabs, Inc. Warg is a common name given to many characters. For example, Wargman (A fat lazy person who will sit on people if he gets angry), Captain Warg (A sea captain that lives waterfront in the town Port-of-Fun), and Warg Guy (A generic stick figure that acts as the general public. Very often seen in large groups). There is even a continent in Funland (the world where the comic strip takes place) named "Warg."