Warg
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In the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs by combining meanings and myths from Old Norse and Old English. In Norse mythology, a vargr (anglicised as warg) is a wolf, especially the wolf Fenrir that destroyed the god Odin in the battle of Ragnarök, and the wolves Sköll and Hati, Fenrir's children, who perpetually chase the Sun and Moon. In Old English, a wearh is an outcast who may be strangled to death.
Through Tolkien's influence, wargs have featured in fantasy books by authors including George R. R. Martin, and in media such as video games and role-playing games.
Etymology and originsEdit
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The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey states that Tolkien's spelling "warg" is a cross of Old Norse vargr and Old English wearh. He notes that the words embody a shift in meaning from "wolf" to "outlaw": vargr carries both meanings, while wearh means "outcast" or "outlaw", but has lost the sense of "wolf".<ref name="Shippey 2005">Template:Cite book</ref> In Old Norse, vargr is derived from the Proto-Germanic root reconstructed as *wargaz, ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root reconstructed as *werg̑ʰ- "destroy". Vargr (compare modern Swedish varg "wolf") arose as a non-taboo name for úlfr, the normal Old Norse term for "wolf".<ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref> Shippey adds that there is also an Old English verb, awyrgan, meaning both "to condemn [an outcast]" and "to strangle [an outcast to death]"; he adds that a possible further sense is "to worry [a sheep], to bite to death".<ref name="Shippey 2001">Template:Cite book</ref> He writes that
In Norse mythology, wargs are in particular the mythological wolves Fenrir, Sköll and Hati. Sköll and Hati are wolves, one going after the Sun, the other after the Moon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Qn<ref> Template:Cite book </ref> Wolves served as mounts for more or less dangerous humanoid creatures. For instance, Gunnr's horse was a kenning for "wolf" on the Rök runestone.<ref name="Larrington1999">Template:Cite book</ref> In the Lay of Hyndla, the eponymous seeress rides a wolf.<ref name="AckerAcker2002">Template:Cite book</ref> The jötunn Hyrrokkin arrives at Baldr's funeral on a wolf.<ref name="Welch 2001">Template:Cite book</ref>
The medievalist and Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns writes that Tolkien uses the fact that wolves were among the Norse god Odin's war beasts "in a particularly innovative way".<ref name="Burns 2005">Template:Cite book</ref> Odin kept two wolves, Freki and Geri, their names both meaning "Greedy"; and in the final battle that destroys the world, Ragnarök, Odin is killed and eaten by the gigantic wolf Fenrir. Thus, Burns points out, wolves were both associates of Odin, and his mortal enemy. She argues that Tolkien made use of both relationships in The Lord of the Rings. In her view, both the dark lord Sauron and the evil Wizard Saruman embody "attributes of a negative Odin".<ref name="Burns 2005"/> She points out that Saruman has wargs in his army, while Sauron uses "the likeness of a ravening wolf"<ref group=T>Template:Harvnb, book 5, ch. 4, "The Siege of Gondor"</ref> for the enormous battering ram named Grond which destroys the main gate of Minas Tirith. On the other side, the benevolent Wizard Gandalf leads the fight against the wargs in The Hobbit, using his ability to create fire, and understands their language. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf again uses magic and fire to drive off a great wolf, "The Hound of Sauron",<ref group=T>Template:Harvnb, book 2, ch. 4, "A Journey in the Dark"</ref> and his wolf-pack; Burns writes that the wolves' attempt "to devour Gandalf hints at Odin's fate", recalling the myth of Fenrir and Odin.<ref name="Burns 2005"/>
J. R. R. TolkienEdit
In J. R. R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth, wargs are a malevolent wolf-like race.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> They are usually in league with the Orcs whom they permit to ride on their backs into battle, sharing any spoils. In The Hobbit, they can speak: they plan their part in "a great goblin-raid" on the woodmen's villages.<ref name="Frying-pan" group=T>Template:Harvnb ch. 6 "Out of the Frying-pan into the Fire"</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
Tolkien's wargs influenced the ten-year-old Rayner Unwin to write a positive review of The Hobbit, with the words "Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who lived in his hobbit hole and never went for adventures, at last Gandalf the wizard and his dwarves persuaded him to go. He had a very ex[c]iting time fighting goblins and wargs." The review led his father, Stanley Unwin, to publish the book, still doubting its likely commercial success.<ref name="Moseley2018">Template:Cite book</ref>
Peter Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings extend the role of wargs as mounts for Orcs, battling the horse-riders of Rohan.<ref name="BogstadKaveny2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
The critic Gregory Hartley treats wargs as "personified animals", along with the sentient eagles, giant spiders, Smaug the dragon, ravens and thrushes. Tolkien writes about their actions using verbs like "[to] plan" and "[to] guard", implying in Hartley's view that the monstrous wargs are "more than mere beasts", but he denies that they "possess autonomous wills".<ref name="Hartley 2014">Template:Cite book</ref> T. A. Leederman calls Tolkien's wargs "a species of semi-intelligent but evil-aligned mount wolves ... on whom the orcs rode into battle". He notes that they may have been derived, in the fiction, from First Age werewolves like Carcharoth, with their own "proto-language".<ref name="BattisJohnston2015">Template:Cite book</ref>
In Dungeons & DragonsEdit
In the context of the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons, "wargs" first appeared in Gary Gygax's Swords and Spells supplement (1976),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but were renamed to "worgs" (along with balrogs to "balors," ents to "treants," and hobbits to "halflings") in response to a lawsuit from Tolkien's estate.<ref name="Gygax2003">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the first edition of the Monster Manual (1977), "dire wolf (worg)" appears under the entry for "wolf."<ref name="Gygax1977">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> In later editions, such as the 2014 edition,<ref name="Perkins2014"/> "worg" receives its own entry.
The worg of Dungeons & Dragons is a larger, more intelligent, and demonic version of the wolf, with a fiendish, demonic countenance and glowing eyes. They are neutral evil in alignment, and count as magical beasts. Despite their demonic traits, worgs tend to behave for the most part like regular wolves. They stalk around in dark forests and gloomy plains, hunting in packs (though they are also sometimes solitary). Lone worgs tend to hunt creatures smaller than themselves, while packs hunt large game. They attack with their teeth, and benefit from stealth and keen senses. Worgs bring gloom and menace wherever they go, and are said to have connections with demons. Worgs are sometimes enslaved by orcs, goblins, and other such creatures to act as mounts or as attack dogs. Sometimes they are specifically bred for these purposes.
Worgs, unlike most animalistic creatures, can speak. They can speak their own language,<ref name="Gygax1977"/><ref name="Perkins2014">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> as well as Goblin and Common.
Other authors and mediaEdit
In George R. R. Martin's series of epic fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, and the series' television adaptation, Game of Thrones, Wargs are skinchangers who can enter the mind of animals (and in Bran Stark's case with Hodor, a person), see what they are seeing, and control their actions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Wen Spencer's Tinker (Elfhome) series, wargs are large magically engineered wolves.<ref group=T>Template:Cite book</ref>
Similar Tolkien-based creatures appear in some fantasy video games, including The Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, and World of Warcraft, both as four-legged monsters, and as a race of anthropomorphic werewolves, the Worgen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>