Warg — Mediated Wiki

{{good article}} {{Short description|Wolf in fantasy}} {{About|the fictional species|3=Warg (disambiguation)}} {{use British English|date=January 2026}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2026}}

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 origins ==

[[File:Rune stone dr 284 of the hunnestad monument in lund sweden 2008 (cropped).JPG|thumb|upright|The jötunn Hyrrokin riding a wolf, on an image stone from the Hunnestad Monument, constructed in 985–1035 AD<ref name="Welch 2001" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Olsson |first=Göran |title=Hunnestadsmonumentet |trans-title=The Hunnestad Monument |url=https://www.hunnestad.org/byn-hi/runstensmonument |access-date=10 May 2020 |publisher=Hunnestad.org (Village) |language=sv |quote=Hunnestadsmonumentet kom till i en tid då makten centraliserades i Norden. Inristningen bör ha skett under en period, åren 985-1035, då Sven Tveskägg eller Knut den store hade makten i Skandinavien, eller de närmaste åren efter denna period.}}</ref>|left]]

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">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=The Road to Middle-Earth |title-link=The Road to Middle-Earth |date=2005 |edition=Third |orig-year=1982 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0261102750 |page=74, note}}</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>{{cite dictionary |last=Zoëga |first=Geir T. |author-link1=Geir T. Zoëga |title=vargr |dictionary=A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic |year=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2003.02.0002:entry=vargr}}</ref> Shippey adds that there is an Old English verb, ''awyrgan'', meaning both "to condemn [an outcast]" and "to strangle [an outcast to death]"; he writes that a possible further sense is "to worry [a sheep], to bite to death".<ref name="Shippey 2001">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century |title-link=J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century |date=2001 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0261-10401-3 |pages=30–31}}</ref> He writes that

{{quote|Tolkien's word 'Warg' clearly splits the difference between Old Norse and Old English pronunciations, and his concept of them – wolves, but not just wolves, intelligent and malevolent wolves – combines the two ancient opinions.<ref name="Shippey 2001"/>}}

In Norse mythology, wargs are the mythological wolves Fenrir, Sköll and Hati. Sköll and Hati are wolves, one going after the Sun, the other after the Moon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Simek |first=Rudolf |year=2007 |translator=Angela Hall |title=Dictionary of Northern Mythology |publisher=D.S. Brewer |isbn=978-0-85991-513-7 |page=292}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1=Charles Russell Coulter |editor-last2=Turner |editor-first2=Patricia |date=4 July 2013 |orig-date=2000 |chapter=Hati |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWxekbhM1yEC |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |page=cclxi |isbn=978-1135963972 |quote=Hati is the brother of Skoll, and the son of Hrodvitnir. Skoll pursues the sun and Hati is always after the moon.}}</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">{{cite book |last=Larrington |first=Carolyne |title=The Poetic Edda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBzuQZ4MCPIC |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283946-6 |page=121}}</ref> In the ''Lay of Hyndla'', the eponymous seeress rides a wolf.<ref name="AckerAcker2002">{{cite book |last1=Acker |first1=Paul |last2=Acker |first2=Paul Leonard |last3=Larrington |first3=Carolyne |title=The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4bufbA_UpQC&pg=PA265 |year=2002 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-8153-1660-2 |page=265}}</ref> The jötunn Hyrrokkin arrives at Baldr's funeral on a wolf.<ref name="Welch 2001">{{cite book |last=Welch |first=Lynda C. |title=Goddess of the North: A Comprehensive Exploration of the Norse Goddesses, from Antiquity to the Modern Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfugwhC2qIAC&pg=PA220 |year=2001 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=978-1-60925-312-7 |page=220}}</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">{{cite book |last=Burns |first=Marjorie |author-link=Marjorie Burns |title=Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth |title-link=Perilous Realms |year=2005 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0802038067 |page=103}}</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>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, 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>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, 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. Tolkien ==

{{Quote box |quote=... and in the middle of the circle was a great grey wolf. He spoke to them in the dreadful language of the Wargs. Gandalf understood it. Bilbo did not, but it sounded terrible to him, and as if all their talk was about cruel and wicked things, as it was. Every now and then all the Wargs in the circle would answer their grey chief all together ... |source=Tolkien's description of wargs in ''The Hobbit''<ref name="Frying-pan" group=T/> |width=35% |align=right }}

In J. R. R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth, wargs are a malevolent wolf-like race.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Evans |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Evans (scholar) |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Monsters |encyclopedia=J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |page=433}}</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>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1937}} ch. 6 "Out of the Frying-pan into the Fire"</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Sookoo |first=Lara |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Animals in Tolkien's Works |encyclopedia=J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |page=20}}</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">{{cite book |last=Moseley |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Moseley (writer) |title=J.R.R. Tolkien |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0dvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |year=2018 |orig-year=1997 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78694-682-9 |pages=7–8}}</ref>

[[File:Warg-riders.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|Wargs being used as cavalry mounts, as depicted in Peter Jackson's ''The Two Towers'', battling the Riders of Rohan.<ref name="BogstadKaveny2011" />]]

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">{{cite book |last=Bogstad |first=Janice M. |chapter=Concerning Horses: Establishing Cultural Settings from Tolkien to Jackson |editor1-last=Bogstad |editor1-first=Janice M. |editor2-last=Kaveny |editor2-first=Philip E. |title=Picturing Tolkien |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA244 |year=2011 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |page=244}}</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">{{cite book |last=Hartley |first=Gregory |chapter=Civilized goblins and Talking Animals: How The Hobbit Created Problems of Sentience for Tolkien |editor=Bradford Lee Eden |title=The Hobbit and Tolkien's mythology : essays on revisions and influences |publisher=McFarland |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-7960-3 |oclc=889426663 |volume=Part III: Themes |pages=33–34 |url=https://www.academia.edu/32419936}}</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">{{cite book |last=Leederman |first=T. A. |editor1=Jes Battis |editor2=Susan Johnston |chapter=A Thousand Westerosi Plateaus: Wargs, Wolves and Ways of Being |title=Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2wgyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 |year=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9631-0 |page=190}}</ref>

==In ''Dungeons & Dragons'' ==

In the context of the tabletop game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', "wargs" first appeared in Gary Gygax's ''Swords and Spells'' supplement (1976),<ref>{{cite book |author=Gary Gygax |title=Swords and Spells |url=https://archive.org/details/odn-d-swords-and-spells |publisher=TSR, Inc. |year=2007 |orig-year=1976 |pages=19, 37–38}}</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">{{cite web |title=Re: Bears and Hobbits |date=24 July 2003 |author=Col_Pladoh (Gary Gygax) |website=EnWorld RPG News and Reviews |series=Gary Gygax Q&A, Part IV |url=http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57832 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050118005458/http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57832 |archive-date=18 January 2005 |access-date=7 April 2025 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

In the first edition of the ''Monster Manual'' (1977), "dire wolf (worg)" appears under the entry for "wolf."<ref name="Gygax1977">{{cite encyclopedia |author=Gary Gygax. |title=Monster Manual |url=https://archive.org/details/ad-d-monster-manual/page/101 |page=101 |entry=Wolf |publisher=TSR, Inc. |year=1977}}</ref> In later editions, such as the 2014 edition, "worg" receives its own entry.<ref name="Perkins2014"/> Worgs, unlike most animalistic creatures, can speak. They can speak their own language, as well as Goblin and Common.<ref name="Gygax1977"/><ref name="Perkins2014">{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Worg |title=Monster Manual |editor=Christopher Perkins |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7869-6561-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/monster-manual/page/n341/mode/1up |page=341 |publisher=Wizards of the Coast |quote=Worgs speak in their own language and Goblin, and a few learn to speak Common as well.}}</ref>

==Other authors and media ==

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>{{cite book |last=Videen |first=Hana |title=The Wordhord |date=2022 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-23274-4 |page=221 (ch. II "Beyond Human")}}</ref> In Wen Spencer's Tinker (Elfhome) series, wargs are large magically engineered wolves.<ref group=T>{{cite book |title=Tinker |last=Spencer |first=Wen |date=1 December 2004 |publisher=Baen |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7434-9871-5 |at=Chapter 1: Life Debt |quote=Apparently designed as weapons of mass destruction in some ancient magical war, wargs were far more than pony-sized wolves; it was quite possible they could climb.}}</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>{{cite book |last=Bainbridge |first=William Sims |title=Virtual Sociocultural Convergence |publisher=Springer |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-319-33020-4 |location=Switzerland |pages=242 |oclc=953456168}}</ref>

==See also ==

* List of wolves

==References ==

===Primary ===

===Secondary === {{reflist|28em}}

===Sources ===

* {{ME-ref|TH}} * {{ME-ref|FOTR}} * {{ME-ref|ROTK}}

Category:Fictional wolves Category:Middle-earth animals Category:Middle-earth monsters