In Norse mythology, a vargr is a wolf, especially the wolfFenrir and the wolves that chase the sun and moon Sköll and Hati. Based on this, J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction used the form warg, which may incorporate Old Englishwearh, as the name of a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by orcs. Through Tolkien's influence, the concept has been used in fantasy works by other authors and in other media.
In Norse mythology, wargs are in particular the mythological wolves Fenrir, Sköll and Hati. Sköll and Hati are wolves, one going before the sun, the other after the moon. 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 eponymous seeress rides a wolf. To Baldr's funeral, the jötunnHyrrokkin arrived on a wolf.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth, wargs are a malevolent wolflike race. 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. 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 exiting time fighting goblins and wargs." The review led his father, Stanley Unwin, to publish the book, still doubting its likely commercial success. 's film of The Two Towers extends Tolkien's wargs for use as cavalry mounts, battling the Riders of Rohan. Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings extend the role of wargs as mounts for Orcs, battling the horse-riders of Rohan. In the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey's view, the spelling "warg" is a cross of Old Norse vargr and Old English wearh, both words shifting from just meaning "wolf" to "outlaw". The critic Gregory Hartley treats wargs as "personified animals", along with the sentient eagles, giant spiders, Smaugthe dragon, ravens and thrushes. He notes that Tolkien writes about their actions using verbs like " plan" and " guard", implying in his view that the wargs are "more than mere beasts", but he denies that they "possess autonomous wills". 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 Agewerewolves like Carcharoth, with their own "proto-language".
George R. R. Martin's wargs
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 an animal, see what they are seeing, and control their actions. Talented skinchangers can become greenseers, who can glimpse into the past, present, and future. An adage says that one man in a thousand is a skinchanger, and one skinchanger in a thousand is a greenseer.
Other works
In 2005, a German group of musicians formed the pagan-metal band Varg. They present themselves as bringers of a wolf-themed cult, as in their 2011 album, Wolfskult. They employ wolf-related lyrics and red and blackface paint.
