Warg
From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.
Warg is the term used to describe the evil wolves who were used as mounts by orcs. They could only harm others when darkness had fallen. They were simply giant wolves that roamed Rhovanion, also known as Wilderland, and the wilds to the east of the Misty Mountains. The name originally applied to the terrifying werewolves that plagued Middle-earth: these evil spirits took form only at night, preying on the flesh of anything they caught. By the Third Age they had all but disappeared. Like so many foul creatures, the warg may have first been bred in Mordor, the result of mixing two animals to produce a true monster. Wargs were said by some to have been very intelligent predators; it is rumoured that they had a crude understanding of some orc words and their Black Speech.
[edit] Physical attributes
Wargs measured about five feet at the shoulder, and could be up to ten feet in length from snout to the tail; estimates put their weight at a maximum of 600 pounds, around four times that of a man. Rohan tapestries show the wargs to have a bearlike face with a long muzzle full of huge fangs and a long, prehensile neck; its eyes were small and set back to each side of its head, its ears at the back of the skull. This arrangement gave greatest sensory range while keeping its vulnerable areas protected, and the long neck gave it reach, flexibility and power when biting into flesh. There was a large well muscled hump above its forelegs, that propelled it at high speeds, allowing the beast to run swiftly but also smash and tackle prey and foes.
Apart from its ruff, the warg had short dense fur, which would have kept injury from tooth and claw to a minimum. Not all damage could have come from the men and beasts it was attacking; wargs were ferocious and could quickly turn on other members of their pack as well as their handlers. Coloration and patterning of the fur seems to vary throughout the breed, with mottling and other patterns appearing in shades of red, brown, fawn and liver, with harder patterning appearing toward the back. Powerful haunches and a dewclaw allowed the warg to climb.
There also appears to have been a small colony of wild wargs living in a hollow rock formation in northeast Rohan, one of which was a large and very old warg that terrorized East Emnet and was killed shortly before the Battle of Helm's Deep.
In The Two Towers, Saruman sends out his wargs and their riders to attack the people of Rohan as they make their way to Helm's Deep. In the commentary for the extended DVD, Jackson says that the scene was chaotic to shoot and the wargs were the only computer generated creatures he felt could have looked more convincing. He also thought the scene itself could have turned out better if his team had a more organised storyboard layout for the battle. Unlike most depictions of Tolkien's wargs and their fantasy derivatives, they are noticeably more hyena-like in appearance.
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Races of the Creatures of Arda
Good Races:
Ainu | Dwarf | Ents | Hobbit | Man | Elf Evil Races:
Dragons | Orc | Uruk-hai | Warg | Werewolves | White Wolves |
