Talk:Warg/Archive 1

Varg

Warg is not the Swedish word for 'wolf'. Varg is.

I deleted a paragraph and changed the picture caption to make it more clear that Tolkien never explicitly described Wargs. Mithgil 04:49, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

That 'varg' means wolf in Swedish and that 'warg' is the oldfashioned spelling for that word is of course old hat. Just thought I'd note it anyway. As far as I know, no other languages use the word (I believe other Scandinavians use ulv, which is also the original Swe. word. German has wulf.).

Although "varg" is primarily a Swedish word, it is also found in Norwegian (especially in composite terms) as a somewhat archaic alternative to "ulv". It comes, of course, from Old Norse. Snarkibartfast 05:08, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

warg's appear in the game castlevania as large fire breathing wolves

Merge

Does there need to be an article on Wargs and one on Warg Riders? Ben j min 19:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Could be nothing, but still...

Just thought i'd mention this: in the slovene language (and i suppose in other slavic ones as well), an archaic form of the word "vrag", meaning daemon or devil, is "varg". i'm not a historic linguist, and i only have an slightly above average knowledge of european mythology, so i have no idea if these two words are in any way related. could be, or could be a coincidence. the only thing i know is, i *do* know enough of historic linguistics and mythology to be suspicious of coincidences like this. now, can somebody shed some more light on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.172.254.113 (talk)

Purely a coincidence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.2.92.255 (talk) 19:55, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

It may be not coincidence, since the word "Varg" means wolf in some north Iranian dialects which is not far from Slavic languages. There is a connection from Old Persian, Scythian, old Slavic,and old Norse about this word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.175.16.8 (talk) 04:53, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Wargs were almost certainly not inspired by dire wolves!

Canis dirus was a strictly New World species. Consequently, although there is a possibility it may have survived in folklore of the Native Americans, it would not have been a folk inspiration for Old World cultures.

I deleted a paragraph by 74.234.142.186 (not 222.127.123.92 as I mistakenly wrote in the summary, sorry!) that claimed it's a yet another extinct wolf species. It was unsourced and I can't find any such references anywhere. KiloByte (talk) 11:57, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Conventional Etymology of Latin Ferox

From ferus 'wild' plus the PIE *h3okW- 'eye' vel sim., as in the Latin diminutive form oculus 'eye'. The ferus part comes from PIE *g'Hwer- 'wild animal'. There is no connection with 'varg'. RichardW57 09:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I just thought the same. Removing it. dab (𒁳) 18:20, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Remove WoW reference

Why is a reference to WoW under pop culture in the article if they aren't called wargs in the game? There's also a picture of a wolf beside it. Just what is this article supposed to be about anyway? Wargs or wolves? Also, I read that Tolkien wargs were in fact more intelligent than the orcs who rode them. Axion22 21:37, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Worgs in Wow look similar to wolves, but they seem to have tusks. Blacktiger9000 03:07, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Fabs Inc.

I've removed the reference to this supposedly popular comic strip because it doesn't appear to be notable. I can't find any reference to Fabs Inc. online, and you don't have to be very popular at all to make an appearance on Google. And in any case, the "wargs" referred to here are not the creatures referred to elsewhere in the article. HonestTom (talk) 00:18, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Wargs in the upcoming "The Hobbit" films

G. Del Toro is no longer directing the works so I think his intended design, no matter if sourced or not, is no longer relevant for the article. We can add something on those wargs if the films are finally published. De728631 (talk) 14:55, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Good point. I'd forgotten that. Casliber (talk · contribs) 15:45, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Old English cognates

Try as I might, I am yet to find an O.E. word warg which means "large bear". I have found only wearg, meaning "wolf, accursed one, outlaw, felon, criminal", which term J.R. Clark Hall indicates is cognate with O.N. vargr. Is there a source for the warg/large bear claim? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oboroten (talk • contribs) 21:32, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Etymology

--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrcania : "Hyrcania (Ὑρκανία) is the Greek name for the region in historiographic accounts. It is a calque of Old Persian Verkâna .... Verkā means "wolf" in Old Iranian, cf. Avestan vəhrkō, Gilaki and Mazandarani Verk, Modern Persian gorg, and Sanskrit Vŗka (वृक). See also Warg. Consequently, Hyrcania means "Wolf-land". The name was extended to the Caspian Sea and underlie the name of the city Gorgan, capital of the Golestan Province." 109.193.155.100 (talk) 13:27, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Wargs in the Gothic game series

The article does not mention this, maybe it should go in the popular culture section. In the game series, Gothic, Wargs appear in there. In the games Gothic and Gothic 2 (not so much the other titles not developed by Piranha Bites) they are allied with the orcs. They are often found accompanying the orcs and fight alongside them. Feodaran (talk) 23:41, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Expanding the etymology

I find the etymology section here quite limited. We all know that Varg was used for other things than just wolf. There are several essays written on the subject, many of which are summarized in Lords of Chaos, which implied that it was originally used in phrases containing the word vargr, referring to an outcast, criminal, outlaw, arsonist, murderer, traitor, and several more. As you can probably see, I'm no good at writing this stuff, so if someone else could put this in (I'm sure at least one of you knows what I'm talking about) that would be great. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.77.51.161 (talk) 17:31, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

A special kind/group of wolves in Norse mythology, really?

Is there any reason to use the word 'warg' in English in the context of Norse mythology? Is there any evidence that, Tolkien's writings aside, it refers to a special kind of wolf or especially to a few specific wolves in Norse mythology, thereby justifying the retention of the word in English? That would be news to me, and the article doesn't cite any sources on the subject claiming that either. The assertion that the word 'in particular refers to the wolf Fenrir and his sons Sköll and Hati' is vaguely worded and could be interpreted as suggesting that the word refers mostly to them and not to normal wolves, which definitely isn't true. --95.42.15.199 (talk) 23:38, 10 September 2016 (UTC)