The Warg and Warg Rider Appreciation Thread

[SamwiseGamgee]

Indeed, I once remember your signature to have been: if an ox could draw a god he would draw an ox. Well: if I could draw a god I would draw a warg!

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Me too. There is a thread on 'heavy rotation' at the moment in the Books section which mentions Wargs, although some Downers have been showing a bit of disrespect to our saviours. 'Wargs weren't powerful' and other such nonsense.

When will people learn eh? Probably never. The Ice Age will take us all and the Wargs will shake their heads and forget about us.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I was thinking about writing a tale in which appears characters from The Tumilovich Conundrum (ever read that book? Its wonderful). However, its not really got anything to do with Middle-earth so I probably should not bother.

I have other stories though, including one featuring a glorious day in Khand, as well as one which sheds some light on the mystery of the Rhun hills.

[SamwiseGamgee]

I have heard of that book. A mixture of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and Roald Dahl's 'Esio Trot', apparently.
Tell us, please, of the stories of Khand. Is there perhaps a link between the wargs and the infamous 'Party in Khand'?

[Nimrothiel]

Greetings, Warg enthusiasts. I am newly come to post in this thread, though not a tale as of yet. A question plagues my mind, one that I would fain have answered before Eomer of the Rohirrim elects to share with us his doubtless fascinating tale. My question is this: Did only Cam Beleg hold the title of "The Warg Rider," or did more than one such entity exist? If so, were the Warg Riders only evil, or did some fight on the side of good? If so, I will do all within my power to find a tale concerning this aspect of Warg history.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Greetings Nimrothiel, so good to have another Warg enthusiast join us at the Appreciation Thread.

In answer to your questions about the Warg Rider, we here believe to have discovered new things about him only recently. (You can trawl through previous posts to see how we got there). So, here goes my attempt at a general summery.

Cam Beleg was the original and greatest Warg Rider, and the tale of his greatest exploits can be read in Samwise's excellent post a little bit before this one. In after years, more and more beings (I believe they were all Orcs) were sometimes attributed the title of 'The Warg Rider' and, though they were all far less powerful than Cam Beleg himself, they yet kept alive the fear that Cam Beleg could instill in Middle-earth.

The Two Towers movie has given rise to a popular misunderstanding of so-called Warg Riders. I'm sure you all remember Saruman's line in that film "Send out your Warg Riders!" directed to what appeared to be a normal Orc. In the following battle which featured these 'Warg Riders' and the Rohirrim, it is easy for the audience to assume certain things about 'Warg Riders'.

This is a misconception. There are no such things as Warg Riders. Sure, there are riders who ride on Wargs, but that is altogether different. At any one time there is only one Warg Rider.

And in answer to your other query, the Warg Rider is always, but always evil.

[Nimrothiel]

Ah, thank you for that clarification. Excuse me, but I feel the pull of some other thread that is less static and more flexible. Sorry to have wasted screen space for a post by a fellow enthusiast. Note: I did not say "fellow Warg enthusiasts" for this very reason; I fear that I have wasted time and effort in my now vain pursuit of the "good" Warg Rider.