Of Wargs and Werewolves - What are the differences between them? - Lord of the Rings Lore

In Lord of the Rings Wargs and also Werewolves are mentioned. But what exactly is the difference? In this lore video we briefly dive into this Tolkien Lore question, which was suggested for a video during a livestream.

► Disclaimer:
I have permission of the artists to use their art works.

► Artwork and special thanks to:

► Sources:
The Lord of The Rings (1954-1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion (1977)
The Hobbit (1937; 1951)
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien Revised and Expanded Edition (2023)
The War of The Jewels (1994)
The Book of Lost Tales Part Two (1984)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
Morgoth's Ring (1993)
History of the Hobbit (2007)
The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Maps:
Amazon (John Howe)
Edited by: Murdo
Aman map by ThePhilosophersGames

► Mistakes:
- I think I say Draugluin's name wrong (Drauglin?); sorry

► Playlists:
If you are interested in Tolkien's legendary fantasy Epic The Lord of the Rings and his related works, here some recommendations:

► Time Codes:
Intro - 0:00

► Social Media:
The Philosopher's Games / TPhGames / TPhLore aka Chris

► Of Games and Rings Podcast:

#LordOfTheRings #Tolkien #Hobbit

[ThePhilosophersGames]

I hope you like the video ^^ I Think I say the name Draugluin wrong (the second U went missing in my head), sorry for that 😅
What are your theories about the differences? Was this video - though a bit inconclusive - still interesting?

► Artwork and special thanks to:

[theamazingbatboy]

Terrific choice for a Halloween video! Love the language deconstruction stuff—easily my favourite part of the inspiration and depth of research inherent to the Legendarium. Language is like a contantly changing river, transporting stories and ideas like sediment through history.

[ZephyrOptional]

I’d always seen Wargs as the lesser third age version of warewolves and believed that warewoves were originally trapped lesser Maiar and wargs were their ancient descendants that mixed with typical wolves, but thanks to your fantastic research, I can see they are more similar than that!

[Crafty_Spirit]

Inspired by: lengthy lifestreams. Great stuff Chris 👌🏼

[jonathonfrazier]

5:42 First off, yes I agree wargs and werewolves are seperate albeit closely related creatures. And the use of this letter from nearly any other person would be good evidence. But this is Tolkien who mentions goblins and orc in a single sentence of The Hobbit as though they are seperate sorts of creatures when we all know that they are not. How do we know that Tolkien is not using a similar confusing statement?

[istari]

The reference to Werewolves being spirits Melkor placed into the bodies of some other creature has made me wonder for sometime if they aren't Maia in the form of terrible wolf-like creatures. Tolkien refers to evil spirits in a number of places in the Legendarium but we are left to wonder about the origins of these spirits. Wargs to me seem more like corrupted wolves bred to be particularly vicious and large.

[RicoThingol]

I wonder if the bear people that Beorn descended from had any type of connection to the sorcery used by Sauron thousands of years before

[stephenderogier]

If you have time - and assuming you have the game for some system - you should make a lore video about War in the North like you did for Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War and Gollum ^_^

[Crafty_Spirit]

Wearg means outlaw? I bet that is related to "Wealas", which was the term by which the Anglosaxons referred to the Brythonnic celts. Some of them would end as outlaws, not integrating into English rule.