475 replies to this topic

[Devon]

Well since it says in the hobbit they sometimes rode wolves...

[Jaguar6]

Lol, notice it says Wolves/Wargs? Aren't Wargs just a bigger more ride able type of Wolf?

[{IP} Aridor]

Yes and no, species wise a wold is a Warg. But a warg is an evil wolf that is inteligent and can talk with goblins and other vile creatures. Now in the movie and the games the Wargs look different b/c they changed their structure some so they could be ridden on. A normal wolf is anatomically impossible to ride on. This is something that wouldn't be mentioned in the book. But when made visual there would be a distinct change, hence the distinction between wolf and warg. You can ride a Warg you can't ride a wolf.

[Devon]

But the books have them riding on both I thought...

[{IP} Aridor]

Well that is a misunderstanding on your part. Tolkien says that the Goblins ride wolves, but then in another spot (in the hobbit if you want to look it up) it talks about how the dwarve group gets trapped in trees by a gathering of wolves. In that passage Tolkien says these were not normal wolves but great wolves from the wild called wargs. That they could talk with the Goblins and that sometimes when they go to war they let the Goblins ride on them. It states exactly that a warg is an overly large wolf. Also that they can be ridden on. Since we know that normal wolves can't be ridden on, we know that along with being large they have a mutation that allows for a rider. So when the books says in other places that goblins ride wolves that they are referring to wargs which are a subset of wolves.

[Devon]

I'm fairly sure it never says they only rode wargs, and not wolves...it simply says the largest and most intelligent wild wolves were known as wargs. Something of a nickname, was the impression I got. Like uruks and uruk-hai.

[{IP} Aridor]

That is exactly what I just said.

[Devon]

Yes, but you said the opposite too You also said normal wolves can't be ridden on, so therefore wargs have been mutated in some way with their bone structure, so they are not in fact just larger wolves.

[Dalf32]

wargs are a subset of wolves. so all wargs are wolves, not all wolves are wargs, but some are.

[Rafv Nin IV]

Does anyone else think this is a pointless discussion?

[{IP} Aridor]

No, it revolves around whether to include wolf riders or not.

[Prince Valiant]

I don't know if wolves can't be ridden on, perhaps by a human, no. BUT by someone the size of a goblin, yes. I personally think that J.R.R Tolkien had large wolves in mind when he came up with wargs. Not the mutation that Peter Jacksion developed... I like the idea of wolves and calling them Wargs (Not that my vote counts , lol)...

[{IP} Aridor]

It doesn't matter what size the creature was a wolves spine isn't meant to bear a riding load. There is no where to sit. The way the spine has to bend makes it impossible to ride. On top of that anything that is greater than half its size would break the spine when ridden.

[Fyro11]

Simply put, AA is right. However it did happen in The Hobbit, and for a long distance the Goblins travelled too from the Misty Mountains and further North which is why they caught up with the company (of Dwarves) so quickly. Hazarding a guess, I would say it's because Goblins weigh a lot less than Men or Elves.

[{IP} Aridor]

But what I am saying is that since you can't ride a normal wolf there had to have been something special about the ones they rode. Since Tolkien called the ones that they rode Wargs the logical deduction is that there was something special about that breed of wolf. Wargs are just a breed of wolf, like the manx cat is a breed of cat. The manx cat has a significant difference than most other cats but it is still a cat. So in conclusion you can't ride on most wolves, only the wolf breed with a different spine structure. For the sake of ease that breed is called Wargs.

[Fyro11]

Makes sense, and probably the most logical deduction one can make.

[{IP} Aridor]

Logic rarely fails.

[Pasidon]

You're comparing a demonic wolf to a manx cat?

[Devon]

As I said, I'm pretty sure tolkien said they rode wolves as well, not only the bigger wargs.


I think that the wolves of middle earth are simply different than wolves of our earth, kinda of like his dwarves and our real dwarves are different

[{IP} Aridor]

How many times do I have to say it. The term wolf and warg are interchangeable. Tolkien would distigiush that much between them. And as for your second argument, well that doesn't change anything. The wolves that they have them riding in the game are normal wolves like our world's. You can't ride on our world's wolves. To ride on them they would have to look like wargs. So to say that middle earth wolves are different from our wolves and can be riden on just means that all wolves in middle earth would look like the wargs in movie.