Learned borrowing from Old Norse vargr (“wolf”), reintroduced by J. R. R. Tolkien; compare also Old English wearg. The verb senses emerged from the use of warg in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels as a noun referring to a person with a magical skin-changing ability.
Meanings
A type of particularly wild or hostile wolf.
The monsters are identified not as trolls, a word apparently not available in English at the time, but (among other things) as wargs, whatever that means; Grendel is called a heoro-wearh at line 1267 and his mother a grund-wyrgen at line 1518. 2007, Stephen O. Glosecki, Myth in Northwest Europe:
My question is do all of the executable versions for PC compatibles have the color option enabled? If so, what am I missing to not get say yellow for a hill orc, grey for a goblin, white for my pet, red for a wolf, brown for a warg, etc? 1993, jbatka, “Multiple colors for PC compatible”, in rec.hack (Usenet):
He'd bought a ton of silver to forge magic swords that would slay the Stark wargs. 1999, George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 462:
But even the wild Wargs (for so the evil wolves over the Edge of the Wild were named) cannot climb trees. […] Every now and then all the Wargs in the circle would answer their grey chief all together, and their dreadful clamour almost made the hobbit fall out of his pine-tree. 1937 September 21, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Out of the Frying-pan into the Fire”, in The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published February 1966 (August 1967 printing), →OCLC, page 105:
Learned borrowing from Old Norse vargr (“wolf”), reintroduced by J. R. R. Tolkien; compare also Old English wearg. The verb senses emerged from the use of warg in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels as a noun referring to a person with a magical skin-changing ability.
Meanings
(slang) To possess the mind of (and see through the eyes of) another person or animal.
Hodor’s origin is finally revealed as well, with Bran warging into the big man’s body. 2017, Rowan Kaiser, 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Do & Know Before They Die, page 72:
As he was dying, Varamyr Sixskins of the Free Folk warged into his wolf One Eye (A Dance with Dragons). 2017, Erik Baldwin, “How Can We Know Anything in a World of Magic and Miracles?”, in Eric J. Silverman, Robert Arp, editors, The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy: You Think or Die, page 189:
Even in far-off Braavos, Arya has wolf-dreams, and she can warg into Nymeria’s body; it’s thus that she discovers Catelyn’s body floating in the Trident and drags it out (SS, 65). 2016, Carolyne Larrington, Winter Is Coming: The Medieval World of Game of Thrones, page 59:
(qualifier:Crusader Kings fandom slang) To switch to another player character during a game.
If you let yourself warg into him when you die you get his money anyway 2016 April 9, murphylawson, Reddit:
The quickest way to unmarry an unlanded character is to land them (via console of otherwise), warg into them, divorce, go back to your character, and take the land back. 2018 June 25, Uberguuy, Reddit:
I died and warged into my son, and waited around for a succession war in England. 2016 January 22, [deleted account], Reddit: