 Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" extend the role of wargs as mounts for Orcs, battling the horse-riders of Rohan.In the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey's view, the spelling "warg" is a cross of Old Norse "vargr" and Old English "wearh", both words shifting from just meaning "wolf" to "outlaw".The critic Gregory Hartley treats wargs as "personified animals", along with the sentient eagles, giant spiders, Smaug the dragon, ravens and thrushes.