Other Direwolves

[The Bastards Giant Friend]

In Dance, Leaf tells Bran that the direwolves will outlast them all (meaning the old creatures; giants, children, grumpkins, snarks, and the like).

So I think there are more, but just like in real life, it is hard to find a wolf that doesn't want to be found.

[Macgregor of the North]

Gared knows of Direwolves in the North beyond the Wall:

"There's some enemies a fire will keep away," Gared said. "Bears and direwolves and … and other things …"

Mormont tells Tyrion of the Direwolves beyond the Wall:

"There are wild things in the woods, direwolves and mammoths and snow bears the size of aurochs, and I have seen darker shapes in my dreams."

And Leaf tells Bran of the Direwolves still living beyond the Wall:

"The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us."

GRRM simply has not decided to show us any Direwolves yet other than the Stark children's wolves for whatever reason.

Note on Wargs. There is no such term as "Warging" in the ASOIAF world. Only the term Warg, and that is simply a Skinchanger who is bound to a Wolf, any kind of Wolf whether it is a Direwolve or a regular Wolf. But there is no instance in the books anywhere that says they "Warg" in to their Wolf. No Skinchanger actually "Wargs" into anything. The term Warg is reserved exclusively for a person who is bound to any type of Wolf. 

Haggon was a Warg bound to Greyskin, Varamyr was a Warg as he was bound to his Wolves. All Stark children are/were Wargs. There are other Wargs beyond the Wall but strangely we haven't met them yet for whatever reason of GRRMS. I had thought to see some Wargs cross the Wall as Borroq did, but it wasn't to be. Even just a couple warriors who were bound to regular Wolves may have been interesting but it may have posed problems with clashes with Ghost at Castle Black that GRRM just didn't want to write about so he left them out. 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

14 hours ago, Luddagain said:

Lady Blizzard

 

Yes i think that the Balackwoods took their warging/skinchanging ability south. I suspect the Greystarks were also wargs/skinchangers, hecne their extermination. I rather suspect the many diapearing starks may also be those with warging ability

The Greystarks teamed up with the Boltons against House Stark in a rebellion...hence their extermination. 

[Kienn]

I'll pay $1,000,000 to anyone that can give me a book quote where the term "warging" is used in conjunction with wolves.

[Bluetiger]

12 minutes ago, Kienn said:

I'll pay $1,000,000 to anyone that can give me a book quote where the term "warging" is used in conjunction with wolves.

GRRM studied Norse Mythology (especially sagas and eddas) at university, so he probably knows what warg means.

But of course, he could have used this term for sth different if he wanted

So if you want book quotes:

Quote

Bran looked at him, his eyes wide. "What?"

"Warg. Shapechanger. Beastling. That is what they will call you, if they should ever hear of your wolf dreams."

The names made him afraid again. "Who will call me?"

 

Quote

"What everyone knows is that Ser Alliser is a knight from a noble line, and trueborn, while I'm the bastard who killed Qhorin Halfhand and bedded with a spearwife. The warg, I've heard them call me. How can I be a warg without a wolf, I ask you?" His mouth twisted. "I don't even dream of Ghost anymore. All my dreams are of the crypts, of the stone kings on their thrones. Sometimes I hear Robb's voice, and my father's, as if they were at a feast. But there's a wall between us, and I know that no place has been set for me."

 

Quote

"Aye. All that, and more. You are a warg too, they say, a skinchanger who walks at night as a wolf." King Stannis had a hard smile. "How much of it is true?"

"I had a direwolf, Ghost. I left him when I climbed the Wall near Greyguard, and have not seen him since. Qhorin Halfhand commanded me to join the wildlings. He knew they would make me kill him to prove myself, and told me to do whatever they asked of me. The woman was named Ygritte. I broke my vows with her, but I swear to you on my father's name that I never turned my cloak."

 

Quote

Wargs have no fear of man, as wolves do. Hate and hunger coiled in his belly, and he gave a low growl, calling to his one-eyed brother, to his small sly sister. As he raced through the trees, his packmates followed hard on his heels. They had caught the scent as well. As he ran, he saw through their eyes too and glimpsed himself ahead. The breath of the pack puffed warm and white from long grey jaws. Ice had frozen between their paws, hard as stone, but the hunt was on now, the prey ahead. Flesh, the warg thought, meat.

 

Quote

Not all skinchangers felt the same, however. Once, when Lump was ten, Haggon had taken him to a gathering of such. The wargs were the most numerous in that company, the wolf-brothers, but the boy had found the others stranger and more fascinating. Borroq looked so much like his boar that all he lacked was tusks, Orell had his eagle, Briar her shadowcat (the moment he saw them, Lump wanted a shadowcat of his own), the goat woman Grisella …

(...)

Varamyr could feel the snowflakes melting on his brow. This is not so bad as burning. Let me sleep and never wake, let me begin my second life. His wolves were close now. He could feel them. He would leave this feeble flesh behind, become one with them, hunting the night and howling at the moon. The warg would become a true wolf. Which, though?

 

Quote

In truth, the legends of the skinchangers are many, but the most common—brought from beyond the Wall by men of the Night's Watch, and recorded at the Wall by septons and maesters of centuries past—hold that the skinchangers not only communicated with beasts, but could control them by having their spirits mingle. Even among the wildlings, these skinchangers were feared as unnatural men who could call on animals as allies. Some tales speak of skinchangers losing themselves in their beasts, and others say that the animals could speak with a human voice when a skinchanger controlled them. But all the tales agree that the most common skinchangers were men who controlled wolves—even direwolves—and these had a special name among the wildlings: wargs.

 

 

[Daendrew]

Icespiders as large as hounds. That's the equivalent.

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Giant_ice_spider 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

4 hours ago, Blue Tiger said:

GRRM studied Norse Mythology (especially sagas and eddas) at university, so he probably knows what warg means.

But of course, he could have used this term for sth different if he wanted

So if you want book quotes:

<snip

What you gonna do with all that money, BT? And can I come visit you in your new mansion?

[Smirking Knight]

Dire wolves are probably a bit like snow leopards - food is so scarce north of the wall that the habitat simply can't support more than one in a very large area and so they're exceedingly rare. 

I also wonder if the Others have made a concerted effort to wipe out / turn to their own devices any large / dangerous wildlife in advance of their campaign. Between any wargs among the wildlings and the CotF, snow bears, shadowcats, and dire wolves represent a serious liability (Summer and Ghost, for example, seem to have been much more effective against wights than most humans are). 

[Macgregor of the North]

8 hours ago, Blue Tiger said:

GRRM studied Norse Mythology (especially sagas and eddas) at university, so he probably knows what warg means.

But of course, he could have used this term for sth different if he wanted

So if you want book quotes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Kienn was asking for the term "warging" not Warg. A Warg is someone bound to a Wolf in ASOIAF, this is known, but "warging"? What is this term and where does it appear in any of the text? This is what Kienn would like to know. I would too while we're on the topic because if I'm not mistaken, many seem to think that when (for example) Bran slips in to Hodors skin he is "warging" Hodor and so on.

[White Ravens]

A quick scan of the word "warging" on A Search of Ice and Fire yields 48 results but all of them are the noun "warg".  There are no examples of the verb "warging".

[Bluetiger]

17 minutes ago, White Ravens said:

A quick scan of the word "warging" on A Search of Ice and Fire yields 48 results but all of them are the noun "warg".  There are no examples of the verb "warging".

but it's logical that if such term existed, it'd mean 'skinchanging wolves'

[Macgregor of the North]

1 hour ago, Blue Tiger said:

but it's logical that if such term existed, it'd mean 'skinchanging wolves'

"If" such a term existed. Key word being "if", as it doesn't exist. I'd actually have less issue with it being used exclusively for Skinchanging Wolves, even though it's a completely made up phrase, but when people say stuff like "Will Bran Warg a Dragon", or "when Bran is Warging Hodor" I do wonder where that terminology has sprung from and give my head a wee shake.

[Jak Scaletongue]

On 2017-03-13 at 5:52 PM, Pray Harder said:

In addition, the term "warging" is exclusively reserved for wolves, which leads me to believe we should have come across at LEAST one other warg with a direwolf rather than a few other skinchangers (which, correct me if I'm wrong, are rarer than wargs).

The only thing I can think of is because GRRM needed it to be that way. Is there a simple, obvious answer to this that I'm just missing?

I've always understood "warg" to be anyone who can skinchange a canine (dog, wolf, direwolf...maybe even foxes?) which is why it's considered the most common because dogs are in every castle, every town, nearly everyone probably has a dog at least hanging out nearby if it isn't actually *their* dog!  That and any wolf pups found, likely after their mother had been killed, would be adopted into someone's kennel with the domestic dogs sometimes since there's likely still a far bit of overlap between "wolves" and "dogs".  I've also got the impression (from Varamyr though, so who knows if it's "normal" behaviour for skinchangers) that multiple animals for a skinchanger isn't unheard of (ie: Arya and Nymeria *and* the cat...so Arya's still a warg, but only by virtue of being able to skinchange Nymeria...).  So essentially I'm speculating that "wargs" are more common simply because it's exceptionally common for a child to befriend one of the farm dogs and skinchange them the first time they skinchange...dogs being exceptionally prone to developing that bond with a human.  And since it wouldn't be uncommon for about half those "farm dogs" to be some % of wolf, the term "warg" came to mean someone who can skinchange into any canine-type animal (though I'm still on the fence about foxes...). The other types of skinchangers don't have a specific term because it's significantly more difficult to bond with other animals....there's no animal quite so desperate to please than a dog....and again, most of the skinchangers likely had their first experience skinchanging with the family/neighbourhood dog than anything else (maybe the family mouser, but farm cats are pretty wild...) unless they were the type of kid to help a broken bird than kill it...

[Lady Blizzardborn]

1 hour ago, Macgregor of the North said:

"If" such a term existed. Key word being "if", as it doesn't exist. I'd actually have less issue with it being used exclusively for Skinchanging Wolves, even though it's a completely made up phrase, but when people say stuff like "Will Bran Warg a Dragon", or "when Bran is Warging Hodor" I do wonder where that terminology has sprung from and give my head a wee shake.

I don't wonder where it came from. People create new verbs all the time.

What I wonder is why they're using "warging" when they should be using "skinchanging" for the non-wolf skinchanging actions.

[Macgregor of the North]

39 minutes ago, Lady Blizzardborn said:

I don't wonder where it came from. People create new verbs all the time.

What I wonder is why they're using "warging" when they should be using "skinchanging" for the non-wolf skinchanging actions.

Which is exactly what I stated I wonder about in my post. 

This is what is bound to happen though when people start 'creating new verbs all the time' for these books I suppose, even though there is sufficient terminology provided for us in the books to use. 

[Bluetiger]

Here's a definition from the Oxford Dictionary blog: (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/06/george-r-r-martins-invented-language-game-thrones/)

5. Warg

A warg is a person with the ability to project his consciousness into the minds of wolves. (In the books, skinchanger is the general term for a person who can project his consciousness into an animal, and warg is a specific term pertaining to wolves. In the television show, the term warg applies for both cases.) In Westeros, this is a rare power. It seems to run in families; the siblings Bran Stark and Arya Stark are proven wargs, with the signs of this ability first showing in the form of dreams in which they take over the bodies of their pet direwolves.

Martin almost certainly adopted this word as a tribute to the great fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien, who, in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, uses the word warg to describe an enormous species of wolf. (Martin uses the word direwolf, the name of an actual extinct species, for this purpose.) Tolkien took this word from the Proto-Germanic *wargaz, meaning ‘criminal’, which generated the Old Norse vargr, meaning ‘outlaw’ and therefore ‘wolf’ in a metaphoric sense.

This is interesting as well: (http://winteriscoming.net/2014/10/03/words-wind-warg/)

Warg and vargr

The term warg has a long association with wolves in fantasy, going back to The Lord of the Rings. In Middle-Earth, wargs are wolflike beasts ridden by orcs for transport and combat. Tolkien took the term from vargr, the Norse word for wolf. Since Tolkien, wolflike “wargs,” “worgs,” or “worgen” have appeared in many fantasy worlds, including Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft. It’s possible that Martin’s version was inspired by Tolkien, by some other fantasy world, or by the Norse tales of vargr, such as Fenrir, the Fen-Dweller.

In Norse mythology, the monstrous wolf Fenrir was the son of Loki and hottie frost giantess Angrboða. A prophecy said that Fenrir was destined to murder the god Odin. This is an interesting connection, since the “three-eyed raven” that Bran meets at the end of Season 4 seems inspired by Odin, the All-Father. Odin is also associated with sight and eyes, having sacrificed an eye for greater wisdom. In the tales, Odin used two magical ravens to fly around the world each day and bring him news of what they saw each night.  Does this mean that Bran, with his connection to giant wolves, is destined to kill the man living under the weirwood tree?

A creepy dude utilising weirwoods to bring him magical knowledge and commanding two ravens (symbols of doom above the world)... This sounds a lot like @LmL's theory that Bloodstone Emperor Azor Ahai was a greenseer who used his powers to somehow destroy the moon...