Great grey chief wolf

Chief wolf
Biographical information
Birth	Sometime before TA 2941
Death	On or after TA 2941
Realms	Pine-woods near the Vales of Anduin
Physical description
Race	Wolves
Gender	Male
Hair	Grey
Culture	Wargs

"From these he had got news: the goblin patrols were still hunting with Wargs for the dwarves, and they were fiercely angry because of the death of the Great Goblin, and also because of the burning of the chief wolf’s nose and the death from the wizard’s fire of many of his chief servants"

—Beorn gets news from a captured Orc and a captured Warg

The "chief wolf" was the great grey leader of the Wargs from beyond the Edge of the Wild that were often allies of the Northern Orcs. The number of Wargs in the chief wolf's pack was untold, but was known to consist of many hundreds of wolves.

Biography

The early life of the chief wolf is untold. Either prior or during his leadership, the chief wolf often met with the Northern Orcs of Goblin-town at their meeting-place to discuss plans for raids on the Woodmen of Western Mirkwood. During these raids, the chief wolf's Wargs were often prevented from devouring any Woodman that the Orcs wished to take away as a slave.

During the early summer of 2941, when the chief wolf and his Wargs arrived at their meeting-place to discuss a great raid on the Woodmen that night, they were surprised to find Thorin and Company in the trees overlooking it. After having his Wargs sniff out every tree the Dwarves were in, the chief wolf posted wolf-guards beneath each of them before gathering the other wolves in a circle. From the middle of the great circle, the chief wolf spoke to his pack "about cruel and wicked things" in the wolf-language. Occasionally, the chief wolf's words would be answered in unison by the other wolves. They discussed how the Orcs were late for their planned raid on the Woodmen that night. Like the rest of his pack, the chief wolf assumed that the Company were spying on them and were friends of the Woodmen. To prevent their planned raid from being leaked to the Woodmen, the chief wolf planned to keep the Company pinned in the trees until morning or until the Orcs arrived.

The chief wolf's talk was interrupted when Gandalf three a blue flaming pine-cone into the circle. This was followed by more flaming pine-cones. In particular, the largest pine-cone hit the chief wolf's nose, causing him to leap ten feet off the ground before turning on his own pack in his terror and anger. The wolf-guards began "cursing the dwarves in" this language.

The ultimate fate of the chief wolf is untold, but he may have been among the wolves that fled the meeting-place in search of water. While the fate of his pack is also untold, it is probable that it was related to the Hound of Sauron's pack that confronted the Fellowship of the Ring many years later, since it was mentioned by Aragorn that the pack came from beyond the Misty Mountains.

In adaptations

The Hobbit film trilogy

The Warg Matriarch from The Hobbit films

In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, the role of the chief wolf was given to the Warg Matriarch, the personal warg steed of the Orc leader Azog, and the mother of the Gundabad Wargs. The Warg Matriarch's name is non-canonical, but she has the role of the chief wolf in addition to being more prominent.

She was present when Azog killed Yazneg. In the battle with Thorin II, she suffered many injuries. Later, in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Azog rides her when meeting up with Bolg, and again leading his armies towards the Lonely Mountain. She is killed in the final battle of the city of Dale and the Lonely Mountain in the extended edition of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Danish	Varge-matriarken