Message Board | Rules

Thread: Variags


Bottom of Page    Message Board > The Lord of the Rings > Variags   
I have a question regarding the Variags which has been annoying me for some time. They were mentioned briefly in The Lord of The Rings, and were described as hailing from Khand. The next time they're mentioned it's as, 'troll-men and Variags and orcs that hated the sunlight.' If it were not for this line I would assume them to simply be a race of evil men similar to the Easterlings, or the Haradrim. But the bit about them hating the sunlight the same as trolls and orcs, makes me think they're supposed to be a somewhat more fantastic race.
Does Tolkien ever mention or describe them in any of his other work?
Quote:
But the bit about them hating the sunlight the same as trolls and orcs, makes me think they're supposed to be a somewhat more fantastic race.

Maybe they hated the sunlight because they lived primarily in caves or underground, like Morlocks. That could explain their hatred of sunlight.

JRRT might have mentioned something more about them in his Letters, but I doubt it.
There was nothing in the index to the Letters of JRR Tolkien, though I did find something in a RotK paragraph on the page preceding the one mentioned above by Azog:
Quote:
There they had been mustered for the sack if the City and the rape of Gondor, waiting on the call of their Captain. He now was destroyed; but Gothmog the lieutenant of Morgul had flung them into the fray; Easterlings with axes, and Variags of Khand, Southrons in scarlet, and out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues. RotK - 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields'
Thus, I believe the Variags were Sun enduring Men who lived in Khand which is located to the east-south-east of Mordor and north-east of Harad.

Also those half-trolls may have been Olog-hai, who could endure the Sun similar to the Uruk-hai.
I doubt Olog-hai came from Far Harad... it were Men all right, with apparently a quaint appearance... anyway it's not very nice from Tolkien, comparing Men to half-trolls. Not very nice at all.
The people Khand lived South-East of Mordor and their capital is Surstla Khand. They were the equivalent of the Rohirrim in the East and had Asian skin.They live in the upper Harnen river basin in an Semi-Arid climate.The Harnen, for them is the equivalent of the Nile to the Egyptians.Here is a map of huge tracks of Middle-Earth that is very detailed The Western regions of Middle-Earth. Hope you have fun enjoying it. Cool Smilie
I read that as '... and orcs that hated the sunlight' not necessarily that the Variags hated it.

The O.E.D. notes (thanks to Hammond and Scull) that in the old Russian chronicle of Nestor Variags is used of the people usually named Varangians 'Scandinavian rovers who in the 9th and 10th centuries overran parts of Russia and reached Constantinople' (note also the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Emperor).

According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language: variag n. cap Russ Varyag of Scand origin; akin to ON Vaeringjar Varangians: Varangian.
Galin is correct. Assuming you copied the quote correctly it says 'half trolls, Variags and Orcs which hated the sunlight'. It is only implying that Orcs hated the sunlight, not the beginning two.