There is a word in Old Norse,
vagr, which means both 'wolf' and 'outlaw'. In Old English there is a word
wearh, which means 'outcast' or 'outlaw' (but not 'wolf'), and a verb
awyrgan, which means 'to condemn', but also 'to strangle' (the death of a condemned outcast), and perhaps 'to worry, to bite to death'. Why did Old Norse feel the need for another word for 'wolf', when they had the common word too,
ulfr? And why should Old English give the word somehow a more eerie and less eevidently physical sense? Tolkien's word '
Warg' clearly splits the difference between Old Norse and Old English pronunciations, and his concept of them --
wolves, but not just wolves, intelligent and malevolent wolves -- combines the two ancient opinions.