Tolkien's Variags: The mysterious warriors of Khand

Article first published (in Romanian) in Revista Online de SF și Fantasy Galaxia 42. 

Southron Mercenaries - Harradrim, byChris Guise

Many peoples and tribes of greedy and bloodthirsty Men, with "minds filled with hatred"[1] and hostile to the Free Peoples, are counted among Sauron’s forces: from the Easterlings of Rhûn and the Southrons of Harad, to the Corsairs of Umbar and the Wild Men of Dunland and Rhudaur. Yet there is one group that is often overlooked: the Variags of Khand. In fact, this is hardly surprising, given the lack of details J.R.R. Tolkien provided about them and their extremely limited presence within the fictional universe of Middle-earth.

For instance, in the main story of The Lord of the Rings, the Variags are mentioned only once, specifically in the third novel, The Return of the King, where they are listed among Mordor’s vassals summoned to take part in the siege of the city of Minas Tirith:

"[The Witch-king] 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. Some now hastened up behind the Rohirrim, others held westward to hold off the forces of Gondor and prevent their joining with Rohan." [2]

Khand Warriors, by Turner Mohan

The Variags are mentioned again in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings and in Unfinished Tales, where we are told that, before the War of the Ring, the Men of Khand took part in the conflict between Gondor and the 'Wainriders' – a great confederation of Easterlings, stirred up by Sauron’s emissaries and encouraged to wage war against the West:

"[...] the eastern Wainriders had been spreading southward, beyond Mordor, and were in conflict with the peoples of Khand and their neighbours further south. Eventually a peace and alliance was agreed between these enemies of Gondor, and an attack was prepared that should be made at the same time from north and south." [1]

This coalition between Rhûn, Khand, and Harad, whose fierce attack shook Gondor to its foundations, was short-lived, however, coming to an end with the defeat of the Wainriders.

Southron Mercenaries -
Harradrim, by Gus Hunter

In the film adaptations produced under the banner of New Line Cinema and Warner Bros., the Variags made their first appearance in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. In the passage from the Appendices on which the film’s story is based, we are briefly told how the Dunlending lord Wulf, bent on taking revenge on the legendary King Helm Hammerhand, forged an alliance with the “Eastern invarders”[2] in order to attack Rohan and keep Gondor occupied:

"Four years later (2758) great troubles came to Rohan, and no help could be sent from Gondor, for three fleets of the Corsairs attacked it and there was war on all its coasts. At the same time Rohan was again invaded from the East, and the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard. It was soon known that Wulf was their leader. The were in great force, for they were joined by enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen."[2]

The screenwriters chose to include the Men of Khand among the Dunlendings’ allies, alongside the Easterlings from Rhûn (and the Corsairs of Umbar, who -according to The Art of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim - were cut from the film’s final version). However, in this context, the term Variag is presented as a word from the fictional language of the Rohirrim, meaning 'mercenary, sellsword.' The Variags in the animated film are actually a collection of clans belonging to the Southrons (Haradrim), who lend their services to the enemies of Gondor and Rohan. As in the case of the original Haradrim from The Lord of the Rings motion picture trilogy, the designers drew inspiration from the clothing, armour, and weapons used by 12th-century Saracens, as well as those employed by other Iranian, Semitic, and Turkic peoples.

Curiously, the banners of several mûmakil (oliphaunts), the elephantine pachyderms ridden by these Variags—or, more accurately, Haradrim—bear the Eye of Sauron. Taken together with the presence of several Easterlings in Wulf’s army and the appearance of the two Orcs in the service of Mordor later in the film, this heraldic detail is intended to make particularly attentive viewers wonder whether:

• this is merely an expression of Wulf’s cunning and pragmatism, as he uses the fortune accumulated by his late father, Freca, to hire these mercenaries (who drag their lethal mûmakil along!);
• or whether, in addition to their agreement with Wulf, the Variags were sent by another Power (Sauron), who was operating behind the scenes and taking advantage of the turmoil in the kingdoms of Men.

As Daniel Falconer, a senior member of the WETA Workshop team, explains:

"The war in Rohan is not occurring in isolation. There is a larger game being played in Middle-earth geopolitics and we are given glimpses and hints of it. In the book, Tolkien tells us that corsairs have been striking targets on Gondor’s south coast, which is why Rohan’s traditional allies are nowhere to be seen. Wulf has bolstered his own forces with hired mercenaries from the south. Tolkien describes him being joined by enemies of Gondor landing in the mouths of the rivers that flow through his father’s lands. While we don’t see them land, these are the Southrons of our movie, the Haradrim, or Variags, as Haleth calls them, with their mûmak mounts, hired (or perhaps sent?) to help Wulf destroy Rohan."[3]

Southron Mercenaries - Harradrim, by Ken Samonte & Iona Brinch

The creators of The Lord of the Rings Online have also opted to portray the Variags as a large group of sellswords, joining the armies of Mordor not because of blind faith in Sauron or because of some quarrel with the Free Peoples of the West, but simply because the Dark Lord promised them a rich reward for aiding him.

This interpretation—that Tolkien’s Variags were mercenaries—may be very close to what the author had in mind. In real history, the term variag, from Old Russian and derived from vaeringi (var meant 'oath' in Scandinavian languages), was used in Nestor's Chronicle to refer to the Varangians. These Varangians were warriors, merchants, and colonists of Scandinavian origin who established settlements (like Kiev and Novgorod) in the territories of present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, laying the foundations of Kievan Rus and eventually being assimilated by the Eastern Slavs.

The most important point to note is that many of the Varangians who came to Eastern Europe fought as sellswords. The best-known example is that of the Vikings who saw service under the Eastern Roman Empire between the X-XV centuries, forming the elite Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople. Tolkienian linguist David Salo, however, pointed out that toward the end of Byzantine power, mercenaries belonging to ethnic groups other than the Scandinavians—Anglo-Saxons, Scots, and others—began to be admitted into this elite military unit. Salo states:

Varangians in the Balkans, 1020-1050,
by Giuseppe Rava

"The Varangians were the Vikings of the east, marauders not by sea but by land and river, and also mercenaries and traders. Originating in Denmark and Sweden they spread across the Baltic through Russia and Ukraine to the Black Sea in the 9th-11th centuries some of them finding employment in the Byzantine Emperor’s 'Varangian Guard' (though this was actually a kind of Foreign Legion and included many nationalities). It is therefore probable that when Tolkien used the word 'Variag' that he meant little more than 'barbarian mercenary'. It is however interesting that he should use the Russian version of the word."

It is possible, however, that the allusion to the Varangians’ reputation as elite hired warriors goes deeper than a superficial connection. In the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, the “Northmen” are mentioned, a folk that lived in the region of Rhovanion and was usually allied with Gondor. Yet J.R.R. Tolkien also tells us:

"[...] the Northmen did not always remain true to Gondor and some would join forces with the Easterlings either out of greed for spoil or in the furtherance of feuds among their princes."[2]

Since Tolkien explicitly mentions greed as one of the reasons for these Northmen’s betrayal, we can imagine that quite a few of them were employed by Eastern invaders as mercenaries in their conflict with the kingdom of Gondor. We can also imagine that these renegade Northmen were forced to leave Rhovanion and followed the Easterlings during their retreat, eventually settling in Khand, where they continued their tradition as sellswords on the payroll of Gondor and Rohan’s enemies as sellswords, eventually coming to be counted among the allies of Mordor.

Varangian in Native Russian Armor, 
de ChrisHistoryartworks

And just as the historical Varangians gradually adopted characteristics of Eastern cultures—for example, many wore lamellar armour, more commonly associated with Turkic and Mongol peoples—and those who had built Kievan Rus were eventually Slavicized, it is possible that the Variags of Middle-earth were a northern folk who came under the influence of neighbouring peoples, such as the Easterlings of Rhûn and the Southrons of Harad.

That is about all I have to tell you about the Variags of Khand. We will never have a complete understanding of them, just as we never will regarding characters such as Tom Bombadil, Ungoliant, or the Blue Wizards. But then, what fun would there be in an imaginary world where everything were spelled out for us? Any fantasy universe, any mythology, needs a little mystery. And, ultimately, that is the purpose of these enigmas: everyone can formulate their own interpretation, and we can arrive at some very interesting theories and debates.

In a future article, I will tell you about the Dunlendings, the Wild Men of the Hill Tribes — in their case, the source of inspiration is much clearer!

Bibliography

1. Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

3. The Art of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim