There are three chief underground adventures in LotR, of which this is the first (the others being Shelob's lair and the Paths of the Dead). What occurred to me on re-reading this chapter is that all three of these subterranean journeys have rather explicit associations with death and rebirth - three times we go down into the Underworld. Traditionally, of course, the hero dies (literally or metaphorically), travels to the Underworld, and later emerges and returns to life (sometimes going to the Underworld means literally going to the place where the dead abide, sometimes it means, say, being encased in carbonite in Jabba's dungeon). But in our LotR examples, who is it that "dies"?
The answer, though perhaps obvious, is interesting. In Moria, it is clearly Gandalf who dies. In Shelob's lair it is Frodo - who does not literally die, but is poisoned and mistaken for dead. In the Paths of the Dead, it is Aragorn, whose "death" is not biological at all, but is more like Odysseus's or Aeneas's. Now it has often been remarked that Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo are the three heroes of the book. I think it's interesting that this view holds up so well - we even find that each of the heroes has his own journey into the Underworld. I suspect also that those three journeys each reflect the nature of the relevant character, though how they might do so is not immediately obvious to me, and I don't have time to ponder it at the moment. It's an interesting triple parallel to think about, though.
Davem wrote:
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Yet, in their Middle earth context, how can they be explained - 'real', physical 'wargs' which disappear in the morning light - like the blade of the Morgul Knife?
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I don't see any reason to think that they were not "real". As you point out, Gandalf certainly considered them a threat.
I have always guessed that they were like the "werewolves" of the Silmarillion - demonic spirits (Maiar perhaps?) in wolvish bodies. Remember that Sauron always had an affinity with these creatures - he was once the master of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves; he even took wolf form for his battle with Huan.