Orc (Middle-earth)

Orcs
In-universe information
Other name(s)	Goblins, Yrch, Rakhâs, Gorgûn
Capital	Mount Gundabad, Barad-dûr, Orthanc
Base of operations	Misty Mountains, Mordor, Isengard

Template:Me races In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman. The Orcs also work independently as the common antagonists in The Hobbit, though in that work they are more often called Goblins.

Although not entirely dim-witted and occasionally crafty, they are portrayed as miserable beings, hating everyone including themselves and their masters, whom they serve out of fear. They make no beautiful things, but rather design cunning devices made to hurt and destroy.

Tolkien's influences

See also: Orc

Orc is from Old English orcneas, which appears in the epic poem Beowulf, and refers to one of the races who are called the offspring of Cain during the initial description of Grendel ("Þanon untydras ealle onwocon,/eotenas ond ylfe, ond orcneas," ll. 111-112). In a letter of 1954 Tolkien gave orc as "demon" and claimed he used the word because of its "phonetic suitability" - its similarity to various equivalent terms in his Middle-earth languages. In an essay on Elven languages, written in 1954, Tolkien gives meaning of 'orc' as "evil spirit or bogey" and goes on to state that the origin of the Old English word is the Latin name Orcus — god of the underworld.

About the goblins of The Hobbit, Tolkien wrote:

They are not based on direct experience of mine; but owe, I suppose, a good deal to the goblin tradition ... especially as it appears in George MacDonald, except for the soft feet which I never believed in.

Middle-earth terms for Orcs

In the High-elven tongue Quenya, the word for "Orc" was urco, plural urqui, meaning "bogey", or "bogeyman", that is, something that provokes fear. In the Grey-elven tongue Sindarin, it was orch, plural yrch. In the Dwarven tongue Khuzdul, it was rukhs, plural rakhâs. In the language of the Drúedain or Wild Men, it was gorgûn. In the Black Speech of Mordor, the equivalent was Uruk, as can be seen in Uruk-hai, "Orc-folk". Orc itself is from Rohirric and the Hobbit-language, which shared linguistic roots, but the term is clearly related to the older Elvish words.

Uruk and Uruk-hai were reserved for the Uruks themselves, a special breed or breeds of Orc; they called smaller, weaker Orcs snaga, "slave". The Grey Elves also referred to the Orcs as a whole as the Glamhoth, "noisy horde". The word "goblin" is used to represent the original Hobbit Orc. In The History of Middle-earth Tolkien writes about an Orc captain named Boldog but later specifies that Boldog may have been either a term or a title for another special kind of Orc instead of a personal name.

Orcs, Goblins, and Uruks

The earliest appearance of goblins in Tolkien's writings is the 1915 poem Goblin Feet, also his first published work, which appeared in the annual volume of Oxford Poetry published by Blackwells. It features quaint elvin creatures, and some 45 years later Tolkien was to dismiss it as juvenile.

In The Book of Lost Tales the names Orcs and goblin are given to creatures who enslave and war with the Elves. Christopher Tolkien notes that whilst in the Tale of Tinúviel the author clearly differentiates between "goblins and Orcs", the two terms appear to be synonymous in the Tale of Turambar. The word Gongs is also used on a few occasions and it appears both distinct from Orcs, and as a sub-type of Orc, Christopher Tolkien remarks that Gongs are "evil beings obscurely related to Orcs". Both goblins and Orcs are occasionally mentioned as being "of Melkor" and also acting independently. Two Lexicons of elvish language also appear. The Quenta Lexicon from approximately 1915 defines Orc as meaning "monster, demon", and the Gnomish Lexicon dated 1917, gives Orc a definition of "goblin", alongside a definition of Gong as "one of a tribe of the Orcs, a goblin". Christopher Tolkien also notes, with interest, that in the Lexicon, the word Gnome (later Noldor) is an emendation from Goblin.

In The Hobbit, the inhabitants of the Misty Mountains who capture the dwarves for trespassing, and later fight the Men, Elves and Dwarves at the Battle of Five Armies, are identified as goblins, which is largely consistent with the use in The Book of Lost Tales. The term Orc does occur, in an instance where Gandalf is trying to scare Bilbo by mentioning creatures of the wilderness "goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs of the worst description" where goblins are again differentiated from Orcs, and also in the Elvish name of Thorin's sword, Orcrist.

In The Lord of the Rings, Orc is used predominantly, and goblin appears mostly in the Hobbits' speech. The second volume of the novel, The Two Towers, contains passages where the more generic 'goblin' is used to describe Saruman's Uruk-hai as being different from the usual 'Orc':

There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large hands. They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs: and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men.

And:

Upon a stake in the middle was set a great goblin head; upon its shattered helm the white badge could still be seen.

The "white badge" mentioned in the latter passage makes it clear that the beheaded goblin was one of the Uruk-hai. Tolkien writes that these bore a white Elf-rune with the value of "S" on their helmets.

Tolkien also wrote the following note, appearing in some editions of The Hobbit:

Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds). Orc is the hobbits' form of the name given at that time to these creatures, and it is not connected at all with orc, ork, applied to sea-animals of dolphin-kind.

The original edition of The Hobbit and early drafts of The Lord of the Rings first used goblin everywhere and used hobgoblin for larger, more evil goblins. Whilst investigating possible sources for the word "Hobbit" Tolkien realised he had made a mistake in using hob-, which is traditionally used to mean a smaller entity, not a larger one.

In his later, post-The Lord of the Rings writings (including The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and many essays published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), Tolkien preferred the spelling Ork, evidently mainly to avoid the form Orcish, which would be naturally pronounced with the c as /s/ instead of /k/ in English. Tolkien indeed used the adjective Orkish.

Physical appearance

Orcs are described as ugly and filthy fanged humanoids. The largest can reach near-human height, but they are always shorter, and some are as small as Hobbits (since Frodo and Sam disguise themselves as such when they enter Mordor). In contrast, crossbreeds between Men and Orcs are called "man-high, but with goblin-faces." However, some Orcs are very broad, if not tall. Many Orcs have long arms, like monkeys or apes. Many of them also have crooked backs and legs. They have black blood, reminiscent of reanimated corpses.

Tolkien describes Orcs explicitly in one of his Letters:

...they are (or were) squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.

Readers have debated at length the extent and meaning of the supposedly racist imagery in Tolkien's writings.

Types of Orcs

There was much variation among Orcs. The most obvious examples are the Uruk-hai or Uruks, who were larger, more powerful and had black skin; they called smaller and weaker Orcs snaga ("slave"). There was also some variation in function. Sauron apparently bred specialized types, such as the "super-soldier" Uruk-hai, and smaller tracker Orcs or 'Snufflers' (one of which "of a small breed, black-skinned" appears in The Return of the King, paired with an Uruk of Mordor, searching for the hobbits). In The History of Middle-earth Tolkien mentions Maiar incarnate in Orc-bodies called Boldogs (see below).

Saruman apparently bred his own Uruk-hai. Tolkien wrote of Saruman crossbreeding Orcs and Men, producing Men-orcs and Orc-men in "Myths Revisited" in Morgoth's Ring. There has been speculation that the Uruk-hai were the result of this cross-breeding, but this is never stated directly. The half-orcs and goblin-men, mentioned by Gamling at Helm's deep, seem likely to have been crossbreeds, though this is a brief mention and they are not described much beyond being "creatures of Isengard", "that the foul craft of Saruman has bred" and that "they will not quail at the sun". Half-Orcs are described later on by Meriadoc Brandybuck, who saw them marching out of Isengard, as "horrible: man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed." Later the Hobbits encounter more half-orcs among other "ruffians" in the Shire.

"Goblin-men" could be another name for the Uruk-hai, as they are described by Tolkien as "goblin-soldiers" earlier when Aragorn sees their dead bodies. He (having already encountered Mordor Uruks in Moria with the fellowship) says, "Their gear is not after the manner of Orcs at all!" referring to their short bladed swords instead of normal orc scimitars and "bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men". Saruman seems to have given his Uruks more human-like equipment, hinting that these Uruks at least have something human about them.

The Uruk-hai of Saruman were shown to be physically different from the regular orcs of Sauron. They were taller and had more human-like proportions while the latter were shorter and had longer arms (according to the description of Grishnákh ), they could also withstand the sunlight better. The Uruk-hai were different from most of the "Northerners", who had come down from the Misty Mountains. These are said to be smaller than Grishnákh, who is "a short crook-legged creature".

The other Northerners, called "larger and bolder Northerners", are almost as tall as Uglúk, and a few stay with Saruman's Uruk-hai when most of the other Northern orcs run off in a different direction after an argument with Uglúk and the Isengarders. Later on, Uglúk's troops, evidently still with these larger Northerners, overtake the rest of the Northern orcs who were "flagging in the rays of the bright sun". This show of sun tolerance (along with Saruman's Uruk-hai) seems to indicate that these larger Northerners were indeed Uruks as well. The fellowship of the ring had encountered "Black Uruks of Mordor", previously in Moria and Aragorn apparently kills one, described as a "huge orc-chieftain". This shows that Uruks were in the northern Misty Mountains/Moria area at the time, probably since their arrival in the Third Age year 2480 when "Sauron begins to people Moria with his creatures", according to The Lord of the Rings appendices. Thus it is possible for these large Northerners to have been Mordor-descended Uruks.

Orcs served Morgoth in Angband and subsequently Sauron in Mordor. By the time of the War of the Ring, some served Saruman in Isengard. However, as Sauron laid low after losing the Ring at the end of the Second Age (before returning to Mordor), some Orcs must have worked independently. Before and during the time of The Hobbit, some Orcs had Mount Gundabad as their capital, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains were apparently ruled by one "Great Goblin", the former Dwarf-realm of Moria was held by Orcs under one Azog and then his son Bolg, and one Golfimbul had led the Orcs of Mount Gram in a foray into the Shire.

Orkish culture

Tolkien does not elaborate much on Orc culture and customs. However, we do know that Orcs know some form of healing arts (as the Orc-band apply harsh Orkish medicine to Merry's injuries while in their captivity). We also know that their armour, though inferior to that of Elves and Dwarves, is serviceable enough. Also, they often use poisoned blades (as Aragorn states as he inspects a wound of Sam; the wound is fortunately not poisoned) and arrows (as they use such on Isildur). Also, they like to sing horrible songs (as in The Hobbit). The goblins of the Misty Mountains were a smaller breed of Orc, and could also invent horrid machines used to torture and kill things. In some texts, Tolkien suggests that after the fall of Morgoth, some of his Orcs set up petty kingdoms of their own.

Orkish diet

In The Hobbit, Tolkien indicates that Orcs are "always hungry", although given the demeanour of that book, it is not clear if this is an exaggeration or not. Orcs eat all manner of flesh, including that of men and horses, and there are frequent hints of cannibalism among Orcs:

• In Chapter III of The Two Towers, Grishnákh, leader of the Mordor Orcs, accuses Saruman's Uruks of eating Orc-flesh, which the latter angrily deny.
• In Cirith Ungol, Gorbag suggests that Frodo (recently poisoned by Shelob) should "go in the pot"; Shagrat indicates that Gorbag could be "for the pot" for making such a suggestion.
• Later Shagrat threatens to eat a disobedient snaga (slave).
• After a brawl, Shagrat licks orc-blood from his blade.

Orkish language

The Orcs had no language of their own; merely a piecemeal of corrupted versions of words derived from various languages. However, individual tribes developed dialects that were so widely different from each other that the Orkish tongue was of no use for communication between tribes; for this purpose, Westron was used, albeit with a crude accent. The few words in common usage throughout Orc tribes extant in the text of The Lord of the Rings are from Black Speech; some examples are ghâsh, "fire", sharkû, "old man" (referred to by Saruman's nickname of "Sharkey" during The Scouring of the Shire), snaga, "slave", and Uruk. Another "Orkish" word is tark, "man of Gondor", from Westron and ultimately Quenya tarkil, "high man" (although this could have been a Westron ethnic slur, like "kike" for Hebrew).

When Sauron returned to power in Mordor in the Third Age, Black Speech was used by the captains of his armies and by his servants in Barad-dûr.

A substantial sample of debased Black Speech/Orkish can be found in The Two Towers, where Grishnákh of Mordor curses Uglúk of Isengard:

Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!

In The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien gives the translation: "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!". However, in a note published in the Tolkien scholarly linguistic journal Vinyar Tengwar this alternative translation is given: "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!"

Some speculate that Tolkien may have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for his Black Speech/Orkish.

Orcs and Evil

On the subject of tendencies to good and evil, The Silmarillion states of the Last Alliance at the Battle of Dagorlad and the subsequent siege of Barad-dûr that "All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad. Of the Dwarves, few fought upon either side; but the kindred of Durin of Moria fought against Sauron." ("Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age") Since the Elves alone were said to be undivided, this apparently implies that at least some Orcs fought against Sauron, though this may be an overliteral interpretation of the passage. Orcs are known to fight amongst themselves frequently, if not actually against Sauron. On the subject of orc redeemability Tolkien wrote in one of his letters:

I nearly wrote 'irredeemably bad'; but that would be going too far. Because by accepting or tolerating their making — necessary to their actual existence — even Orcs would become part of the World, which is God's and ultimately good. That God would 'tolerate' that, seems no worse theology than the toleration of the calculated dehumanizing of Men by tyrants that goes on today.

In Morgoth's Ring, Tolkien suggests that Orcs, while not irredeemable, may not be redeemable by Elves or Men.

To some extent Tolkien did not regard Orcs as inherently evil, or evil in their own right, but rather as tools and slaves of Morgoth and Sauron, hating themselves and their masters as they hated everyone else. He wrote once that "we were all orcs in the Great War".Template:ME-fact

The origin of Orcs

The origin of Orcs is an open question. In Tolkien's writings, evil is not capable of independent creation, making it unlikely that the Vala Morgoth, who was the first to produce them, could create them from nothing.

Unlike the orc-néas ('orc-corpses') of Beowulf, no female Orcs are ever mentioned by Tolkien in any publication. However, in the published Silmarillion it is stated that Orcs "had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar", implying that there are; in The Hobbit the Orc Bolg is the son of one Azog, while Gollum is described as having eaten a young goblin-imp (Goblins being related to orcs) shortly before he first met Bilbo (which seems to be alluded to in The Lord of the Rings movie when Gollum goes on (with himself) about how unpleasant-tasting orcs are and that sweet hobbit meat would suit Shelob better).

In an unpublished letter, written in 1963 to a Mrs. Munsby (and auctioned in 2002 at Sotheby's), Tolkien confirmed that female Orcs did exist. He wrote:

There must have been orc-women. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known.

Made from the earth

According to the oldest "theory" proposed by J.R.R. Tolkien (found in The Fall of Gondolin, from The Book of Lost Tales, circa 1917 — the first tale of Middle-earth to be written in full), Orcs were made of stone and slime through the sorcery of Morgoth ("bred from the heats and slimes of the earth" — The Book of Lost Tales, Vol. 2).

East Elves (Avari)

The Silmarillion contains a suggestion that Orcs are descended from East Elves captured by Melkor, their minds and bodies distorted and corrupted. There is even evidence of the immortality, or otherwise long life of Orcs. In The Hobbit, the Orcs in the Misty Mountains easily recognized the long missing swords Orcrist and Glamdring, which suggests that the number of Orc generations which passed since their disappearance was not enough to distort their appearance in the Orc memory (however, it should be noted that the idea of several thousand years' separation between the events in The Silmarillion and The Hobbit had not yet been clearly developed by Tolkien when the latter was written). In The Two Towers: Gorbag and Shagrat, during the conversation which Sam overheard, mention the "Great Siege" of the Last Alliance as if they had been present when it happened, millennia ago. It is possible to interpret from the sentence that this "Great Siege" could have instead been merely the current siege ongoing at Minas Tirith, or the siege of Minas Morgul, though the latter itself happened a thousand years ago. They certainly did live for at the very least hundreds of years, since Bolg was the son of Azog and his death occurred over 140 years after the death of his father. This second theory is consistent with a statement made in the "Myths Transformed" essay of Morgoth's Ring that the orcs had short lifespans in relation to the Númenóreans.

Since this version of the origin of Orcs explicitly appears in the published Silmarillion, many have accepted it at face value as Tolkien's final views on the matter. However, as can be seen, Tolkien wrote later differing accounts, which may reflect his final intentions (see Middle-earth canon). Nevertheless, this version is the most consistent with Tolkien's published works because of the stated longevity of the Orcs.

Fallen Maiar

There are hints in the History of Middle-earth series of books, (especially in Morgoth's Ring in the section "Myths Transformed"), that some Orc leaders, such as the First Age's Boldog, or the Great Goblin encountered by Bilbo and the Dwarves, may in fact have been fallen Maiar which had taken Orc form:

Some of these things may have been delusions and phantoms but some were no doubt shapes taken by the servants of Melkor, mocking and degrading the very forms of the children. For Melkor had in his service great numbers of Maiar, who had the power, as their Master, of taking visible and tangible shape in Arda.

Boldog (…) is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War. But it is possible that Boldog was not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the Balrogs

Melkor had corrupted many spirits — some great as Sauron, or less as Balrogs. The least could have been primitive Orcs.

Some cross-bred with Men

Tolkien also "suggested" that Men were cross-bred with Orcs under Morgoth's lieutenant, Sauron (and possibly under Morgoth himself). The Uruk-hai are speculated to be created in this way. The process was later repeated during the War of the Ring by Saruman, enabling him to make his own hybrids.

There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men, producing both Men-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men treacherous and vile.

While Tolkien at some point saw all Orcs as descended from the original corrupted and tortured Elves, later comments of his indicate, according to Christopher Tolkien in Morgoth's Ring ("Myths Transformed, text X"), that he began to feel uncomfortable with this theory. At about the same time he removed the references to the Thrall-Ñoldorin, he also began searching for a new origin for the Orcs. The question of Orc origin may have been one of the problems Tolkien tried to solve by completely changing the cosmology and prehistory of Arda. By setting the origin of Men back to almost the same time as the Elves, he possibly allowed for Men to be the origin of Orcs all along. Tolkien died before he could complete this upheaval of the cosmology, however, so the Elf origin was adopted in the published version of The Silmarillion.

Sentient beasts

Yet other of Tolkien's theories proposes that Orcs may have begun as animals of vaguely humanoid shapes, empowered by the will of the Dark Lord (first Morgoth, later Sauron):

The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape […].

It is certain all Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Morgoth's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader, and degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the Misty Mountains. Only when Sauron returned to power did they begin to reclaim some of their old power. The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of Mirkwood did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.

Individual Orcs

Main article: List of Middle-earth Orcs

See also: List of original characters in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy

for Orcs unique to the New Line films

Influence on later fantasy

Tolkien's Orcs are a major influence on fantasy fiction and games; they are the literary precursors of the Orcs (and similar races) of many different settings. The Orcs of Warhammer Fantasy, Forgotten Realms and other games most often differ from Tolkien's Orcs in that they are taller than humans (instead of always being shorter) and usually have green or greyish-green skin (instead of dark or yellowish skin). The green Orc portrayed today was largely created by a wargames club in the 1980s and from there the green colour was the most common colour for Orc skin in most fantasy.

C. S. Lewis may have inserted a nod to his friend's Orcs in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Aslan goes to his death on the Stone Table, the narrator mentions various evil creatures gathered around the White Witch — including "Orknies" (the name is also directly based on the above Old English term).

Adaptations

Orcs have been featured in many adaptations of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, from film to stage to video games. The Goblins in the 1977 animated adaptation of The Hobbit were likened to the work of Maurice Sendak. and are portrayed in exactly the same manner as the Orcs in the sequel The Return of the King (1980 film).

Some adaptations have made Goblins distinct from Orcs. This was implied in New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and can be seen in the real-time strategy games The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II. In the former, Goblins can be used alongside common Orcs and Uruk-hai, while in the latter Goblins get their own playable faction.

In the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring some Uruk-hai are seen being birthed full-grown from what appear to be sacs in muddy pits. (This is used as a device to allow Saruman to build his army practically overnight, as opposed to taking the time to breed his "improved" Orcs through more conventional means.)

In The Rise of the Witch-king, an expansion pack for The Battle for Middle-earth II, the Angmar faction uses "Gundabad Orcs" as ordinary foot soldiers, referring to their capital of Mount Gundabad. Like the Goblins of the Misty Mountains, they sometimes ride wolves in battle.

See also

• Battle of the Hornburg
• Boromir
• Túrin Turambar
• War of Wrath