Orcs
Perhaps my favorite Tolkien joke is: How many Orcs does it take to change a light bulb? None.
They'll all kill each other before they get the job done.
Orcs and hobbits are probably the two literary creatures for which J.R.R. Tolkien is best known.
Everybody loves hobbits, and everyone hates Orcs. They were actually more vile and nasty in his earlier literature than they turned out to be in THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
One never hears of an Orc committing rape, but in "Lay of Leithian" that was one of their favorite tactics. Orcs were also fond of tying their prisoners to trees and torturing them to death.
Tolkien's Orcs are a mixture of pitiful savagery and abandoned corruption. They represent the
worst aspects of mankind's darker nature.
What did Orcs look like?
Here is what I know about how Orcs looked:
Orcs and goblins are supposedly one and the same thing in Tolkien, but he describes them quite
differently in THE HOBBIT (where they are goblins, mostly, with only one or two Orc
references) and in THE LORD OF THE RINGS (where they are Orcs, mostly, with only one or
two goblin references).
Here is what Tolkien says of "goblins" in THE HOBBIT:
...The goblins were very rough, and pinched unmercifully, and chuckled and laughed in their
horrible stony voices....
...The goblins began to sing, or croak, keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the stone, and shaking their prisoners as well.... now the goblins took out whips and whipped them with a
swish, smack!, and set them running as fast as they could in front of them....
There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed
goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and the bent swords that they use. Now
goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.
These wicked and bad-hearted goblins were the sort to eat ponies, to light fires and dance around them, and to complain about the savagery of the weapons used against them. Cruel as they were,
they were drawn as caricatures for the sake of providing a terrifying amusement in the story.
And except for the flat feet and the Great Goblin's huge head Tolkien never really provided a
description of what the goblins looked like in THE HOBBIT. Some carried swords, and others
carried spears. They wore helmets and used shields, too. Goblins were fond of fire and relied on torches in their caverns, so they don't seem to have been very good at seeing in the dark.
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We meet the Orcs in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING when the Company of the Ring is
trapped in the Chamber of Mazarbul in the ancient Dwarf-city Khazad-dum (Moria). The scene
is very dark and somber as the Company has just found the tomb of Balin and Gandalf has
finished reading the Book of Mazarbul which ends with the ominous words: "The end
comes...drums, drums in the deep. They are coming." These words send chills up many a
reader's spine, for the hopeless situation of Balin's folk has been underscored by the bones lying around his tomb.
Balin's Tomb
Copyright © Anke Eissmann. Used by permission.
And then the Orcs come again, beating their drums. These Orcs laugh in a hoarse manner, "like the fall of sliding stones into a pit." Gandalf looks out at the Orcs and tells his companions:
"...some are large and evil: black Uruks of Mordor." Some people have taken this sentence to mean that not all Orcs were black-skinned.
The Orcs of Moria used bows and scimitars (no "bent swords" here). They also made use of horns and drums, and had rams and hammers ready for the onslaught on the Chamber of
Mazarbul. They had long been preparing for war against Lorien, apparently.
The best description of a Moria Orc comes when one attacks Frodo in the chamber:
...a huge orc-chieftain, almost man-high, clad in black mail from head to foot, leaped into the chamber....His broad flat face was swart, his eyes were like coals, and his tongue was red; he
wielded a great spear. With a thrust of his huge shield he turned Boromir's sword and bore him
backwards, throwing him to the ground.
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It required Sam's intervention to get the
Orc away from Frodo, and Aragorn had
to strike the Orc on the head from behind
in order to kill him, the one apparent
ignoble act on Aragorn's part.
When next we meet the Orcs we are
standing with Aragorn, Gimli, and
Legolas by Boromir's body. Twenty Orcs
lay dead around the great warrior.
Boromir's strength, courage, and prowess
have by now been demonstrated, but
these valiant attributes are for most
readers overshadowed by his lust for the
Ring and his abruptness. The Orc
chieftain who could throw Boromir,
Captain of Gondor, to the ground must
have been a considerable warrior in his
own right, a champion of the Orcs in war.
Orc
Aragorn looks at Boromir's fallen
Copyright © Rich Sullivan. Used by permission.
enemies and says of them:
Here lie many that are not folk of Mordor. Some are from the North, from the Misty Mountains,
if I know anything of Orcs and their kinds. And here are others strange to me. Their gear is not after the manner of Orcs at all!
These were the Uruk-hai of Isengard, whom some readers feel are really half-Orcs, an
"improved" breed of Orc warriors who were still mostly Orc-like in appearance (unlike the half-Orc spy who was aided by Bill Ferny in Bree -- he looked very human).
Gandalf described Aragorn to Frodo in "The Shadow Of The Past", the second chapter of THE
FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING as "the greatest traveler and huntsman of this age of the world."
It was a passing remark which Frodo forgot (he did not seem to recall it when he finally met
Aragorn in Bree). But it was the kind of praise Gandalf seldom dished out.
Of himself Aragorn tells Eomer (on their first meeting): "...There are few among mortal Men who know more of Orcs [than Aragorn does]."
Aragorn's credentials in Orc-lore are thus acceptable. He knows something of their kindreds and ways and he is willing to state to a Marshal of the Mark that he knows more than anyone in
Rohan about Orcs. So when Aragorn looks at Saruman's Orcs and does not recognize them, one
must wonder what was so different about them that Aragorn should be intrigued.
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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. Upon their shields
they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.
Pippin wakes up among the Orcs and one speaks to him, stooping over the bound hobbit,
"bringing his yellow fangs close to [Pippin's] face." Are all Orcs fanged? Was this just one of the northern Orcs from the Misty Mountains?
The Orcs debate whether they should kill the hobbits. There is “no time to kill them properly,”
said one. “No time for play on this trip.”
Another wants to know if the hobbits "give good sport".
Pippin finally gets a good look (and the readers with him) when Ugluk, the Orc-leader from
Isengard, and Grishnakh, the Orc-leader from Mordor, start arguing over who should command
the expedition.
...In the twilight he saw a large black Orc, probably Ugluk, standing facing Grishnakh, a short crook-legged creature, very broad and with long arms that hung almost to the ground. Round
them were many smaller goblins. Pippin supposed that these were the ones from the North....
Again we have a passage that some readers feel implies that not all Orcs were black-skinned.
Ugluk seems to be no larger than Grishnakh but they have different body shapes. Ugluk is almost man-like in appearance, whereas Grishnakh is almost ape-like.
One of the Orcs who carries Pippin has clawlike hands. In other passages the Orcs grab him with long arms, hard claws, and rending nails. One of the Orcs carrying Pippin has a "filthy jowl and hairy ear." We get one last look at Grishnakh when he steals away with Pippin and Merry at the edge of Fangorn Forest:
A long hairy arm took each of them by the neck and drew them close together. Dimly they were
aware of Grishnakh's great head and hideous face between them....
Suddenly he seized them. The strength in his long arms and shoulders was terrifying....
The Mordor Orcs come in different breeds and sizes as well. Gorbag and Shagrat, the two Orc-
captains who fight over Frodo's mithril shirt, are large, long-armed Uruks. Grishnakh must
therefore also be an Uruk. Shagrat bares his fangs to Sam before running away, so probably all
Orcs had fangs.
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When two hunting Orcs come close to Frodo and Sam during their journey through Mordor, we
get another glimpse of what some Orcs look like:
...One was clad in ragged brown and was armed with a bow of horn; it was of a small breed,
black-skinned, with wide and snuffling nostrils; evidently a tracker of some kind. The other was a big fighting-orc, like those of Shagrat's company, bearing the token of the Eye. He also had a bow at his back and carried a short broad-bladed spear....
It's hard enough to visualize the Orcs given that there were so many physical variations among
them. Some were probably hairier than others. Some were taller than others. Some had longer
arms. Some had larger noses. There were probably variations in skin color, although only black
skinned Orcs are ever described.
Yet the Orcs for all their belligerence were not entirely without their redeeming qualities. Not that there could have been a Noble Orc, or a philosophy which recognized such a thing. Rather,
the Orcs remained social creatures. They were tribal and clannish and they felt or at least
expressed loyalty toward one another in various ways.
Thus the Orcs of the Misty Mountains traveled all the way to Rohan to get revenge against the
Company of the Ring:
’Not our orders!' said one of the earlier voices. 'We have come all the way from the Mines to kill, and avenge our folk. I wish to kill, and then go back north.’
Grishnakh flees when Ugluk puts down rebellion among the Orcs of the Misty Mountains but he
returns with forty or more Uruks of Mordor.
'I left a fool,' snarled Grishnakh. 'But there were some stout fellows with him that are too good to lose. I knew you'd lead them into a mess. I've come to help them.'
His reason for returning may be a lie, but it doesn't seem to be so.
Shagrat and Gorbag appear to be old friends when they are talking in the tunnel of Cirith Ungol:
'...But anyway, if it does go well, there should be a lot more room. What d'you say? -- if we get a chance, you and me'll slip off and set up somewhere on our own with a few trusty lads,
somewhere where there's good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses.'
"'Ah!' said Shagrat, 'Like old times.'
Of course, it's only a few hours later that Shagrat kills Gorbag, trampling him to death, so
sentiments among Orcs don't run very deep. It's both sad and amusing to listen to two Orcs
talking about setting up somewhere on their own "with a few trusty lads" so they can be mere brigands again, "like old times."
The Orcs of Isengard demonstrate another kind of sentiment and loyalty: a nationalistic pride.
Ugluk and his soldiers are assault troops, elite warriors who are proud to be in Saruman's service and don't care who knows that. Presumably Mauhur and his lads, the Orcs who attacked Eomer's
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men from Fangorn forest, were another such group of elite soldiers. Saruman trusted them to
handle a special mission, and their fierce adherence to Ugluk in fulfilling that purpose shows
they were well-motivated.
In 1958 J.R.R. Tolkien reviewed a preliminary script for a proposed film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Based on his acerbic response to the script, most fans are pleased that movie was never made. Tolkien wrote a letter to Forrest J. Ackerman in which he provided many
corrections and complaints. The one point concerning Orcs has become fixed in Tolkien arcana.
In Letter 210, Tolkien wrote "19. Why does Z put beaks and feathers on Orcs!?." ("Z" stands for Morton Grady Zimmerman, the first person ever to have written a screenplay based on Tolkien's
work.)
‘The Orcs,’ Tolkien continues a little further on, ‘are definitely stated to be corruptions of the
'human' forms seen in Elves and Men. 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.’
Much has been made of this citation. Some people have gone so far as to call Tolkien a racist,
alleging he was implying the Orcs were to be equated with Asian peoples. He is careful to say,
however, that the Orcs were "degraded and repulsive versions" of those Mongol peoples who would be least attractive to European sensibilities. Some people have suggested Tolkien may
have been referring to the Huns, who left an indelible mark in the western European psyche.
Whether the Orcs are intended to be "degraded and repulsive versions" of Huns is a mystery we cannot resolve, but it is clear that Tolkien felt a Mongoloid base was necessary for Orcish
appearance. Not because he equated Asians with evil, or thought them ugly. But because he
needed a human model which, when distorted beyond realistic appearance, might appear
monstrous and corrupted. In fact, many Asian cultures represent demons and evil gods in a
similar fashion. I feel Tolkien's choice was inspired by a broad understanding of mythology, and not by racism.
We know too little of the other "evil" creatures in Tolkien's world to dwell long on any of them.
The Orcs are better documented than all the other evil things combined. Trolls are given a lot of credibility as powerful and deadly foes, yet the episode in THE HOBBIT with Bert, William, and
Tom is very disarming. They come across as a bunch of buffoons. One must wonder why the
green-scaled cave troll in Moria was willing to stick its foot through the door in the Chamber of Mazarbul so that Frodo could stab it. Was it in any way as "silly" as Bert or Tom? Probably not.
There were a few other trolls in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Two brought up huge slabs of
stone to bridge the fiery chasm for the Orcs in Moria. Pippin appears to have killed a "hill-troll"
in the Battle of the Morannon. Trolls were used to break down the gates of Minas Tirith.
The Barrow-wights have intrigued many people. What were they? They were sent by the Witch-
king of Angmar to inhabit the barrows of Tyrn Gorthad, the western branch of the South Downs.
These spirits apparently worshiped Sauron, who was a master of phantoms even in the First Age.
Were they lesser Maiar, corrupted by Melkor, or perhaps other spirits who joined him in Ea?
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One also wonders if perhaps the wights weren't Elvish spirits, perhaps Avari or Silvan Elves,
trapped by Sauron. Originally, Tolkien had envisioned many Ringwraiths, including Elvish
wraiths, while he was writing the book. The Barrow-wights were at that time supposed to be
related to the Nazgul in some way. But Tolkien narrowed his definition of Ringwraiths,
restricting the number of the Great Rings of Power to just twenty. The wights could not
themselves be Ringwraiths, and perhaps they were not Elvish spirits at all.
The Wargs of the Vales of Anduin have elicited much comment among Tolkien readers as well.
These were intelligent, evil wolves. They sided willingly with the Orcs and could communicate
with them. One might wonder if perhaps they were descendants of Draugluin and his brood of
First Age "Were-wolves". Draugluin and many werewolves were slain by Huan when Luthien and the Hound of Valinor rescued Beren from Tol Sirion, where Sauron was stationed by Melkor
after the Dagor Bragollach. Were all the were-wolves slain there?
Carcharoth was said to be one of Draugluin's descendants, and he lived in Angband, not Tol
Sirion. So it seems plausible that other werewolves or wolves survived the First Age, and that
these may have been the ancestors of the Wargs.
Tolkien mentions five dragons in his stories, naming four of them: Glaurung, Father of Dragons; Ancalagon the Black; Scatha the Worm; Smaug; and a cold-drake who killed Dain I and his son
Fror of Durin's line. Of course there were other dragons, but we only know that they lived and
fought in the War of Wrath or troubled the Dwarves on occasion.
In fact, the Dragons of the north "multiplied, and they made war on the Dwarves, and plundered their works." One might form the impression that there was some purpose moving the dragons, and it may be that during this time (Third Age 2035-2589) the Dwarven Rings of Power were
consumed by the Dragons, or recovered by Sauron.
The Balrogs were Melkor's greatest servants after Sauron. They were spirits of fire, corrupted by Melkor early in his struggles with the other Valar. Tolkien decided there were no more than
seven, and presumably Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, was one of the seven. We know that
Gothmog and one other Balrog were slain when Gondolin fell, so there must have been only five
left to fight in the War of Wrath.
Of those five, one at least survived, for it fled to the Misty Mountains and hid there until it was awakened by the Dwarves in the Third Age. Then it assumed control of Khazad-dum. What
became of the other four Balrogs? Did they "die" in the War of Wrath? Did a Balrog possess the strength of will to reform itself after its body had been destroyed? How weakened would such
reformed creatures have been? Would they have been subservient to Sauron?
The Watcher in the Water, which lived in the lake that had been formed outside the West-gate of Moria, was another strange creature. Was it one of Melkor's ancient monsters that eluded
Oromë's hunters, or was it perhaps some corrupted Maia in a hideous shape of its own devising?
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The Watcher could not have been in the lake for very long, nor even could the lake have been
there for very long. Aragorn had passed through Moria some years before the Company of the
Ring did and he had not encountered either the lake or the Watcher.
One might also wonder what ever happened to Thuringwethil. She was Sauron's messenger in
the First Age, and she most often took shape as a bat. Apparently she was one of Melkor's
corrupted Maiar. Did she perish in the War of Wrath? Did she survive to become some terror in a later age?
And then there are the giant spiders. These things apparently lived in a lot of places, not just Mirkwood and Nan Dungortheb. Shelob was said to be the last child of Ungoliant, but was she
necessarily the southernmost giant spider? Where did the giant spiders of Mirkwood come from,
since they were not there during the Second Age? Sauron must have discovered a breeding
ground for them in some distant land, perhaps in the far north or in the east.
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