Thread: Orcish Fear
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Old 11-06-2000, 07:28 PM   #42
Saulotus
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
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Re: Orcish Fear

A third point of contention:

There is also an essay [QUENDI AND ELDAR] where Tolkien examines the stem Ruku-, from where the derivatives; Orch, yrch, rauku, uruk (also urka 'horrible'; Horrible hordes anyone?) spring [including the translators' usage of orc in the stories as explanation for its presence- see LOTR].
Presumably olog has in its history this same stem as its base as it is awfully close to the Sindarin translation).

Before the Elves knew differently, they called any creature of Darkness or prowling creature by the term (Common Eldarin = rauko) (Quenya = urko) (Sindarin = urug) uruk; including orcs, trolls, balrogs (see Valarauko), and whathaveyou). As they learned to differentiate between these beasts, they applied a more sophisticated definition (and thus the derivatives).

For what it's worth: uruk is also a direct Adunaic word of the same meaning (based mostly upon Avarin and CE), not a Black Speech invention.

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