[narfforc]

In 1954 Tolkien drafted a letter to Peter Hastings about orcs, and wrote the following..........'I have represented at least the Orcs as pre-existing beings on whom the Dark Lord has exerted the fullness of his power in remodelling and corrupting them, and not making them'. In later writings he says...'Only Eru, Iluvatar, 'could make creatures of independent wills, and with reasoning powers. But Orcs seem to have both.' Therfore, could they be 'corruptions of something pre-existing'?. Not of Men: 'Men had not appeared when Orcs already existed.......Eru would not sanction the work of Melkor [Morgoth] so as to allow the independence of the Orcs [if Melkor had created them]. (Not unless Orcs were ultimately remediable, or could be amended and "saved"?) He could not cotemplate the 'absolute perversion' by Melkor 'of a whole people, or group of peoples, and his making that state heritable [capable of being transmitted from parent to offspring].' Thus Elves are' very unlikely' as the source for Orcs. In 1969 tolkien wrote discussing the puppet-like nature inevitable in creatures brought into being by one of the great Powers themselves: the note was intented to stand in relation to the words 'But the Orcs were not of this kind'. More about Orcs can be read in Morgoth's Ring. The main problem is that Tolkien changed his mind over the years and the only clear words we have are Treebeard's.