Thread: Sarumans Orcs
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Old 12-15-2002, 12:19 AM   #12
Tar Elenion
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 358
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Sting

Uruk-hai is _a_ plural form. Uruks is an a anglicization. 'S' is the English plural marker. Uruk is a Black Speech word. Uruks is not.
Quote:
Unfinshed Tales, Index:
Uruks Anglicized form of Uruk-hai of the Black Speech; a race of Orcs of great size and strength.
Quote:
Letter 78
Urukhai is a figure of speech. There are no genuine Uruks, that is folk made bad by the intention of their maker...
Note that Uruks (the anglicized plural) is used in place of Uruk-hai.
We have three uses of -hai, Uruk-hai, Olog-hai, Oghor-hai it is never used as a singular. -hai would seem to mean something like folk, race.

Quote:
'Who's blame's that?' said the soldier. 'Not mine. That comes from Highter Up. First they say it's a great Elf in bright armor, then it's a sort of small dwarf-man, then it must be a pack of rebel Uruk-hai; or maybe it's all the lot together.'
It is quite clear that this is referring to events at Cirith Ungol. Frodo is the 'small dwarf-man'. Sam was mistakenly thought to be an Elf-warrior. The 'rebel Uruk-hai' would be the Orcs who might have fled from Cirith Ungol after the fight over Frodo and his mail. If you have any evidence that Saruman's Uruk-hai were involved I would be interested in reading it.

Quote:
'We are the fighting Uruk-hai! We slew the great warrior. We took the prisoners. We are the servants of Saruman the Wise, the White Hand: the hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat. We came out of Isengard, and led you here, and we shall lead you back by the way we choose.
This does not show that the Uruk-hai originally came out of Isengard. What it does show is that _these_ Uruk-hai came out of Isengard. These Uruk-hai were in the service of Saruman. Sauron had his own Uruk-hai in his service and had for a long time:
Quote:
In the last year of Denethor I the race of uruks, black orcs of great strength, first appeared out of Mordor, and in 2475 they swept across Ithilien and took Osgiliath.
[ December 15, 2002: Message edited by: Tar Elenion ]
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