Inherent Evil - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Durelin · 07-30-2003, 07:40 PM

Ah, here's a new thought. The Treebeard quote from Nils got me thinking.

The Orcs in The Lord of the Rings are different altogether from those in the Silmarillion.

Let me explain...

Obviously, Sauron could not have had such a large army without breeding Orcs. Either with other Orcs, or prehaps with some other fell creature. Thus, we get something seperate from the first Orcs: the tortured Elves. Plus, Sauron could have made improvements to the design at any time, making them more and more creatures and less and less a race such as Elves or Men.

I know that you can argue that Tolkien viewed them as a race...at one point. I agree with Nils that Tolkien was not sure about this. So, at one point they were, later they were not.

This topic is an excellent one since there really is not answer, it seems, since Tolkien isn't sure on the matter himself. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Fun fun!

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07-30-2003, 07:40 PM	#11
Durelin Estelo dagnir, Melo ring Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 3,063	Ah, here's a new thought. The Treebeard quote from Nils got me thinking. The Orcs in The Lord of the Rings are different altogether from those in the Silmarillion. Let me explain... Obviously, Sauron could not have had such a large army without breeding Orcs. Either with other Orcs, or prehaps with some other fell creature. Thus, we get something seperate from the first Orcs: the tortured Elves. Plus, Sauron could have made improvements to the design at any time, making them more and more creatures and less and less a race such as Elves or Men. I know that you can argue that Tolkien viewed them as a race...at one point. I agree with Nils that Tolkien was not sure about this. So, at one point they were, later they were not. This topic is an excellent one since there really is not answer, it seems, since Tolkien isn't sure on the matter himself. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Fun fun!