Are there female orcs, or are they simply androgynous? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Grendel · 05-20-2002, 09:25 AM

I don't think we can safely assume that there are female orcs, as you put it, because they reproduce. There are non-sexual modes of reproduction, e.g. viral reproduction or even vegetative reproduction in plants (and please don't say "but orcs arn't viruses or plants"!) In both these cases there is replication of parent structures without the mixing of separate parent DNA.
Orcs are described as "multiplying" at one point in LotR, but that still doesn't tell us much about how that reproduction takes place. I'm still not convinced that the orcish life cycle is the same as the human one. What I'm getting at is that perhaps there is some kind of in vitro creation by the servants of Sauron etc.

05-20-2002, 09:25 AM	#4
Grendel Pile O'Bones Join Date: May 2002 Location: Brittany, France Posts: 16	I don't think we can safely assume that there are female orcs, as you put it, because they reproduce. There are non-sexual modes of reproduction, e.g. viral reproduction or even vegetative reproduction in plants (and please don't say "but orcs arn't viruses or plants"!) In both these cases there is replication of parent structures without the mixing of separate parent DNA. Orcs are described as "multiplying" at one point in LotR, but that still doesn't tell us much about how that reproduction takes place. I'm still not convinced that the orcish life cycle is the same as the human one. What I'm getting at is that perhaps there is some kind of in vitro creation by the servants of Sauron etc.