"I want them alive, and unspoiled."

[ElanorGamgee]

I believe that by "unspoiled" Saruman meant that the orcs were not to do serious physical damage to the hobbits; in other words, don't start lopping off arms and legs while taking them prisoner. In this context, "to spoil" most likely means "to impair the value or quality of" or "to damage irreparably; ruin" (dictionary.com). If you gave the orcs an inch they'd take a mile, probably ending with the hobbits too traumatized and wounded to be of any use to the wizard or anyone, for that matter. By the way, I always wondered why in the movie that Uruk-hai looked ready to swipe Merry and Pippin in two right before Boromir came to the rescue after such specific orders. I guess someone forgot to forward him the memo <p>[ December 09, 2002: Message edited by: ElanorGamgee ]