Are orcs actually evil?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Boro88

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I don't have the exact quote but I remember that Melkor creating the orcs was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, crime he committed.

Why, it's right about you in Letter 153:
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They would be Morgoth's greatest Sins...

I agree, responsibility must be laid upon Morgoth, as the Letter continued:
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Because by accepting or tolerating their making - necessary to their actual existence - even Orcs would become part of the World, which is God’s and ultimatly good.

This makes it seem like for Orcs to even exist (or in order for them to be "created") Morgoth needed to spew all the evil and hatred into them.

Now, see, this use of Letter #153 goes to the heart of our use of Tolkien's Letters. The very looong draft is, I think, an excellent example of Tolkien's love of pinhead debate, that is, angels dancing etc. It also rather provides a commendable model for much of our discussions here. (Well, certainly, the current I found the Entwives thread gives more than passing nod to Tolkien's linguistic legerdemain and a great lot of fun it is.)

When is a letter canonical and when is it not? When is it a legitimate expression of Tolkien's intention and when is it rather expressive of his delight in debate?

What is called Letter #153 by Carpenter was in fact never sent to Peter Hastings, Tolkien's Catholic questioner. It is identified as a "draft" at the top of the letter and given a specific qualification at the conclusion. Here's the note at the end of the draft, p. 196 in my paperback edition of the Letters:

Originally Posted by Tolkien via Carpenter

[The draft ends here. At the top, Tolkien has written: 'Not sent,' and has added: 'It seemed to be taking myself too importantly.']

Now isn't that an absolutely fascinating sentence structure! "It seemed" refers to the letter, as something taking Tolkien too seriously. It isn't "I seemed to be taking myself too seriously." Tolkien steps away from authorial omnisience and hands it over to the letter itself. Now there's a writerly sleight of hand if ever I saw one!

I would argue that we should take this entire draft as speculative on Tolkien's part, an intellectual challenge. Hastings had seriously questioned part of the sub-creation in terms of Catholic theology. I can myself quite imagine a Tolkien, clever wag that he was, delighting in the exercise of seeing if he could prove Mr. Hastings wrong by delineating how consistent his sub-creation was or was not with the primary world. Why, look, he even used "orc" not metaphorically to refer to barbarians in his own world, but to the sub-created creatures of Melkor and then he used "God" rather than "Eru". Talk about deliberately muddying the waters for such a serious questioner. I'm sure Tolkien would have made an excellent Jesuit!

No, I don't think we can in all seriousness--although in a great deal of play--use this draft as an example of Tolkien's intention. It has altogether the air of intellectual gamesmanship--an air which Tolkien himself recognised when he decided not to send it. It needs to be appreciated as such, methinks.

(Note also, that Carpenter says "the draft ends here", as if Tokien gave up the game before he came to what would have been the logical conclusion.)

Now, if this post is technically off-topic in that it does not specifically address the oft-visited Orc question, well, then, let it stand as a study in the nature of evidence we ought to employ in visiting the orc question.