Making the Uruk-hai

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by radagastly

As for Saruman keeping slaves for breeding, it's possible, I guess, but there is no reason to assume that an orc/human mating would produce a hybrid, incapable of producing their own progeny. Saruman could easily have found existing orc/human half-orcs somewhere in the mountains, perhaps, and mated them to produce more. I believe the Uruk-hai were just a different breed of Orcs, not a mix. I could be wrong, though

In support of the idea that Uruk-hai was a particular breed of "pure" Orc, we see Uglúk of Isengard using the term.

'But in the meantime the Uruk-hai of Isengard can do the dirty work, as usual'.

The Two Towers The Uruk-Hai

Bigger and more powerful Orcs, but not half-breeds.

It seems that Saruman gets the blame in the books for the racial mixing, so I think it unlikely there were any previously existing examples prior to his machinations. The Mannish subjects used by him would probably have come from Dunland, maybe of outlaws and such driven out by their fellows. I don't think those need necessarily have been totally unwilling slaves in every case. There could have been at least a few whose hatred of Rohan and the West surpassed any reluctance toward Orcish intimacy.