Origins of the Great Goblin

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Troelsfo

Even within The Lord of the Rings he cannot settle on a single view, and we get passages that clearly reflect (even in the authorial voice) the older view that the Orcs were indeed demonic spawns created by Morgoth in mockery of the Elves, while other passages show the emergence of the new view, that the Orcs are a corruption of some pre-existing creatures.

Do any of the works say that the Orcs were "created", as opposed to "made"? They are not the same.
I think Tolkien's Catholicism would at least shed some light on this. Within that belief, evil is incapable of true creation: it is restricted to perversion or corruption of the raw materials at hand, though there would seem to be a great deal of room for creativity in that respect. I see no reason to think Morgoth would have been different. The Silmarillion says more than once that the Fire is with Ilúvatar, and that Fire (of creation) cannot thus be used by any other. If Morgoth were able to truly create his own incarnate creatures, would he not then be the equal of Eru?