Of Orcs and Elves - Mirror Image Opposites or Not?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

So, did Orcs think Elves were evil?

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

No,they dont think elves as evil.they know that themselves are evil.

I think it's more complicated than this. As I stated in another recent thread, Gorbag describes Sam, who he thinks is an Elf, as "more dangerous than any other damned rebel" (emphasis mine). This implies to me that Orcs considered their enemies to be nothing more than "rebels" against the natural rule of their masters, in this case Sauron.
Did they think they were Evil? Did they think themselves Good? I don't believe Orcs had a well-defined concept of Good and Evil, if they thought of Elves as "rebels". I think this kind of moral clarity was denied them by Morgoth and later Sauron, and that their world view was more defined by their misery: who was to be feared, who hated, who had the power, etc.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

I want to know what is meant by 'ruined', which to Melkor might have meant something else, entirely.

The short essays on Orcs in the "Myths Transformed" section of Morgoth's Ring have the answers to this and indeed most of these questions. By this time Professor Tolkien was speculating that Orcs might not be corrupted Elves - but he seemingly never came to a decision in that regard.
He makes this remark: "It does however seem best to view Melkor's corrupting power as always starting, at least, in the moral or theological level. Any creature that took him for Lord (and especially those who blasphemously called him Father or Creator) became soon corrupted in all parts of its being, the fëa dragging down the hröa in its descent into Morgothism: hate and destruction." It seems that ruining began mostly with breaking creatures to Morgoth's will. The actual "ruination" followed: they became hateful and grotesque.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

were they without an appreciation of beauty, truth and Spirit

We know from The Hobbit that Orcs "make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones." This doesn't necessarily mean that they lacked a culture, however. Consider the design on Grishnákh's knife, as discovered by Gimli: a "carved handle: it had been shaped like a hideous head with squinting eyes and leering mouth." Evidently Orcs did not produce purely functional things.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

We know Elves are immortal, but we're never told anything about the span of Orcs in LotR or Silmarillion.

Again from Morgoth's Ring: "As for Elves being 'immortal'; they in fact only had enormously long lives, and were themselves physically 'wearing out', and suffering a slow progressive weakening of their bodies... It remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the Orcs... Their life-span would be diminished."
So the ruination of Orcs' bodies explains their supposed mortality.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

Where are their Spirits gathered?

Professor Tolkien speculates of Orc-souls that: "dying they would go to Mandos and be held in prison till the End." It depends whether Orcs have souls, really. He never really made up his mind for sure.

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

We know nothing of Orcish procreation

They "had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar."