Orcs Defined

What In The Middle-Earth Is An Orc, Anyway?

Many people may have seen the recent Lord of the Rings movies and wondered, “What the heck are those ugly green guys?” Those ugly green guys are Orcs. They are typically shown in dark greens and brown, with ugly, flat-nosed faces, thin limbs, and evil, crafty, and vicious personalities. They look similar to men, although some are shorter or taller, and they may have other proportional differences. There is some controversy that Tolkien once described the Orcs as Mongoloid, a hint that they might reflect racial insensitivity on his part. Orcs will eat anything, including humans (and Hobbits) and other Orcs.

Although no female Orcs are mentioned in either the movie or the book version of Lord of the Rings, Tolkien confirmed their existence. These creatures essentially invented by Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings universe. Although the creation story offered by Tolkien varied through his stories, it’s said that the Orcs were Elves that were broken and twisted to become foul servants. Another creation story states that Orcs were created from slime and muck by Morgoth, although Tolkien later changed that.

Although the word “Orc” had some usage before Tolkien, it was never really clearly applying to a specific creatures. Orcs are the soldiers of the evil rulers in Middle-Earth. They’re used as soldiers by both Sauron and Sarumon. They were cross-bred with goblins to produce the bigger, tougher Uruk-hai. Although some men fought on the side of evil, the typical impersonations of evil are the Orcs in Sauron’s armies.

They are good soldiers, although they only go into battle under the power of someone’s evil will (such as Morgoth or Sauron), they go willingly enough. They have serviceable, if rag-tag, armor, and they frequently use poisoned blades and arrows. Although Tolkien was the first to dream up and characterize Orcs, they have since shown up in many similar fantasy novels and role-playing games.