Questions tagged [orcs]
An orc is a fictional creature found in many different fantasy universes. Orcs are typically non-magical, and are the same size and strength as men, and tend to be evil. They were popularised in Tolkien's works as "fallen" elves, but are well known from many other works, including Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons. They are related to goblins, which tend to be smaller and less strong than their orc brethren.
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How smart are Tolkien orcs?
I was reading the comments of this answer about what an orc would do if it found the One Ring, and realized the question of orc intelligence ought to be asked, and I found no such answer on this site.
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Did Gollum eat an orc child?
While looking for answers to another question about orcs on Quora, I read an answer that referred to Gollum killing and eating an orc child in the Hobbit, but I don't recall coming across that when I ...
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About orcs, elves, ents and trolls
I was discussing The Lord of the Rings with my son tonight, and we were puzzled by something—Treebeard tells Pippin and Merry that trolls are "mighty strong" but are merely weaker imitations ...
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Fantasy book about a besieged city
I'm looking for a book I've read in the late nineties, though I don't think it was new at that time.
It's fantasy book (orcs, sorcerers, etc.) chronicling the siege of a city. It starts when the city ...
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Orc calls elves "filth?"
The orcs insult and disparage elves but they use terms that seem too human -- is something being filth that big a deal to an orc? So are we getting only an imprecise translation of what orcs say often,...
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Movie with Alien or Orc Creatures, Bred for Violence Scene
This is driving me crazy, because I know I've gotten wires crossed in my head. A lot of the scene has been mixed with the Uruk-Hai spawning scene in Lord of the Rings, which I've rewatched and it ...
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Who or what is "Nampat" in the chant of the Orcs in the Rings of Power?
In a recent episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the Orcs are chanting the word "Nampat" during a march.
According to some websites, it could ...
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How are Orcs so prolific in Tolkien?
The question as to how Orcs reproduce is one that has come up many times, and the answer is basically, as they are just corrupted Elves they do it in the traditional fashion.
For the Orcs had life ...
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Did Orcs retain any features of elves?
From the Lord of the Rings Fandom wiki article on Orcs:
Before Oromë first found the Elves at Cuiviénen, Melkor kidnapped some of them and cruelly tortured them, twisting them into the first Orcs.
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Possible Dwarvish Orc?
I've read many posts and discussions on the origin of the Tolkien orc, yet in everything I've read, not once has this idea I've wondered about been answered with any wisdom, or references to add ...
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Novel told from the point of view of an Orc warrior in a magic world
I did not read the book, only read the first few pages or maybe a chapter. I think it came out in the last 5-10 years
I believe it was about Orcs, but might have been goblins or trolls.
A minor Orc ...
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When and why did orcs get their pointy ears and tusks?
Orcs are commonly depicted as being green skinned, tusked, pointy eared humanoids. While the green skin part was popularized by games like Warcraft, I’m not so sure about the tusks or pointy ears. ...
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Did the description of Grendel influence Tolkien's depiction of the Orcs?
Since Tolkien was largely influenced by the Old English poem Beowulf, it should not be a surprise if his Orcs were at least partly derived from it.
Just as the Orcs are twisted, monstrous, naturally ...
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Is there a passage in Lord of the Rings told from the perspective of an orc?
I distinctly remember that when I read Lord of the Rings, there was a passage told from the point of view of an orc (although obviously still told in the third person).
I think the orc was ...
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Book about trope RPG characters with an Orc whose relatives are portrayed as very intelligent
I remember reading a book around 2015 in German that was probably around 500 - 600 pages long, full of jokes referring to RPG tropes. I think it was part of a series, which is why I would like to ...
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When and why did orcs go green?
Tolkien popularized the orc as the generic fantasy bad guy. In his legendarium, orcs were corrupted elves and their limited descriptive text reflects this. They are described as "swart" and "sallow", ...
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Are there any recorded cases of Orc/Goblin clans going to war with each other?
There are several cases where the Orcs went on war against the other races (Elves, Humans, Dwarves) in Middle Earth, eg in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, in the Battle of the Five Armies and in the ...
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Can an orc be good? [duplicate]
In Tolkien's Legendarium, is there any way for any character to make orcs which would be as "good" as the other free races? This is independent of whether any actual "good" orcs existed in the story.
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What are the advantages of breeding Uruk-hai for Saruman?
What advantage did Saruman gain by breeding the new species, Uruk-hai? How exactly are they superior? Wikipedia says they are
"larger and stronger than other breeds of orc and consequently looked down ...
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When did orcs being as big or bigger than humans become standard?
In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which popularized the orc as known today, orcs are described as almost human height, at most, with many being considerably shorter.
Despite this, many ...
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Do orcs drink water?
At least in the film version of Return of the King, Frodo and Sam run out of water while trekking across Mordor, apparently having been unable to refill their water pouches in the tower or at any ...
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Why would orcs and humans fight on the same side in Lord of the Rings?
Orcs hated humans except when it was dinner time.
Humans hated orcs especially around dinner time.
Saruman, the creator of the Uruk-Hai, promises them they will taste manflesh.
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How did Sauron feed the armies of Mordor?
According to TolkienGateway.net, Mordor's troops consisted of some 18,000 Easterlings and Haradrim, several Haradrim war Oliphaunts, and tens of thousands of Orcs just for the Battle of the Pelennor ...
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Do we ever see spells used by orcs?
Inspired by this question: Which languages was Gandalf proficient in?
Gandalf says the following:
"I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs, that was ever used for such ...
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How did the Great Goblin recognize Glamdring and Orcrist?
In the chapter four of The Hobbit, the Goblins appear to instantaneously recognize Glamdring and Orcist from the battle of Gondolin.
The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he looked ...
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Are there orcs who were well known before becoming one?
The primary means of creating Orcs (besides breeding if that is even possible) is to capture elves and men and through physical torture, forcefully shape them into one.
Are there any named beings who ...
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Do orcs possess fëa? [duplicate]
Orcs appear to be sentient. Orcs are (possibly) derived from elves who do possess fëa. So do they possess "a soul"? and if so, what happens to it when they die? do they get the gift of men?
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Is Bolg part of Azog? [duplicate]
In the Hobbit Part 3 Movie, Legolas calls Bolg "the spawn of Azog." My understanding is that Azog is his father (from the wikia), but how exactly does an Orc reproduce? The term spawn is what really ...
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Who invented orcs?
When telling my less than fantasy-savvy friend about a book I've been reading, she asked a question I could not answer: who came up first with these "orcs" I was talking about?
There are at least ...
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Who was the leader of Uruk-Hai in the Battle of Helm's Deep?
I've searched a lot about this, but couldn't find it. I want to know who's the orc (Uruk-Hai) leader from Battle of Helm's Deep who had no helmet (just armor), climbed on the rock and roared very loud....
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Why didn't Durin's Bane kill the Orcs?
In The Fellowship of the Ring, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains are clearly afraid of the Balrog, and who could blame them? But whereas the Balrog killed all the Dwarves he could find after they woke ...
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Height of the LoTR Races
Is the height of races (men, elves, orcs, goblins, etc.) ever mentioned by Tolkien? If not, did the movies just make up the various heights?
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What languages do the Orcs in Middle Earth speak?
Do orcs from different parts of Middle-Earth all speak the black speech? In the Lord of the Rings films, the orcs are shown to speak in the common tongue. Even those from Mordor.But in The Hobbit, ...
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Did any type of Orcs reside in Rhun or Harad?
We know that Orcs like to reside in mountains, which there is a range of in Rhun. I don't know of any mountains in Harad.
But is there any indication that orcs resided in Rhun or Harad or both?
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How can the Orcs be so easily killed?
Orcs can be slayed with very little effort even by the un-warrior humans, despite their fully developed figures, average-to-tall heights, muscular bodies. (See The Hobbit series, where a dwarf would ...
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Were orcs stronger in the first age?
I was thinking about how most beings were stronger in earlier times than in say, the Third Age.
Did this apply to orcs as well? Did the power Morgoth put into the orcs in the First Age make them ...
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Are orcs considered evil to Eru and the Valar?
It's to my understanding that orcs were once elves that were captured and tortured by Morgoth ages ago, becoming what's now orcs. Being captured and tortured is obviously not their fault, therefore ...
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Does Aragorn have a lapse in judgment or is there another explanation?
NOTE I've edited to add further logic to my question based off the first answer given.
What Seems a Correct Statement
In the LotR movie The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn makes the statement upon ...
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What would an orc do if it found the One Ring?
If an orc found the One Ring, would it try to use it? Or were the orcs "programmed" to turn it over to Sauron?
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What are the differences between Orcs and Uruks?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy mentions the existence of Orcs and Uruks.
I know that Orcs used to be Elves as Saruman says that they were once Elves, but what did Uruks used to be and why are they ...
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Do orcs make references to a/the "devil"?
I just saw a Shadow Mordor E3 trailer and in one of the orc's lines, he says:
He moves like a ghost; fights like a [the] devil!
Is this accurate to what words orcs use or what they believe in (or ...
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How does an orc perceive a hobbit?
From the perspective of an orc - what is a hobbit?
The Hobbit told us that dragons and trolls do not know the race of hobbits. The Lord of the Rings told us that even the Ents do not know the hobbits....
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What happened to the Orcs after the Ring was destroyed and Sauron was defeated?
It certainly seems that the Orcs are always evil. So what happened when their master (Sauron) was defeated at the end of Lord of the Rings? I can't really imagine that either they would be entirely ...
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Are the men in the pub at Bree who eye off Thorin 'men-orcs'?
In the movie Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug we see Thorin enter the The Prancing Pony at Bree and sit down and order a meal. He is eyed off by two men at opposite ends of the pub who stand up as if ...
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How could Orcs survive in subterranean settings?
In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring the Fellowship encounters many Orcs (or goblins) living in the Mines of Moria. In The Hobbit our heroes encounter a tribe of goblins inhabiting caves ...
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How do Orcs breed/reproduce? [duplicate]
Okay, I know this question has come up many many times before.
But let's approach one more time.
Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressea, that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands ...
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What happens to orcs in sunlight?
It's well know that Orcs, Golbins, Uruk-hai and most of Sauron's forces don't tolerate light, especially sunlight very well, and certain types of trolls turn to stone when sunlight falls upon them.
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Where do Orc babies come from?
I've not seen/read any female Orcs mentioned in the movies or in the books. In one of the movies, an Uruk-hai is momentarily shown emerging from a giant, grown-Orc sized flesh packet. So are they ...
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What is the true origin of the Orcs?
There are a bunch of theories about the true origin of the Orcs. Tolkien tried out a few different origins for his Orcs throughout his life but died before he could fully revise The Silmarillion with ...
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Why is breeding men and orcs considered evil?
There is a quote from the History of Middle-Earth (Morgoth's Ring) - supplied in dlanod's answer - that states:
There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, ...
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