Orc

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Humanoid monster in Tolkien's fiction

title: "Orc" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["orcs", "fantasy-tropes", "fictional-humanoids", "fictional-monsters", "fictional-warrior-races", "fictional-elves", "fictional-ogres", "fictional-goblins", "middle-earth-monsters"] description: "Humanoid monster in Tolkien's fiction" topic_path: "general/orcs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orc" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Humanoid monster in Tolkien's fiction ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mythical creature"]

Field	Value
name	Orc
Grouping	Humanoid
Sub_Grouping	Monster
Similar_entities	Goblin, Uruk-hai, Troll
Folklore	Middle-earth
First_Attested	The Hobbit (1937)
AKA	Ork
Region	Middle-earth
Habitat	Mountains, caves, dark forests
Details	Multiple alternative origins proposed by Tolkien, e.g. corrupted elves, or bred by Morgoth
::

| name = Orc | image = | caption = | Grouping = Humanoid | Sub_Grouping = Monster | Similar_entities = Goblin, Uruk-hai, Troll | Folklore = Middle-earth | First_Attested = The Hobbit (1937) | AKA = Ork | Region = Middle-earth | Habitat = Mountains, caves, dark forests | Details = Multiple alternative origins proposed by Tolkien, e.g. corrupted elves, or bred by Morgoth An orc (sometimes spelt ork; ), is a fictional race of humanoid monsters often found in works of modern fantasy. Originally called "Goblins," the concept of modern orcs can be found in George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, and later adapted into J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy fiction, where the first uses of the word can be found.

In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. He described their origins inconsistently, including as a corrupted race of elves, or bred by the Dark Lord Morgoth, or turned to evil in the wild. Tolkien's orcs serve as a conveniently wholly evil enemy that could be slaughtered without mercy.

The orc was a sort of "hell-devil" in Old English literature, and the orc-né (pl. orc-néas, "demon-corpses") was a race of corrupted beings and descendants of Cain, alongside the elf, according to the poem Beowulf. Tolkien adopted the term orc from these old attestations, which he professed was a choice made purely for "phonetic suitability" reasons.

Tolkien's concept of orcs has been adapted into the fantasy fiction of other authors, and into games of many different genres such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Warcraft.

Etymology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Orcus_glossed_as_Orc,_Thyrs,_or_Hel-deofol_in_Cleopatra_Glossary.jpg" caption="orc, þyrs [[ꝉ]] hel-deofol}}" ("Goblin, spectre or hell-devil") in the 10th century ''[[Cleopatra Glossaries]]''."] ::

The Anglo-Saxon word orc, which Tolkien used, is generally thought to be derived from the Latin word/name Orcus, though Tolkien expressed doubt about this. The term orcus is glossed as "orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol" ("Goblin, spectre, or hell-devil") in the 10th century Old English Cleopatra Glossaries, about which Thomas Wright wrote: "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin."The Corpus Glossary (Corpus Christi College MS. 144, late 8th to early 9th century) has the two glosses: "orcus, orc" and "orcus, ðyrs, hel-diobul.

The term is used just once in Beowulf, as the plural compound orcneas, in the sense of a tribe of monstrous beings descended from Cain, alongside the elves and ettins (giants), who were condemned by God:

::data[format=table] | {{lang|ang| | | | |---|---|---| ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Beowulf_eotenas_ylfe_orcneas.jpg" caption="elves]] and demon-corpses", inspiring Tolkien to create orcs and other races"] ::

The meaning of Orcneas is uncertain. Frederick Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc

Lord of the Rings

Tolkien

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/The_princess_and_the_goblin_(1920)_(14566641580).jpg" caption="Tolkien wrote that his orcs were influenced by the goblins in [[George MacDonald]]'s 1872 ''[[The Princess and the Goblin]]''.<ref name="Letter 144" group=T/> Illustration "The goblins fell back a little when he began, and made horrible grimaces" by [[Jessie Willcox Smith]], 1920"] ::

The term "orc" is used only once in the first edition of Tolkien's 1937 The Hobbit, which preferred the term "goblins". "Orc" was later used ubiquitously in The Lord of the Rings. The "orc-" element occurs in the sword name Orcrist, which is given as its Elvish language name, and glossed as "Goblin-cleaver".

Stated etymology

Tolkien began the more modern use of the English term "orc" to denote a race of evil humanoid beings. His earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) "monster", "ogre", "demon", together with orqindi and "ogresse". He sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts.{{efn|Parma Eldalamberon volume XII: "Quenya Lexicon Quenya Dictionary": 'Ork' ('orq-') monster, ogre, demon. "orqindi" ogresse. [The original reading of the second entry was 'orqinan' ogresse. They had similar names in other Middle-earth languages: uruk in Black Speech; in the language of the Drúedain gorgûn, "ork-folk"; in Khuzdul rukhs, plural rakhâs; and in the language of Rohan and in the Common Speech, orka.

Tolkien stated in a letter to the novelist Naomi Mitchison that his orcs had been influenced by George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin. He explained that his word "orc" was "derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability", and

Tolkien also observed a similarity with the Latin word orcus, noting that "the word used in translation of Q[uenya] urko, S[indarin] orch is Orc. But that is because of the similarity of the ancient English word orc, 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no connection between them".

Uruk-hai

Description

Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size. book 6, ch. 1, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed. Most are small and avoid daylight.

By the late Third Age, a new breed of orc had emerged from Mordor attacking Osgiliath, Appendix A, "The Stewards" section the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful. Later, they were garrisoned also in Isengard serving Saruman, Appendix F, "Of other races" section whose Uruks were no longer afraid of daylight. Orcs eat meat, including the flesh of Men, and may indulge in cannibalism: in The Two Towers, Grishnákh, an orc from Mordor, claims that the Isengard orcs eat orc-flesh. Whether that is true or spoken in malice is uncertain: an orc flings Peregrin Took stale bread and a "strip of raw dried flesh ... the flesh of he dared not guess what creature".

Half-orcHalf-orcs appear in The Lord of the Rings, created by interbreeding of orcs and Men; they were able to go in sunlight. The "sly Southerner" in The Fellowship of the Ring looks "more than half like a goblin"; similar but more orc-like hybrids appear in The Two Towers "man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed."

|total_width=300px |image1=Weinstein-like_Orc.jpg |alt1=An orc mask |image2=Harvey Weinstein Césars 2014 (detail).jpg |alt2=A close-up picture of film producer Harvey Weinstein from the shoulders up |footer=Peter Jackson had an orc modelled on the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein after a disagreement.

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, the actors playing orcs are made up with masks designed to make them look evil. After a disagreement with the film producer Harvey Weinstein, Jackson had one of the masks made to resemble Weinstein, as an insult to him.

Orkish language

The Orcs had no language of their own, merely a pidgin of many various languages. However, individual tribes developed dialects that differed so widely that Westron, often with a crude accent, was used as a common language. When Sauron returned to power in Mordor in the Third Age, Black Speech was used by the captains of his armies and by his servants in his tower of Barad-dûr. A sample of debased Black Speech can be found in The Two Towers, where a "yellow-fanged" guard Orc of Mordor curses Uglúk of Isengard (an Uruk-hai chief) with the words "Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!" In The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien gives the translation: "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!" However, in a note published in Vinyar Tengwar he gives an alternative translation: "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!" speculated that Tolkien might have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for Black Speech.

In-fiction origins

Main article: Tolkien's moral dilemma

The origins of orcs were explained in multiple inconsistent ways by Tolkien. Early works depict them as creations of Morgoth, mimicking the forms of the Children of Ilúvatar. Alternatively, as in The Silmarillion, they may have been East Elves, enslaved, tortured, and bred by Morgoth; or, perhaps the Avari, the Elves who refused to go to Aman, turned "evil and savage in the wild".

The orcs "multiplied" like Elves and Men, meaning that they reproduced sexually. Tolkien stated in a letter dated 21 October 1963 to a Mrs. Munsby that "there must have been orc-women".Tolkien (1963). Letter dated 21 October 1963 to Ms. Munsby, cited in In The Fall of Gondolin Morgoth made them of slime by sorcery, "bred from the heats and slimes of the earth". Or, they were "beasts of humanized shape": possibly Elves mated with beasts, and later Men. Elsewhere, Tolkien wrote that they could have been fallen Maiar – perhaps a kind called Boldog, like lesser Balrogs – or corrupted Men.

Shippey writes that the orcs in The Lord of the Rings were almost certainly created just to equip Middle-earth with a continual supply of enemies who one could kill without compunction, or in Tolkien's words from The Monsters and the Critics to serve as "the infantry of the old war" ready to be slaughtered. Shippey states that orcs nevertheless share the human concept of good and evil, with a familiar sense of morality, though he notes that, like many people, orcs are quite unable to apply their morals to themselves. Shippey suggests that Tolkien, as a Catholic, took it as a given that "evil cannot make, only mock", so orcs could not have an equal and opposite morality to that of men or elves. In a 1954 letter, Tolkien wrote that orcs were "fundamentally a race of 'rational incarnate' creatures, though horribly corrupted, if no more so than many Men to be met today". The scholar of English literature Robert Tally wrote in Mythlore that despite the uniform presentation of orcs as "loathsome, ugly, cruel, feared, and especially terminable", Tolkien could not resist "the urge to flesh out and 'humanize' these inhuman creatures from time to time", in the process giving them their own morality. Shippey notes that in The Two Towers, the orc Gorbag disapproves of the "regular elvish trick" (an immoral act) of abandoning a comrade, as he wrongly supposes Sam Gamgee has done to Frodo Baggins. Shippey describes the implied concept of evil as Boethian – that evil is the absence of good. He notes, however, that Tolkien did not agree with that concept of evil; Tolkien believed that evil had to be actively fought, with war if necessary. That is something that Shippey describes as representing the Manichean position – that evil coexists with good, and is at least equally as powerful.

::data[format=table title="The origins and morality of Orcs: the Catholic Tolkien's dilemma"]

Created evil?	Like animals?	Created good, but fallen?
Origin of orcs
according to Tolkien	"Brooded" by Morgoth	"Beasts of humanized shape"
Moral implication	Orcs are wholly evil (unlike Men).	Orcs have no power of speech and morality.
Resulting problem	Orcs like Gorbag have a moral sense (even if they cannot keep to it) and can speak, which conflicts with their being wholly evil or not even sentient. Since evil cannot make, only mock, orcs cannot have an equal and opposite morality to Men.	Orcs should be treated with mercy, where possible.
::

Racism

Orcs and race

Writers including Andrew O'Hehir and the literary critic Jenny Turner have likened Tolkien's descriptions of orcs to racial stereotypes. In a private letter, Tolkien describes orcs as:

Writing for Salon.com, the journalist Andrew O'Hehir describes Tolkien's orcs as "a subhuman race [...] that is morally irredeemable and deserves only death". He adds that they are "dark-skinned and slant-eyed, and although they possess reason, speech, social organization and, as Shippey mentions, a sort of moral sensibility, they are inherently evil." O'Hehir concludes that while Tolkien's own description of orcs is a revealing representation of the "Other", it is "also the product of his background and era" and that Tolkien was not consciously "a racist or an anti-Semite", mentioning Tolkien's letters to this effect. Turner, in the London Review of Books, repeats O'Hehir's statement that orcs are "by design and intention a northern European's paranoid caricature of the races he has dimly heard about", and adds similar caveats, writing: "Tolkien does not appear to have been half as crackers on these topics [of race and race purity] as many others were. He sublimated the anxieties, perhaps, in his books."

Tally says the orcs are a demonized enemy, despite Tolkien's own objections to demonization of the enemy in the two World Wars. In a letter to his son, Christopher, who was serving in the RAF in the Second World War, Tolkien wrote of orcs as appearing on both sides of the conflict:

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Tokio_Kid_Say_'Much_Waste_of_Material_Make_So-o-o-0_Happy!_Thank_You.jpg" caption="[[Peter Jackson]]'s film versions of Tolkien's orcs have been compared to wartime caricatures of the Japanese (here, an American [[propaganda]] poster).<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003"/>" alt="Poster showing fanged caricature of "Tokio kid," a Japanese person pointing a bloody knife at a sign that reads "Much waste of material make so-o-o-o happy! Thank you!""] ::

Scholars of English literature William N. Rogers II and Michael R. Underwood note that a widespread element of late 19th century Western culture was fear of moral decline and degeneration; this led to eugenics. In The Two Towers, the Ent Treebeard says:

The journalist David Ibata writes that the interpretations of orcs in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films look much like "the worst depictions of the Japanese drawn by American and British illustrators during World War II". The Germanic studies scholar Sandra Ballif Straubhaar writes that there is evidence in Tolkien's writing of "a kind of racism perhaps not unremarkable in a mid-twentieth century Western man", but that this is often overstated, and must be balanced against the "polycultured, polylingual world" that is "absolutely central" to Middle-earth, as well as Tolkien's own "appalled objection" to those seeking to use his work to uphold racist ideas.

Other fiction

As a response to the type-casting of orcs as generic evil characters or antagonists, some novels portray events from the point of view of the orcs, or make them more sympathetic characters. Mary Gentle's 1992 novel Grunts! presents orcs as generic infantry, used as metaphorical cannon-fodder. A series of books by Stan Nicholls, Orcs: First Blood, focuses on the conflicts between orcs and humans from the orcs' point of view. In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, orcs are close to extinction; in his Unseen Academicals, it is said that "When the Evil Emperor wanted fighters he got some of the Igors to turn goblins into orcs" to be used as weapons in a Great War, "encouraged" by whips and beatings.

In games

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Orc_mask_by_GrimZombie.jpg" caption="Warhammer Fantasy]]''"] ::

Orcs based on The Lord of the Rings have become a fixture of fantasy fiction and role-playing games.

''Dungeons & Dragons''

Main article: Orc (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), orcs are creatures in the game, and somewhat based upon those described by Tolkien. These D&D orcs are implemented in the game rules as a multi-tribed race of hostile and bestial humanoids.

The D&D orcs are endowed with muscular frames, large canine teeth like boar's tusks, and snouts rather than human-like noses. While a pug-nose ("flat-nosed") was attributable to Tolkien's written correspondence, the pig-headed (pig-faced) look was imparted on the orc by the D&D original edition (1974). It was later modified from bald-headed to hairy in subsequent editions. In the third version of the game the orc became gray-skinned, even though a complicated color-palleted description of a (non-gray) orc had been implemented in the Monster Manual for the first edition (1977). Newer versions seem to have dropped references to skin-color.

Early versions of the game introduced the "half-orc" as race. The orc was described in the first edition of Monster Manual (op. cit.), as a fiercely competitive bully, a tribal creature often dwelling and building underground; in newer editions, orcs (though still described as sometimes inhabiting cavern complexes) had been shifted to become more prone to non-subterranean habitation as well, adapting captured villages into communities, for instance. The mythology and attitudes of the orcs are described in detail in Dragon #62 (June 1982), in Roger E. Moore's article, "The Half-Orc Point of View".

The orc for the D&D offshoot Pathfinder RPG are detailed in the 2008 book Classic Monsters Revisited issued by the game's publisher Paizo.

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a campaign setting book by Critical Role creator Matt Mercer, contains an "Orcs of Exandria" race that is portrayed differently from conventional fantasy orcs. Specifically, Orcs of Exandria "have the option to be proficient in several skills, including Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Perception, and Survival," departing from the mechanics of the canonical orc race in Volo's Guide to Monsters, which have a boosted Intimidation skill and a reduced general Intelligence stat. This has been praised for rehabilitating the orc species from its "problematic history".

''Warhammer''

Games Workshop's Warhammer universe features cunning and brutal orcs in a fantasy setting, who are driven not so much by a need to do evil as to obtain fulfilment through the act of war. In the Warhammer 40,000 series of science-fiction games, they are a green-skinned alien species, called Orks.

''Warcraft''

Orcs are an important race in Warcraft, a high fantasy franchise created by Blizzard Entertainment. Several orc characters from the Warcraft universe are playable heroes in their crossover multiplayer game Heroes of the Storm.

Other products

The orc features in numerous Magic: The Gathering collectible cards, in the 1993 game series published by Wizards of the Coast.

In The Elder Scrolls series, many orcs or Orsimer are skilled blacksmiths. In Hasbro's Heroscape products, orcs come from the pre-historic planet Grut. They are blue-skinned, with prominent tusks or horns. The Skylander Voodood from the first game in the series, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, is an orc.

File:Savage Orc by farmerownia.jpg|Savage orc File:For the love of waaagh by grundalug.jpg|For the Love of Waaagh!, an Ork from Warhammer 40,000 File:Orc grunt by Lucas Salcedo.jpg|Orc Grunt, an orc from Warcraft

Notes

References

Primary

Secondary

Sources

References

Karthaus-Hunt, Beatrix. (2002). "Unearthly Visions: Approaches to Science Fiction and Fantasy Art". [[Greenwood Press]].
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Honegger, Thomas. (2024). "From Old English orcneas to George MacDonald's Goblins with Soft Feet: Sources of Inspiration and Models for Tolkien's Orcs from English Literature". Springer.
Schneidewind, Friedhelm. (2007). "J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment". [[Routledge]].
Shippey, Tom. (1979). "J. R. R. Tolkien, scholar and storyteller: Essays in Memoriam". [[Cornell University Press]].
{{harvnb. Carpenter. 2023
Wright, Thomas. (1873). "A second volume of vocabularies". privately printed.
Pheifer, J. D.. (1974). ["Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary"](https://books.google.com/books?id=kN5ZAAAAMAAJ&q=orcus }}(Repr. Sandpaper Books, 1998 {{ISBN). [[Oxford University Press]].
{{Harvnb. Klaeber. 1950
{{harvnb. Klaeber. 1950
Brehaut, Patricia Kathleen. (1961). "Moot passages in Beowulf". [[Stanford University]].
(1977). "Beowulf: A Dual-language Edition". [[Anchor Books]].
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(5 October 2021). "Lord of the Rings orc was modeled after Harvey Weinstein, Elijah Wood reveals". [[The Guardian]].
Hostetter, Carl F.. (November 1992). "Ugluk to the Dung-pit". [[Elvish Linguistic Fellowship]].
Fauskanger, Helge K.. "Orkish and the Black Speech – base language for base purposes". [[University of Bergen]].
Schneidewind, Friedhelm. (2007). "J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment". [[Routledge]].
Chausse, Jean. (2016). "Pour la gloire de ce monde. Recouvrements et consolations en Terre du Milieu". Le Dragon de Brume.
{{harvnb. Shippey. 2005
{{harvnb. Shippey. 2005
Tally, Robert T. Jr.. (2010). "Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien's Inhuman Creatures". [[Mythlore]].
Turner, Jenny. (15 November 2001). "Reasons for Liking Tolkien". [[London Review of Books]].
Tally, Robert. (2019). "Demonizing the Enemy, Literally: Tolkien, Orcs, and the Sense of the World Wars". Humanities.
(2000). "J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-earth". [[Greenwood Publishing Group]].
Ibata, David. (12 January 2003). "'Lord' of racism? Critics view trilogy as discriminatory". [[The Chicago Tribune]].
Straubhaar, Sandra Ballif. (2004). "Tolkien and the invention of myth: a reader". [[University Press of Kentucky]].
Canavan, A. P.. (2012). ""Let's hunt some orc!": Reevaluating the Monstrosity of Orcs". [[New York Review of Science Fiction]].
"Stan Nicholls".
Pratchett, Terry. (2009). "Unseen Academicals". [[Doubleday (publisher).
Gygax, Gary. (March 1985). "On the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games".
(October 1, 2000). "Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III". Wizards of the Coast.
Mohr, Joseph. (7 December 2019). "Orcs in Dungeons and Dragons".
Pramas, Chris. (2017). "Orc Warfare". [[Rosen Publishing]].
(October 1, 2000). "Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III". Wizards of the Coast.
(July 2003). "Monster Manual: Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook". Wizards of the Coast.
Gygax, Gary. (December 1977). "Monster Manual". TSR.
(July 2003). "Monster Manual: Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook". Wizards of the Coast.
[[Roger E. Moore. Moore, Roger E]]. "The Half-Orc Point of View." ''[[Dragon (magazine). Dragon]]'' #62 (TSR, June 1982).
[[Wolfgang Baur. Baur, Wolfgang]], [[Jason Bulmahn]], Joshua J. Frost, [[James Jacobs (game designer). James Jacobs]], Nicolas Logue, Mike McArtor, James L. Sutter, [[Greg A. Vaughan]], Jeremy Walker. ''Classic Monsters Revisited'' (Paizo, 2008) pages 52–57.
Grebey, James. (2020-05-01). "Dungeons & Dragons' latest setting, Wildemount, helps solve the problem of 'evil' races".
Hoffer, Christian. (March 19, 2020). "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount Fixes One of Dungeons & Dragons' Most Problematic Elements".
(2000). "Warhammer Fantasy Battles Army Book: Orcs & Goblins". Games Workshop: Nottingham.
Sanders, Rob. "Xenos: Seven Alien Species With A Shot At Conquering the 40k Galaxy".
(6 October 2016). "Another orc enters the Heroes of the Storm battleground".
Vessenes, Ted. (8 February 2002). "Lessons of the Past".
Stewart, Charlie. (14 September 2020). "Why the Orcs Could Have a Huge Role in The Elder Scrolls 6".
"Blade Gruts".
"Heavy Gruts".
"Skylanders Giants Character Guide Magic Element Characters From Spyro's Adventure".

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