Orc

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This article is about the fictional humanoid monster. For specific characters and other uses, see Orc (disambiguation) and Ork (disambiguation).

An orc from Warhammer Fantasy

An orc (sometimes spelled ork; /ɔːrk/, adjective: orkish,[1][2] orcish),[3] in general, is a hideous creature such as an ogre, a sea monster, or a giant in literature.[4] An orc, in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also refers to as "goblin"-kind.

The orcs appear (especially in The Lord of the Rings) as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. They are a corrupted race of elves, either bred that way by Morgoth, or turned savage in that manner, according to the Silmarillion.[5][6]

The orc was a sort of "hell-devil" or giant 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.[T 1]

The use of the term orc in the sense of "sea monster" or "devouring monster, ogre" already occurred in Early Modern English (ca. late 16th cent.), according to the Oxford English Dictionary presumably consulted by Tolkien.[7] The orc "sea monster" derived from orca, was unconnected to Tolkien's orc,[8] but the other orc monster had the same Old English origins as Tolkien's orc, but also influenced by ogre (Italian: orco) of Northern European folk tales and fairy tales.

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[edit]

Old English[edit]

Latin orcus is glossed as Old English "orc, þyrs ꝉ hel-deofol" ("Goblin, spectre or hell-devil") in the 10th century Cleopatra Glossaries.
Further information: Beowulf and Middle-earth

The word orc probably derives from the Latin word/name Orcus.[9]

The term orcus is glossed as "orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol"[a] ("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."[10][11][b]

The term is used just once in Beowulf (in the sense of a monstrous being[c]), as the plural compound orcneas, one of the tribes belonging to the descendants of Cain, alongside the elves[d] and ettins (giants) condemned by God:

þanon untydras ealle onwocon
eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas
swylce gigantas þa wið gode wunnon
lange þrage he him ðæs lean forgeald
—Beowulf, Fitt I, vv. 111–14[13]
Thence all evil broods were born,
ogres and elves[d] and evil spirits[e]
—the giants also, who long time fought with God,
for which he gave them their reward
—John R. Clark Hall, tr. (1901)[14]
Beowulf's eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas, "ogres and elves and demon-corpses", inspiring Tolkien to create orcs and other races

Orcneas is translated "evil spirits" above,[e] but its meaning is uncertain. Frederick Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. orcus "the underworld" + neas "corpses", to which the translation "evil spirits" failed to do justice.[15][f] It is generally supposed to contain an element -né, cognate to Gothic naus and Old Norse nár, both meaning 'corpse'.[9][g] If *orcné is to be glossed as orcus 'corpse', then the compound word can be construed as "demon-corpses",[17][18] or "corpse from Orcus (i.e. the underworld)".[15][20] Hence orc-neas may have possibly been some sort of walking dead monster, a product of ancient necromancy,[15] or even be flat out called zombies,[18][19] to use a familiar modern term from popular culture.

Modern English[edit]

In the modern sense more generally in literature, an orc denotes some horrid-faced or shaped monster, including an ogre, a sea monster, or a giant.[4]

The word "orc" or "ork" (var. "orque", "orke") came into usage in the Early Modern English language, in the late 16th century according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).[21] Tolkien, who was a contributor to the OED had certainly studied this entry.[22]

This "orc, ork" in the first sense, referring vaguely to some sea monster (not necessarily killer whale)[21] was a word that Tolkien himself supposed was not related to his orc,[1] as stated in his letter[T 1] (see quote under §Stated etymology).[h] The sea monster orca in Orlando Furioso, is sometimes rendered as "orc" in modern English,[24][4] and as "orke" in the early translation (cf. § Orlando's orca).[25][i]

The word in the second sense of "devouring monster, ogre" is related to Old English orc,[21] invoked by Tolkien.[1] Thus the term seems related to the glossary entry "orcþyrs oððe heldeofol [sic]"[26] and passage in Beowulf about orcneas (discussed in the preceding §Old English).[21] The word is also etymologically "derived or influenced by L. orcus and Romanic orco [meaning 'ogre']".[21][j]

One early usage is from Samuel Holland's 1656 work Don Zara del Fogo quoted as: "Who at one stroke didst pare away three heads from off the shoulders of an Orke, begotten by an Incubus".[21][k]

The term "orc" has later attestations, for example, it appears on lists of imaginary creatures in two of Charles Kingsley's mid-1860s novels.

The term "orc" as monster was kept current in popular culture owing to Tolkien (and Disney), and kept from becoming obsolete like the third sense of the word, according to philologist Roberta Frank.[22][l]

Orlando's orca[edit]

The sea monster orca ("orke",[25] "orc"[32]) in Orlando Furioso, which received the chained Angelica as sacrifice in the fashion of Andromeda has been given as example of "orc" in literature.[4] The creature (described in Cantos VIII, X) is battled by Ruggiero,[25][32] a native character introduced into the Italian Charlemagne cycle.

There is also the orco, and ogre or giant ("ork, orke", "orko" etc.[33]), occurring in a later portion of Orlando Furioso (Canto XVII).[24]

Tolkien[edit]

Tolkien wrote that his orcs were influenced by the goblins in George MacDonald's 1872 The Princess and the Goblin.[T 1] 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 The Hobbit (1937) and are usually called "goblins" elsewhere in that book; but "orc" was later used ubiquitously in The Lord of the Rings.[23][34]

The "orc-" element occurs the sword name Orcrist,[m][34][23] which is given as its Elvish language name,[35][36] and it is glossed as "Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter".[T 2]

Stated etymology[edit]

Tolkien began the more modern use of the English term "orc" to denote a race of evil, humanoid creatures. 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.[n] He stated that the Elvish words for orc were derived from a root ruku, "fear, horror"; in Quenya, orco, plural orkor; in Sindarin orch, plurals yrch and Orchoth (as a class).[T 3][T 1] They had similar names in other Middle-earth languages: uruk in Black Speech;[T 1] 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.[T 3]

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.[T 1] He explained that his "orc" was "derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability",[T 1][23] and

I originally took the word from Old English orc (Beowulf 112 orc-neas and the gloss orc: þyrs ('ogre'), heldeofol ('hell-devil')).[o] This is supposed not to be connected with modern English orc, ork, a name applied to various sea-beasts of the dolphin order".[T 4][1]

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."[T 3]

Description[edit]

Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size.[T 5] 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.[T 6]

An orc mask
The film producer
Peter Jackson had an orc modelled on the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein after a disagreement.[37]

By the Third Age, a new breed of orc had emerged, the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful, and no longer afraid of daylight.[T 6] 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".[T 6]

Half-orcs appear in The Lord of the Rings, created by interbreeding of orcs and Men;[T 7] they were able to go in sunlight.[T 6] The "sly Southerner" in The Fellowship of the Ring looks "more than half like a goblin";[T 8] similar but more orc-like hybrids appear in The Two Towers "man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed."[T 9]

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 "notorious" Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Jackson had one of the masks made to resemble Weinstein, as an insult to him.[37]

Orkish language[edit]

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.[T 6][38] A few words of the Black Speech are common among Orcs: ghâsh ("fire"), sharkû ("old man", leading to Saruman's nickname "Sharkey"), snaga ("slave"), and Uruk ("orc"). Another Orkish word is tark ("Man of Gondor") from Westron and ultimately Quenya tarkil.

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 Barad-dûr. A substantial sample of debased Black Speech/Orkish can be found in The Two Towers, where a "yellow-fanged" guard Orc of Mordor curses Uglúk of Isengard:

Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!

In The Peoples of Middle-earth,[39] 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!"[40]

Alexandre Nemirovsky speculates that Tolkien may have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for Black Speech and Orkish.[41]

In-fiction origins[edit]

Main article: Tolkien's sentience dilemma

The origin(s) of orcs were explained inconsistently in two different ways by Tolkien:[6] the orcs were either East Elves (Avari) enslaved, tortured, and bred by Morgoth (as Melkor became known),[T 10] or, "perhaps.. Avari [(a race of elves)].. [turned] evil and savage in the wild", both according to The Silmarillion.[T 11][p]

The orcs "multiplied" like Elves and Men,[42] i.e., reproduced sexually (with a mate).[43] Tolkien stated in a letter dated 21 October 1963 to a Mrs. Munsby that "there must have been orc-women".[T 13][44][45] In The Fall of Gondolin Morgoth made them of slime by sorcery, "bred from the heats and slimes of the earth".[T 14] Or, they were "beasts of humanized shape", possibly, Tolkien wrote, Elves mated with beasts, and later Men.[T 15] Or again, Tolkien noted, they could have been fallen Maiar, perhaps a kind called Boldog, like lesser Balrogs; or corrupted Men.[T 7]

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 over whom one need feel no compunction",[43] or in Tolkien's words from The Monsters and the Critics "the infantry of the old war" ready to be slaughtered.[43] Shippey states that all the same, orcs 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. In his view, 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.[46] 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."[T 16] Robert T. 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.[47] Shippey notes that in The Two Towers, the orc Gorbag disapproves of the "regular elvish trick"–an immoral act–of seeming to abandon a comrade, as he wrongly supposes Sam Gamgee has done with Frodo Baggins. Shippey describes the implied view of evil as Boethian, that evil is the absence of good. He notes, however, that Tolkien did not agree with that point of view; Tolkien believed that evil had to be actively fought, with war if necessary, something that Shippey describes as representing the Manichean position, that evil coexists with good and is at least equally powerful.[48]

The origins of orcs: the Catholic Tolkien's dilemma
Created evil Like animals Created good, but fallen
Origin of orcs
according to Tolkien 		"Brooded" by Morgoth[T 12] "Beasts of humanized shape"[T 15] Fallen Maiar, or corrupted Men/Elves[T 10][T 7]
Moral implication Orcs are wholly evil (unlike Men) and can be slaughtered without compunction[43] Orcs have no morality, no power of speech, are not sentient Orcs have morality just like Men[48][47]
Resulting problem Orcs like Gorbag have a moral sense (even if they can't keep to it) and can speak, which conflicts with their being wholly evil or not even sentient. Since evil cannot make, only mock, orcs can't have an equal and opposite morality to Men.[47][46] It's wrong just to slaughter them, then

Debated racism[edit]

The ShireTolkien's moral geographyGondorMordorHaradcommons:File:Tolkien's Moral Geography of Middle-Earth.svg
Imagemap with clickable links of Tolkien's moral geography of Middle-earth, according to John Magoun[49]
Main article: Tolkien and race

The possibility of racism in Tolkien's descriptions of orcs has been debated. In a private letter, Tolkien describes orcs as:[T 17]

squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.[T 17]

O'Hehir describes orcs as "a subhuman race bred by Morgoth and/or Sauron (although not created by them) that is morally irredeemable and deserves only death. 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."[50] He notes Tolkien's own description of them (quoted above), saying it could scarcely be more revealing as a representation of the "Other", and states "it is also the product of his background and era, like most of our inescapable prejudices. At the level of conscious intention, he was not a racist or an anti-Semite" and mentions Tolkien's letters to this effect.[50] The literary critic Jenny Turner, writing in the London Review of Books, endorses Andrew O'Hehir's comment on Salon.com that orcs are "by design and intention a northern European's paranoid caricature of the races he has dimly heard about".[51][50]

The scholar of English literature Robert Tally describes the orcs as a demonized enemy, despite (he writes) Tolkien's own objections to demonization of the enemy in the two World Wars.[52] 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:

Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fiction ... only in real life they are on both sides, of course. For 'romance' has grown out of 'allegory', and its wars are still derived from the 'inner war' of allegory in which good is on one side and various modes of badness on the other. In real (exterior) life men are on both sides: which means a motley alliance of orcs, beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men, and angels.[T 18]

John Magoun, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, states that Middle-earth has a "fully expressed moral geography".[49] Any moral bias towards a north-western geography, however, was directly denied by Tolkien in a letter to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, who had recently interviewed him in 1967:

Auden has asserted that for me 'the North is a sacred direction'. That is not true. The North-west of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man's home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not 'sacred', nor does it exhaust my affections. I do have, for instance, a particular fondness for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish. That it is untrue for my story, a mere reading of the synopses should show. The North was the seat of the fortresses of the Devil [ie. Morgoth].[T 19]

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!"
Peter Jackson's film versions of Tolkien's orcs have been compared to wartime caricatures of the Japanese (here, an American propaganda poster).[53]

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.[54] In The Two Towers, the Ent Treebeard says:[T 20]

It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of orcs and Men? That would be a black evil![T 20]

The Germanic studies scholar Sandra Ballif Straubhaar however argues against the "recurring accusations" of racism, stating that "a polycultured, polylingual world is absolutely central" to Middle-earth, and that readers and filmgoers will easily see that.[55] The historian and Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell likewise disagreed with any notions of racism inherent or latent in Tolkien's works, and wondered "if there were a way of writing epic fantasy about a battle against an evil spirit and his monstrous servants without its being subject to speculation of racist intent".[56]

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."[53]

Other fiction[edit]

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.[38] A series of books by Stan Nicholls, Orcs: First Blood, focuses on the conflicts between orcs and humans from the orcs' point of view.[57] 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.[58]

In games[edit]

Orcs based on The Lord of the Rings have become a fixture of fantasy fiction and role-playing games. In the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, orcs were among the earliest creatures introduced in the game, and were largely based upon those described by Tolkien.[59] The D&D orcs are a tribal race of hostile and bestial humanoids with muscular frames, large canine teeth and snouts rather than human-like noses.[60] The orc appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977), where it is described as a fiercely competitive bully, a tribal creature often living underground.[61] 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",[62] and the orc is further detailed in Paizo Publishing's 2008 book Classic Monsters Revisited.[63]

Games Workshop's Warhammer universe features cunning and brutal Orks 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.[64] In the Warhammer 40,000, a series of science-fiction games, they are a green-skinned alien species, called 'Orks'.[65] 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 the crossover multiplayer game Heroes of the Storm.[66] In the Elder Scrolls series, many orcs or Orsimer are skilled blacksmiths.[67] In Hasbro's Heroscape products, orcs come from the pre-historic planet Grut.[68] They are blue-skinned, with prominent tusks or horns.[69] Several orc champions ride prehistoric animals (including a Tyrannosaurus rex,[70] a Velociraptor[71] and sabre-tooth tigers, known as Swogs).[72] The Skylander Voodood from the first game in the series, Spyro's Adventure, is an orc.[73] The 1993 Wizards of the Coast collectible card game Magic: The Gathering involves numerous orc cards.[74]

See also[edit]

  • Haradrim – the dark-skinned "Southrons" who fought for Sauron alongside the orcs
  • Troll (Middle-earth) – large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect, also used by Sauron

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Here: "orcus   [orc].. þrys ꝉ heldeofol" is the redaction given by Pheifer 1974, p. 37n but þrys appears to be a mistranscription for þyrs. The original text uses "ꝉ", the scribal abbreviation for Latin vel meaning "or", which Wright has silently expanded as Anglo-Saxon oððe.
  2. ^ 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.Pheifer 1974, p. 37n
  3. ^ The plural orcas is used twice in the sense of "vessel" or goblet at vv. 2760, 3047 in Beowulf.[7]
  4. ^ a b Tolkien's own translation avoided translating ylfe as "elves" and replaced the word with "goblin", apparently because he did not wish to associate the elves with the evil-kind, due to his own "proprietorial" view.[12]
  5. ^ a b Tolkien gives "haunting shapes of hell"(for orcneas) in his translation of Beowulf.[12]
  6. ^ Klaeber here takes orcus to be the world and not the god, as does Bosworth & Toller 1898, p. 764: "orc, es; m. The infernal regions (orcus)", though the latter seems to predicate on synthesizing the compound "Orcþyrs" by altering the reading of the Cleopatra glossaries as given by Wright's Voc. ii. that he sources.
  7. ^ The usual Old English word for corpse is líc, but -né appears in nebbed 'corpse bed',[16] and in dryhtné 'dead body of a warrior', where dryht is a military unit.
  8. ^ While technically "orc" in the sense of "sea monster" was not a separate word in the first edition of OED (and rather the same word with, confusingly, a disparate etymology),[21] the online edition of OED now separates "orc" in the sense of "sea monster" as a separate entry.[23]
  9. ^ OED "orc" fails to list this usage in Harington's translation, even though it cites "1591 Harington Orl. Fur." itself is cited in other word entries.
  10. ^ The dictionary also suggests that its "ogre" entry should be consulted as well.[21] Incidentally, the English word "ogre", from the French, might have been formed by fairy tale compiler Charles Perrault from a hypothetical Italian *orgo,[27] whose standard Italian form is orco for 'ogre'.[28] Perrault borrowed stories from the 16th-century Italian writers Giovanni Francesco Straparola[29] and (less likely[30]) Giambattista Basile.[29] But Straparola's Puss n' Boots did not have a magical ogre introduced by Perrault.[30] Basile did write of ogres which he called uerco in the Naples dialect, and also derived from the Latin Orcus, (cf. Lo Cuento dell'Uerco and Peruonto)[31][30]
  11. ^ The work was a pastiche of Spanish romances such as Don Quixote.
  12. ^ There was a third sense to "orc" meaning "a large cask or a vessel", listed in the OED, which Frank's paper focuses on.
  13. ^ Thorin Oakenshield's Elvish sword from Gondolin.
  14. ^ 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.< Perhaps the intended meaning of the earlier form was 'region of ogres'; cf. 'kalimban', 'Hisinan'. 'The Poetic and Mythologic Words of Eldarissa' gives 'ork' 'ogre, giant' and 'orqin' 'ogress', which may be a feminine form. ...]"
  15. ^ In the Cleopatra Glossaries, Folio 69 verso; the entry is illustrated above.
  16. ^ The orcs are also described as "foul broodlings of Melkor who fared abroad doing his evil work" in The Tale of Tinúviel.[T 12]

References[edit]

Primary[edit]

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Carpenter 1981, #144 to Naomi Mitchison 25 April 1954
  2. ^ Tolkien 1937, ch. 4 "Over Hill and Under Hill"
  3. ^ a b c Tolkien 1994, Appendix C "Elvish names for the Orcs", pp. 289–391
  4. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (2005). Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (eds.). Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings (PDF). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-720907-1.
  5. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 1, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
  6. ^ a b c d e Tolkien 1954, Book 3, ch. 3 "The Uruk-hai"
  7. ^ a b c Tolkien 1993, "Myths transformed", text X
  8. ^ Tolkien 1954a, Book 1, ch. 11 "A Knife in the Dark"
  9. ^ Tolkien 1954, Book 3, ch. 9 "Flotsam and Jetsam"
  10. ^ a b Tolkien 1977, p. 50
  11. ^ Tolkien 1977, pp. 93–94
  12. ^ a b Tolkien 1984b, "The Tale of Tinúviel"
  13. ^ Tolkien (1963). Letter dated 21 October 1963 to Ms. Munsby. apud Gee, Henry. "The Science of Middle-earth: Sex and the Single Orc". TheOneRing.net. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  14. ^ Tolkien 1984b, p. 159
  15. ^ a b Tolkien 1993, "Myths transformed", text VIII
  16. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter 153 to Peter Hastings, draft, September 1954
  17. ^ a b Carpenter 1981, #210
  18. ^ Carpenter 1981, #71
  19. ^ Carpenter 1981, #294
  20. ^ a b Tolkien 1954, Book 3, Ch. 4, "Treebeard"

Secondary[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Karthaus-Hunt, Beatrix (2002), "'And What Happened After': How J.R.R. Tolkien Visualized, and Other Artists Re-Visualized, the Denizens of Middle-earth", in Westfahl, Gary; Slusser, George Edgar; Plummer, Kathleen Church (eds.), Unearthly Visions: Approaches to Science Fiction and Fantasy Art, Greenwood Press, pp. 138n, ISBN 0313317054
  2. ^ Lobdell (1975), p. 171.
  3. ^ "Orc". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Kuiper, Kathleen, ed. (1995). "orc". Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster. p. 839. ISBN 9780877790426.
  5. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 362, 438 (chapter 5, note 14).
  6. ^ a b Schneidewind, Friedhelm (2007). "Biology of Middle -Earth". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. p. 66. ISBN 9780415969420.
  7. ^ a b Frank, Roberta (1997), "Old English Orc 'cup, goblet': a Latin Loanword with Attitude", in Roberts, Jane; Nelson, Janet Laughland; Godden, Malcolm (eds.), Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of Her Sixty-fifth Birthday, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, p. 20, ISBN 9780859915151
  8. ^ Not connected to "sea-beasts of the dolphin order".[T 1]
  9. ^ a b Shippey, Tom (1979). Salu, Mary; Farrell, Robert T. (eds.). Creation from Philology in the Lord of the Rings. J. R. R. Tolkien, scholar and storyteller: Essays in Memoriam. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-80141-038-3.
  10. ^ Wright, Thomas (1873). A second volume of vocabularies. privately printed. p. 63.
  11. ^ Pheifer, J. D. (1974). Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary. Oxford University Press. pp. 37, 106. ISBN 978-0-19-811164-1.(Repr. Sandpaper Books, 1998 ISBN 0-19-811164-9), Gloss #698: orcus   orc (Épinal); orci   orc (Erfurt).
  12. ^ a b Chance, Jane (2016). "Tolkien's 'Beowulf' Teaching Translation". In Anderson, Douglas Allen (ed.). Tolkien, Self and Other: "This Queer Creature". Springer. p. 194. ISBN 9781137398963. Tolkien apparently did not want to translate 'ylfe' as elves, similarly cursed, beings over whom he may have felt proprietorial given his Silmarillion mythology
  13. ^ Klaeber 1950, p. 5.
  14. ^ Klaeber 1950, p. 25
  15. ^ a b c Klaeber 1950, p. 183: "orcneas: 'evil spirits' does not bring out all the meaning. Orcneas is compounded of orc (from the Lat. orcus "the underworld" or Hades) and neas "corpses". Necromancy was practised among the ancient Germani and was familiar among the pagan Norsemen who revived it in England when they invaded".
  16. ^ Brehaut, Patricia Kathleen (1961). Moot passages in Beowulf (Thesis). Stanford, California: Stanford University. p. 8.
  17. ^ Shippey (1982), p. 45.
  18. ^ a b Shippey, Tom (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 88. ISBN 9780547524436.
  19. ^ a b Beowulf: A Dual-language Edition. Translated by Chickering, Howell D. Anchor books. 1977. p. 284. ISBN 9780385062138.
  20. ^ Wrenn, Charles Leslie (1958) ed. Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragmen. London: Harrap. apud Chickering[19]
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h "Orc" Oxford English Dictionary ≈ "orc", Murray, J. A. H. ed. (1909) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principle, Vol. VII, Part II. p. 177.
  22. ^ a b c Frank (1997), p. 23.
  23. ^ a b c d Gilliver, Peter; Marshall, Jeremy; Weiner, Edmund (2009). "Part III. Word Studies. Orc.". The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9780199568369.
  24. ^ a b Ariosto & Johnson tr. (1827), Notes to Canto VIII, Str. VI (continued as ib.), pp. 274–275.
  25. ^ a b c Ariosto, Ludovico (1607) [1591]. Orlando Furioso: In English Heroical Verse. Translated by Harington, Sr. Iohn, of Bathe. London: Richard Field. VIII: 45; X: 87–88.
  26. ^ Frank notes: "with OED citations, one wrong".[22] Probably orcþyrs compounded into one word is not the correct reading[?].
  27. ^ "Ogre" Oxford English Dictionary ≈ "ogre", Murray, J. A. H. ed. (1909) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principle, Vol. VII, Part II. p. 91.
  28. ^ Brunel, Pierre, ed. (2015). "The Ogre in Literature". Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes. Routledge. ISBN 9781317387138.
  29. ^ a b Eisfeld, Conny (2013). A Literary and Multi-Medial Analysis of Selected Fairy Tales and Adaptations: Or: How Fairy Tales live Happily Ever After. GRIN Verlag. p. 5. ISBN 9783656363682.
  30. ^ a b c Barchilon, Jacques, ed. (1956). Perrault's Tales of Mother Goose: the dedication manuscript of 1695 reproduced in collotype facsimile. Vol. 1. Pierpont Morgan Library. p. 47.
  31. ^ Canepa, Nancy L. (1999). From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile's Lo cunto de li cunti and the birth of the literary fairy tale. Wayne State University Press. pp. 95–98, 175ff. ISBN 0814338305.
  32. ^ a b Ariosto, Lodovico (1827). Orlando Furioso, in English prose ... with notes. Vol. 1. Translated by Johnson, Christopher. London: John Richardson & Hatchard & Son. Canto VIII, Str. 51–52 (pp. 138–139);Canto X, Str. 100–103 (pp. 192–193).
  33. ^ Ariosto, Harinton tr. & 1607 [1591], XVII: 36–47
  34. ^ a b Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988). "Queer Lodgings". In Anderson, Douglas Allen (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 149, n9. ISBN 9780395476901.
  35. ^ Tolkien & Anderson (1988), p. 62, n4.
  36. ^ Kemball-Cook, Jessica (February 1977). "Three Notes on Names in Tolkien and Lewis". Mythprint. 15 (2): 2.
  37. ^ a b Oladipo, Gloria (5 October 2021). "Lord of the Rings orc was modeled after Harvey Weinstein, Elijah Wood reveals". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  38. ^ a b Canavan, A. P. (2012). ""Let's hunt some orc!": Reevaluating the Monstrosity of Orcs". New York Review of Science Fiction. Retrieved 7 March 2020. A version of this essay was presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in 2012.
  39. ^ Tolkien 1996, Part One: the Prologue and Appendices to The Lord of the Rings. Draft of Appendix F.
  40. ^ Hostetter, Carl F. (November 1992). "Ugluk to the Dung-pit". Vinyar Tengwar. The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (26).
  41. ^ Fauskanger, Helge K. "Orkish and the Black Speech – base language for base purposes". Ardalambion. University of Bergen.
  42. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R.; Tolkien, Christopher ed. (1979), p. 58: "the Orcs... multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar [Elves and Men]," apud Stuart 2022, p. 133
  43. ^ a b c d Shippey 1982, p. 174, Shippey 2005, p. 265
  44. ^ Chausse, Jean (2016). Qadri, Jean-Philippe; Sainton, Jérôme (eds.). Le pouvoir féminin en Arda. Pour la gloire de ce monde. Recouvrements et consolations en Terre du Milieu. Le Dragon de Brume. p. 160, n7. ISBN 9782953989649.
  45. ^ Stuart 2022, p. 133.
  46. ^ a b Shippey 1982, pp. 107, 237 (chapter 5, note 14), Shippey 2005, pp. 362, 438 (chapter 5, note 14)
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  48. ^ a b Shippey 2001, pp. 131–133.
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Sources[edit]

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