Morgoth's Ring (76 page)

IX.

This is another and quite separate note on the origin of the Orcs, written quickly in pencil, and without any indication of date.

This suggests - though it is not explicit - that the 'Orcs' were of Elvish origin. Their origin is more clearly dealt with elsewhere.

One point only is certain: Melkor could not 'create' living

'creatures' of independent wills.

He (and all the 'spirits' of the 'First-created', according to their measure) could assume bodily shapes; and he (and they) could dominate the minds of other creatures, including Elves and Men, by force, fear, or deceits, or sheer magnificence.

The Elves from their earliest times invented and used a word or words with a base (o)rok to denote anything that caused fear and/or horror. It would originally have been applied to 'phantoms' (spirits assuming visible forms) as well as to any independently existing creatures. Its application (in all Elvish tongues) specifically to the creatures called Orks - so I shall spell it in The Silmarillion - was later.

Since Melkor could not 'create' an independent species, but had immense powers of corruption and distortion of those that came into his power, it is probable that these Orks had a mixed origin. Most of them plainly (and biologically) were corruptions of Elves (and probably later also of Men). But always among them (as special servants and spies of Melkor, and as leaders) there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes. (These would exhibit terrifying and demonic characters.)

The Elves would have classed the creatures called 'trolls' (in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) as Orcs - in character and origin - but they were larger and slower. It would seem evident that they were corruptions of primitive human types.

At the bottom of the page my father wrote: 'See The Lord of the Rings Appendix p. 410'; this is the passage in Appendix F concerning Trolls.

It seems possible that his opening words in this note 'This suggests -

though it is not explicit - that the were of Elvish origin actually refer to the previous text given here, VIII, where he first wrote that 'Elves, as a source, are very unlikely', but later concluded that 'it remains therefore terribly possible there was an Elvish strain in the Orcs'. But if this is so, the following words 'Their origin is more clearly dealt with elsewhere' must refer to something else.

He now expressly asserts the earlier view (see p. 408 and note 1) that the Orcs were in origin corrupted Elves, but observes that 'later'

some were probably derived from Men. In saying this (as the last paragraph and the reference to The Lord of the Rings Appendix F

suggest) he seems to have been thinking of Trolls, and specifically of the Olog-hai, the great Trolls who appeared at the end of the Third Age (as stated in Appendix F): 'That Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs; but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size and power.'

The conception that among the Orcs 'there must have been numerous corrupted minor spirits who assumed similar bodily shapes'

appears also in text VIII (p. 410): 'Melkor had corrupted many spirits

- some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous) Orcs'.

X.

I give here a text of an altogether different kind, a very finished essay on the origin of the Orcs. It is necessary to explain something of the relations of this text.

There is a major work, which I hope to publish in The History of Middle-earth, entitled Essekenta Eldarinwa or Quendi and Eldar. It is extant in a good typescript made by my father on his later typewriter, both in top copy and carbon; and it is preceded in both copies by a manuscript page which describes the content of the work: Enquiry into the origins of the Elvish names for Elves and their varieties clans and divisions: with Appendices on their names for the other Incarnates: Men, Dwarves, and Orcs; and on their analysis of their own language, Quenya: with a note on the 'Language of the Valar'.

With the appendices Quendi and Eldar runs to nearly fifty closely typed pages, and being a highly finished and lucid work is of the utmost interest.

To one of the title pages my father subjoined the following: To which is added an abbreviation of the Osanwe-kenta or

'Communication of Thought' that Pengolodh set at the end of his Lammas or 'Account of Tongues'

This is a separate work of eight typescript pages, separately paginated, but found together with both copies of Quendi and Eldar. In addition, and not referred to on the title-pages, there is a further typescript of four pages (also found with both copies of Quendi and Eldar) entitled Orcs; and this is the text given here.

All three elements are identical in general appearance, but Orcs stands apart from the others, having no linguistic bearing; and in view of this I have thought it legitimate to abstract it and print it in this book together with the other discussions of the origin of the Orcs given as texts VIII and IX.

As to the date of this complex, one of the copies is preserved in a folded newspaper of March 1960. On this my father wrote: '"Quendi and Eldar" with Appendices'; beneath is a brief list of the Appendices, the items all written at the same time, which includes both Osanwe and Origin of Orcs (the same is true of the cover of the other copy of the Quendi and Eldar complex). All the material was thus in being when the newspaper was used for this purpose, and although, as in other similar cases, this does not provide a perfectly certain terminus ad quem, there seems no reason to doubt that it belongs to 1959 - 60

(cf. p. 304).

Appendix C to Quendi and Eldar, 'Elvish Names for the Orcs', is primarily concerned with etymology, but it opens with the following passage:

It is not here the place to debate the question of the origin of the Orcs. They were bred by Melkor, and their breeding was the most wicked and lamentable of his works in Arda, but not the most terrible. For clearly they were meant in his malice to be a mockery of the Children of Iluvatar, wholly subservient to his will, and nursed in an unappeasable hatred of Elves and Men.

The Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor-Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were neither spirits nor phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and of some crafts and organization, or at least capable of learning such things from higher creatures or from their Master. They bred and multiplied rapidly whenever left undisturbed. It is unlikely, as a consideration of the ultimate origin of this race would make clearer, that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this kind, before their finding by Orome and the separation of Eldar and Avari.

But it is known that Melkor had become aware of the Quendi before the Valar began their war against him, and the joy of the Elves in Middle-earth had already been darkened by shadows of fear. Dreadful shapes had begun to haunt the borders of their dwellings, and some of their people vanished into the darkness and were heard of no more. Some of these things may have been phantoms and delusions; but some were, no doubt, shapes taken by the servants of Melkor, mocking and degrading the very forms of the Children. For Melkor had in his service great numbers of the Maiar, who had the power, as had their Master, of taking visible and tangible shape in Arda.

No doubt my father was led from his words here 'It is unlikely, as a consideration of the ultimate origin of this race would make clearer, that the Quendi had met any Orcs of this kind, before their finding by Orome' to write that 'consideration' which follows here. It will be seen that one passage of this initial statement was re-used.

Orcs.

The origin of the Orcs is a matter of debate. Some have called them the Melkorohini, the Children of Melkor; but the wiser say: nay, the slaves of Melkor, but not his children; for Melkor had no children.(1) Nonetheless, it was by the malice of Melkor that the Orcs arose, and plainly they were meant by him to be a mockery of the Children of Eru, being bred to be wholly subservient to his will and filled with unappeasable hatred of Elves and Men.

Now the Orcs of the later wars, after the escape of Melkor-Morgoth and his return to Middle-earth, were not 'spirits', nor phantoms, but living creatures, capable of speech and some crafts and organization; or at least capable of learning these things from higher creatures and from their Master. They bred and multiplied rapidly, whenever left undisturbed. So far as can be gleaned from the legends that have come down to us from our earliest days,(2) it would seem that the Quendi had never yet encountered any Orcs of this kind before the coming of Orome to Cuivienen.

Those who believe that the Orcs were bred from some kind of Men, captured and perverted by Melkor, assert that it was impossible for the Quendi to have known of Orcs before the Separation and the departure of the Eldar. For though the time of the awakening of Men is not known, even the calculations of the loremasters that place it earliest do not assign it a date long before the Great March (3) began, certainly not long enough before it to allow for the corruption of Men into Orcs. On the other hand, it is plain that soon after his return Morgoth had at his command a great number of these creatures, with whom he ere long began to attack the Elves. There was still less time between his return and these first assaults for the breeding of Orcs and for the transfer of their hosts westward.

This view of the origin of the Orcs thus meets with difficulties of chronology. But though Men may take comfort in this, the theory remains nonetheless the most probable. It accords with all that is known of Melkor, and of the nature and behaviour of Orcs - and of Men. Melkor was impotent to produce any living thing, but skilled in the corruption of things that did not proceed from himself, if he could dominate them. But if he had indeed attempted to make creatures of his own in imitation or mockery of the Incarnates, he would, like Aule, only have succeeded in producing puppets: his creatures would have acted only while the attention of his will was upon them, and they would have shown no reluctance to execute any command of his, even if it were to destroy themselves.

But the Orcs were not of this kind. They were certainly dominated by their Master, but his dominion was by fear, and they were aware of this fear and hated him. They were indeed so corrupted that they were pitiless, and there was no cruelty or wickedness that they would not commit; but this was the corruption of independent wills, and they took pleasure in their deeds. They were capable of acting on their own, doing evil deeds unbidden for their own sport; or if Morgoth and his agents were far away, they might neglect his commands. They sometimes fought [> They hated one another and often fought]

among themselves, to the detriment of Morgoth's plans.

Moreover, the Orcs continued to live and breed and to carry on their business of ravaging and plundering after Morgoth was overthrown. They had other characteristics of the Incarnates also. They had languages of their own, and spoke among themselves in various tongues according to differences of breed that were discernible among them. They needed food and drink, and rest, though many were by training as tough as Dwarves in enduring hardship. They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain.

This last point was not well understood in the Elder Days. For Morgoth had many servants, the oldest and most potent of whom were immortal, belonging indeed in their beginning to the Maiar; and these evil spirits like their Master could take on visible forms. Those whose business it was to direct the Orcs often took Orkish shapes, though they were greater and more terrible.(4) Thus it was that the histories speak of Great Orcs or Orc-captains who were not slain, and who reappeared in battle through years far longer than the span of the lives of Men.*(5) Finally, there is a cogent point, though horrible to relate. It became clear in time that undoubted Men could under the domination of Morgoth or his agents in a few generations be reduced almost to the Orc-level of mind and habits; and then they would or could be made to mate with Orcs, producing new breeds, often larger and more cunning. There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men, (* [footnote to the text] Boldog, for instance, is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War. But it is possible that Boldog was not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the Balrogs.)