Orcs are among the most well-known fantasy creatures and play an important role as foot soldiers of evil in the world of The Lord of the Rings. Their origin in Middle-earth is more complicated than one might think at first glance.
Although the Orcs represent a great danger to the other peoples of Middle-earth as soldiers of Sauron and previously Morgoth, their origin is not exactly simple.
Tolkien himself provided the creatures with various origin stories over time, which are not exactly easy to overview. As there is no definitive explanation, we will show you what origins the Orcs have been given.
A Complicated History
What explanations exist regarding the origin of the Orcs? One explanation can be found in the book The Book of Lost Tales. This book was published posthumously by Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien, in 1983 and contains (unfinished) stories from the Middle-earth mythology that are said to have been created between 1916 and 1920.
It explains that Melko (another name for the dark lord Morgoth/Melkor) created the Orcs from underground heat and slime
. In this origin, they were thus made of stone. The origin from stone is also found in the Quenta Noldorinwa (from the 1930s), an early version of the third part of the Silmarillion, a collection of various stories from Middle-earth. Interestingly, this was before the emergence of the Elves.
However, this was later changed in The Shaping of Middle-earth. According to this work, the Orcs came into existence only after the theft of the Silmarils. The theft took place in the year 1495 of the Trees (during the First Age). At that time, Elves already existed. In the Quenta Silmarillion, the main part of the Silmarillion, the origin of the Orcs is also in stones, but Morgoth is said to have explicitly created them to mock the Elves created by Ilúvatar.
This doesn’t make sense, as only Eru Ilúvatar can create life with free will. And as we can already see in the movies, Orcs have their own personalities and seemingly a will.
Elves are also a good cue, as that is not the end of the origins of Orcs.
Orcs and the Elves
What do the Elves have to do with the origin of the Orcs? In The Annals of Aman, the second chapter of Morgoth’s Ring, which is, in turn, the 10th volume of The History of Middle-earth, wise beings from the island of Eressëa tell that Morgoth captured fleeing Elves. They were allegedly tortured and enslaved, and from this, the villain then created the Orcs, which then multiplied.
However, it is unclear whether the story is true within the universe of Middle-earth and how exactly the Orcs were created. The work also mentions that Morgoth could not create life and that Orcs are not Elves. Correspondingly, another essay by Tolkien describes that the Eldar (Elves who went west) believed that Orcs were created from the corruption of Elves and Men.
In the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Saruman explains that Orcs were once Elves (via YouTube), but such a statement is not found in the books.
However, this is not yet the end of the origins of Orcs.
In the 5th chapter of Morgoth’s Ring, changes made by Tolkien regarding his own mythology are compiled. Since Orcs seem to have free will and their own opinions, they must have been creatures that existed prior. So it could be that Morgoth corrupted and altered already existing creatures.
Tolkien developed the origin of the Orcs from Men in another essay (Quendi and Eldar), published between 1959 and 1960. Thus, Men could have been dumbed down by Morgoth and mated with Orcs to create new creatures. This is also the theory behind the origin of the Uruk-hai.
This implies that the Orcs known from The Lord of the Rings used to be different or looked different and were forced into a kind of evolution by Morgoth. He did something similar with Carcharoth. This was the greatest werewolf, who was raised and fed by Morgoth to become the guardian he envisioned.
Which direction is now correct? None at all. The origins mentioned are merely ideas by Tolkien that the author has introduced. There is no proper explanation that is not just a theory or myth within the universe itself.
Additionally, the fact that most information comes from works published after Tolkien’s death by his son must be considered. One will never know what origin Tolkien himself defined for the Orcs, if he ever did so. Learn more about other Orcs here: Orcs are always green and have big muscles – Is that true? Here are 5 types of Orcs that differ significantly
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