January 20, 2003

More on Origin of Orcs and Urak-hai
Karen

Sorry Brett C., but I am going to have to disagree with you on the nature of the Uruk-hai. The books and the movie differ somewhat in these explanations, and that may account for some of the confusion.

According to Tolkien, the origins are as follows:

The orcs were created by Melkor (the corrupt god who also created Sauron) out of captured Quendi (as elves called themselves in the first age). They were put into prison in Utumno and through "slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved." The orcs were thus bred in "envy and mockery of the Elves". These orcs had the capacity to breed, and over the eons many different tribes of orc developed. (From the Silmarillion)

Flash forward several eons - Malkor has been banished from middle-earth but his slave Sauron is fighting for dominion. He breeds (or trains, its not clear) a special troop of soldier-orcs that call themselves Uruk-hai. Lesser orcs they refer to as snaga, or slaves. (Appendix F, LOTR)

Flash forward again - Sauron has been defeated, the ring is gone. However he is slowly re-gaining his power, although he won't completely regain it until he has his ring back. He has possession of one of the nine Palantir, or looking stones, which he uses to spy on the earth. Saruman has foolishly started using another one of the palantir, believing himself to be stronger than Sauron. However, his mind becomes corrupted by Sauron, and Saruman begins to plan for world domination, with himself at the head, or at worst sharing power with Sauron.

Saruman begins to develop his own army, made up of:
1. men -Dunlanders who are pissed off at the
Rohan for taking over their land centuries
ago, which Saruman uses to his advantage
2. Uruk-hai, who are made loyal to him because
he gives them man's-flesh to eat
3. A new breed of half-orcs, which are half
human and half orc.
The Uruk-hai are trained to tolerate the light, the half-orcs are bred for it.

I hope this helps to clarify.