February 12, 2004

To Lem:goblins and Orcs
Matt McNabb

Goblins are orcs. The word goblin refers to an orc from the Misty Mountains. The Hobbit was written at a time when Arda was still in it's formative stage, when Tolkien was still using gnome to mean a high elf. In fact, when he started writing The Hobbit, it wasn't originally connected to the his other writings at all. He began inserting references to the tales from the Silmarillion (Book of Lost Tales) as a way to add an air of antiquity to the world of Bilbo Baggins.