Are there female orcs, or are they simply androgynous?
 

When using the singular 3rd person pronoun, Tolkien always refers to any individual orcs appearing in the various tales as masculine, unless I am mistaken. There are references to orcs as ruined elves etc; and the half-orcs (ùruk hai)it is hinted, are blended humans and orcs, but that does not answer the question. What do you think?

Well, the orcs reproduce, right? So we can safetly assume there are female orcs. However, I just don't think there were really any female orcs worth mentioning, or perhaps there were, but since the books are all biased against orcs, they don't mention them there.

Well I always use the pronoun 'he' when referring to both sexes, unless it is a rather dalicate subject that should be rereferred to using 'his or hers ect.'. It is the traditional way to use the pronoun 'he'. Read some of the Bible, you'll notice it a lot.

[ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: Gimli Son Of Gloin ]

I don't think we can safely assume that there are female orcs, as you put it, because they reproduce. There are non-sexual modes of reproduction, e.g. viral reproduction or even vegetative reproduction in plants (and please don't say "but orcs arn't viruses or plants"!) In both these cases there is replication of parent structures without the mixing of separate parent DNA.
Orcs are described as "multiplying" at one point in LotR, but that still doesn't tell us much about how that reproduction takes place. I'm still not convinced that the orcish life cycle is the same as the human one. What I'm getting at is that perhaps there is some kind of in vitro creation by the servants of Sauron etc.

The reason I was wondering about this is that, as far as I can remember, gandalf associates the multiplication of orcs in the mountains with other portents of the rise of Sauron. If these two events are associated, there might be a causal relationship between them, i.e. Sauron is responsible for artificially raising the numbers of orcs. So orcs might have something of the Bladerunner replicant or Frankenstein's monster about them.
This would also explain how Saruman was able to work in his own race of orcs. he learned how by " studying the arts of the enemy".
The use of the 3rd, sing. masc. pronoun would then just be a case of "nearest to" personification, like the sun being "she" etc; without any implication of a gender opposite.
Incidentally, I agree about the books being biased against orcs.

But orcs are supposed to be evil creatures

BTW, in The Hobbit there are goblins, are those orcs?

Tolkien always said that orcs "multiplied", that kind of gave them an even more filthy and uncivilized nature. They seemed to multiply almost like insects and a disease. It also never went into detail so they either just reproduced on their own or in the case of the Uruk-hai or the armies of Sauron, they were created by the evil magiks of Saruman or Sauron.

I suppose that was more or less my question, Ulairi, i.e. how do orcs reproduce, by nature or artifice? Its true that its not conclusive either way. I just find the idea of artifice appealing as an explanation for the nature of orcs.
Gimli, its the books that refer to them as evil, and since we have only that information to go by, and since all of that information comes from the anti-orc side, we can say that the notion that orcs are inherently evil may not represent the full picture. So the data we have, and thus the books themselves, are biased, as it were, against orcs (perhaps justifiably, perhaps not!!).
As far as I can recall, the word orc is represented as being elvish in origin. It may come from the sound of disgust that the elves made in response to orcs: Haldor of Lothlorien refers to orcs as "yrrch" or something like that (I've lost my copy of LotR so referencing is difficult!).
Goblins are orcs and orcs are goblins, as far as I can make out. The words appear to be interchangeable. The word orc may actually be inspired by an Old English word in the poem Beowulf. "Orcneas" is glossed as 'evil spirits of the dead" and, interesting from the point of view of this topic, is further explained as originating from "the practice of necromancy, by which evil spirits were conjured by means of corpses back from the world of the dead".
Artifice and unnatural selection or what??

Here is another thread on female orcs; I hope it helps.

There must be some kind of breeding orcs, if they may be female. But if there were female orcs, you probaly can't really tell the difference between male and female.

well if it helps there are female orcs in morrowind (a great game btw). ok, so it dosen't help. whatever.
[img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[ June 28, 2002: Message edited by: NazgulNumber10 ]

Just thought a 'correction' was in order for the original question. I think it was supposed to have asked: "Are there female orcs, or are they simply hermaphroditic?"

But how can normal Elves change into hermaphroditic Orcs?

In the silmarillion it says that orcs reproduce like the children of illuvater suggesting to me that there are Males and Females

well I would figure that there might be female orcs but in the movie it didn't look like it at all, they all looked male [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] though that is something to think about , I don't think that orcs do reproduce! i don't know oh well ... Laters~! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Hey Caradhras! In the books, tolkien never really said whether the orcs were male or female. I do recall Gandalf talking about them being bred though for an army. Keep in mind, they are elves that were mutated into the service of the dark lord! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I don't think that Tolkien ever said that Orcs were ruined Elves, he just wrote that that was what the elves believed

Sorry about the long quote, but there it is, plain as day. If only the interpretation could be read so easily. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I would have to say that there are female orcs, using this passage as foundation for my argument. Orcs did after all, reproduce in the manner of Humans and Elves, so I would believe it is safe to assume that there are female orcs. If I remember correctly, there was a similar tread like this awhile back, where someone said that the female orcs might've been holed away to be used specifically for breeding purposes. I'll try and dig it up if I can, but there's my opinion on orcish genders.

I don't care. If it's an orc, shoot it. All dead orcs smell the same.

No, Barrow Wight, androgynous was the intended word. Check out the Oxford dictionary - androgynous can mean both hermaphroditic (i.e. both male and female) as well as, more broadly "of indeterminate sex'. The word androgynous contains more possibilities than the word hermaphroditic, and was thus more useful for the argument I presented. Actually, the term a-sexual might be a better option.

As for the stuff on the Silmarilion info, thats what I was fishing for, hoping it wasn't there! Well done, there goes my theory. Pity, I liked it.... Have a pint..

I’m agree with Aule and Feanaro regarding to the Silmarillion’s appointment; It’s said that the Orcs can to breed at the same that the Sons of Iluvatar. I think that it give a clear trail.
Moreover, in the Hobbit, there are a reference to the Orc children. Consequently, if they breeded at the same that the humans and the Orc children existed, they would have female-Orcs.(Even if, surely, they was ugly as the Orcs and wasn’t impossible to differ)
Farewell

Elfa Arwena

I remember in the Silmarillion how it said that when Morgoth ruined the elves into Orcs, He could not, of his own power, give them life in the same way that Eru did. So his creation were only mockeries of Elves, not a new race. So that suggests that, disgusting as it may be, they reproduced naturally.

I think there are feamle orcs, but maybe it's like in a beehive - there is only one female who produces all the offspring.
Just another idea [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

When Tolkien wrote that the wise amongst the elves held true that Orcs where corrupted elves, i think that he was saying that this was their best theory of how Orcs came into being but they could never know for sure as none of the Eldar had ever been to Untumno.