From what I understand here, is there are many "suppostions" about the Uruk-hai.
Now to clear some things here as I might toss around terms, so not to get confused heres the terms. Now Goblin is the hobbit word for Orc, so Orcs and Goblins are the same (the common thought is the goblin is smaller then the orc), but not in Tolkien. As for Uruk, that is the black speach for Orc. And Uruk-hai is "Orc People," much different from Uruk. But not to get technical I'll just refer to Uruk-Hai as Uruks. Now onto my ravings and suppostions. Well basically an Uruk-hai is a breed of orcs that are bigger and can tolerate light.
The Gondorians believed Uruks were a crossing of Orcs and Men. This is something that could be true, but again is only a conclusion the Gondorians came up with, not necessarily true. Now, I haven't read the "War of Jewels" yet but I hear Tolkien offers other possibilities of what was crossed to come up with your Uruk-hai. Anyone who has, please inform me. Also, there was the belief that Orcs were long slayed Elves, but again that was a belief.
Lastly, to come to Aragorn. As it states in
The Departure of Boromir:
Quote:
And Aragorn looked at the slain, and he said: "Here lie many that are not folk of Mordor. Some are from the North, from the Misty Mountains, if I know anything of Orcs and their kinds. And here are others strange to me. Their gear is not after the manner of Orcs at all."
There were 4 Goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large hands. They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with orcs; and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men....
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It is clear that Aragorn as discovered about the "Uruk-hai." But I had thought that Sauron had first bred the Uruk-hai some 400 years ago, of course a long time before Saruman. So, I can think of two possibilities, either Aragorn had never seen Uruk-hai before (which is the more likely one). Maybe, this was some odd crossing Saruman came up with, because it was of his nature to arm his soldiers with "man-like" weapons and gear.