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Old 03-31-2006, 03:19 PM   #43
Lalwendė
A Mere Boggart
 
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Lalwendė is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Lalwendė is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Orcs had to be portrayed as 'evil' - Tolkien's stories at heart are struggles of good versus evil, and this also includes a lot of slaughter. From our modern perspectives, where we examine all acts of battle through the microscope to ascertain if they are 'war crimes' or not, the idea of slaughtering many peoples of one race would seem abhorent, yet it is necessary to stories such as those written by Tolkien. The story would have been very different if Aragorn had decided to go and reason with the Orcs instead of lopping off their heads.

Hence, to make the story acceptable, even to readers back in the 50s, the Orcs had to be portrayed as evil by nature. Yet the interesting thing is that Tolkien did not necessarily carry out this thesis all the way through his work. One of the best known incidences is that quoted by Hookbill above, where we see Orcs discussing their independence from Sauron. They clearly have a culture, a language, a society of their own. They are not mere beasts without a moral code. The moral code may be different to our own, and indeed different to that of Aragorn, Gandalf, etc, but they have one nevertheless. Even to a reader in the 1950s this would stand out.

I think what davem has said is interesting. Orcs, taken as a separate entity to how they are used in the story as representatives of evil, maybe are not to be judged by our own codes and standards. They are something very different to us and thus cannot or should not be judged like we might be.

Anyway, onto Orcs and souls. I don't see why an Orc should not have a soul just because he (or she!) is evil. After all, Saruman clearly has a Fea of some kind, which we see at the end of Lord of the Rings, being turned back or rejected by the Valar. Why should an Orc not have a Fea too? It may make us uncomfortable that an 'evil' creature possesses a soul, but that should not preclude the possibility. However, I can see that a 'created' Half-Orc might not have a Fea in the same way that other beings do, following the logic of the creation of the Dwarves and the special case made by Eru to allow them life.
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