Quote:
Originally Posted by Galadriel
True. But just imagine Orcs copulating. Ouch.
Mud-pit theory...never gave it much thought. Seems highly unscientific.
I vote either corrupted elves or cross-breeds. Maybe a bit of both?
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Well, Tolkien played with different ideas of the origin of Orcs– while corrupted Elves seem to be the most consistent version*, and the one appearing in
The Silmarillion, Men were another (although this presented some problems- cf. the strained attempt in "Morgoth's Ring" to make it fit the existing chronology). He even briefly speculated that they might have been
beasts given humanoid shape (Morgoth as Dr Moreau)! The common thread in all this is that Orcs were distortions of natural creatures, not magical constructs– that Evil could only twist, not create life was for Tolkien a very important point. (The Trolls in "The Hobbit" gave him a nasty metaphysical headache later on, after he had decided they
were purely artificial.)
The question of cross-breeding is different, though– it's pretty much official that the Isengard Orcs
were hybrids, the result of mating Orcs with humans. (I think it's quite understandable that P.J. chose not to depict that.:eek ) I don't think these Half-Orcs need have been sterile– the Peredhil weren't, after all.
*Also, technically the "latest-known", I think, although by that stage we're talking about some very muddled fragments.