[Reginald Hill]

I always had a kind of thesis for this (is that the right word?) I know that orcs are the elves that were tortured and twisted until they were evil by Sauron long ago. I always thought that goblins were an off-shoot of the orc "family tree". Pippin refers to the northern ones as goblins and the Isengarders as orcs. Also the so-called goblins have very different physical features than orcs but are still similar in that they can't abide the sun (except for the Uruk-Hai). That's why i think that they're like cousins as someone else said