View Single Post
Old 06-05-2017, 09:07 AM   #19
Zigūr
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
Zigūr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 785
Zigūr is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Zigūr is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
Both addressing Orcs and getting back to the topic
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kuruharan View Post
That's a good find, but I find it interesting that we don't seem to run into such orcs much in the stories.

I've re-read the sections on the Battle of the Pelennor from The Return of the King. Humans seem to have been Saruon's most effective troops in that battle. After the arrival of Aragorn the orcs are not referenced again, but rather the Easterlings and Haradrim are stated to have stayed and fought. Even before that point the Easterlings and Haradrim are referenced as antagonists more frequently than orcs. The orcs seem to have been primarily used for manual labor in digging siege lines and manning heavy artillery.
That's a good point. The main instance which comes to mind of successful assaults by heavier soldier-Orcs is that recorded in Appendix A:
Quote:
In the last years of Denethor I the race of uruks, black orcs of great strength, first appeared out of Mordor, and in 2475 they swept across Ithilien and took Osgiliath. Boromir son of Denethor (after whom Boromir of the Nine Walkers was later named) defeated them and regained Ithilien; but Osgiliath was finally ruined, and its great stone-bridge was broken.
The fact that they were defeated speaks against them; perhaps they were not deployed or commanded in a manner to complement their strength. Here I'm inclined again towards the concept of poor discipline and organisation. It's altogether likely, I suppose, that even Sauron's most robust soldiers were still used in simplistic wave-like attacks relying on numbers and, where possible, surprise, as 'swept across' somewhat implies.

If I might link this back to the topic, I wonder if this also implies another problem of Sauron's master-plan involving the One, as presumably with it in his possession he could have exerted his will more vigorously over his Orcs and perhaps used the strength of the special breed he had developed more effectively.
__________________
"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir."
"On foot?" cried Éomer.
Zigūr is offline   Reply With Quote