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Originally Posted by skip spence
isn't there a throw-away line in The Hobbit that says that there are still Orcs a plenty in modern times? That they are ingenious and prolific inventors of weapons among other nasty habits?
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Originally Posted by Morthoron
Goblins could fit into human society, all it would take is a bit of well-timed orcestration.
In The Hobbit (the "Over Hill and Under Hill" chapter), Tolkien writes of Orcs:
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It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far.
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The emphasis above is mine. Interesting Tolkien sees them as advancing technologically, which would indicate a period far beyond the War of the Rings it seems to me, particularly with Tolkien inferring that in some future era would rise the Orkish invention of weapons of mass destruction, engines and explosives. |
Yeah that's the quote I was thinking of! And yeah, one certainly gets the impression Tolkien felt Orcs were both prolific and well integrated into human societies during the 20th century, if not in Rohan or Gondor during the 3rd Age.