The Hobbit - Chapter 04 - Over Hill and Under Hill

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

This is an interesting question. If Orcs are indeed corrupted Elves, then (as others have suggested elsewhere) it seems reasonable to suppose that they are immortal. On the other hand, there is a way in which immortality simply doesn't seem to fit with their portrayal. But I imagine that Glamdring and Orcrist were quite famous among goblins; it doesn't seem any stranger that the Great Goblin would recognize them than that Legolas or Aragorn would recognize a Balrog.

Perhaps....

Perhaps not.

Actually, it's jumping ahead to a later chapter, but a tidbit of information relating to Bolg is handy here. He's the only ork for whom a lifespan is suggested.

We know that he had do have been born during or before 2799- the year his father Azog was slain in the Battle of Nanduhirion. If we assume that Orks, being the evil creatures they are, would have killed him- or at least thwarted his chances of succeeding Azog, then we can probably add twenty years, if not more, to his age. Let's give him a birth year of 2780.

Bolg dies in 2941, the year in which The Hobbit takes place. This gives us a definite lifestpan of 142 years, and- as I said- at least a generation's worth of time to be relatively mature. Factoring into account the fact that Bolg seems to have not yet been in his old age, but rather in his prime, a lifespan of over 200 years seems perfectly reasonable for an Ork.

I'll leave any further observations about the chapter till another day (or night), and I'll leave the implications of the Orkish lifespan for the other brains here to ponder.