Saruman's economic infrastructure unexplained?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

I think that for the rest of the orcs in the Misty Mountains cannibalism may have been a more substantial part of the diet.

But hardly the only part. We know from The Hobbit that the Great Goblin often took a fancy to fish, and that they regularly ventured forth from the mountains to raid and pillage the Woodmen's villages.

And on the other side of the Misty Mountains, we know that the the Rangers were quite often dealing with ork raids and such, although probably not in numbers like on the eastern side.

Also, as the population of the orks in the Wilderland (esp. the Misty Mountains) regrew after the Battle of the Five Armies, the incidents of conflict between them and the "good" locals (eg. the Beornings) intensified. This most likely had to do, in large part, with the intensifying of Sauron's war, but I imagine that it served the ulterior motive of feeding the orks.

And we know for a fact, that the orks would eat human flest and horse flesh without a qualm, in addition to more normal things like sheep and fish. So those raiders might not have been after just sheep and such.

[Gil-Galad]

Don't forget, the Balrog is kind of different from the movie then the book, the book says the Balrog gathered the orcs and trolls to him to drive out the dwarves, while the movie it looks like the orcs fear it competely, they probaly do in the book, but not as much.

[Kuruharan]

But hardly the only part.

Agreed.

I think, though, the picture that emerges of the Misty Mountain orcs is that they were less well fed than those from Mordor, for example. In The Hobbit they are referred to as being always hungry which I think it is safe to say indicates that vittles were chronically short. This being so, I think it likely that if things were particularly lean they would bop a few unpopular orcs on the noggin and put meat back on the menu. (I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist.)

In Mordor, even a low ranking orc was referred to as well fed or at least in comparison with Sam. Although, considering how much Sam had to eat perhaps even a mountain orc would look well fed in comparison.

while the movie it looks like the orcs fear it competely, they probaly do in the book, but not as much.

Huh? If you mean in the books the orcs are portrayed as being rational creatures who were to some extent obedient to the Balrog and not a horde of irrational but heavily armed cockroaches then I'd agree completely.

However, this does not mean that the numbers of orcs in Moria were that great. The army that destroyed Balin's dwarves could have been drawn back to Dol Guldur in the intervening time (where the food was probably better).