Valar reproduction

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by alatar

I can't see torturing elves into becoming orcs, and so there's got to be something more. Once you get a small population of 'something more,' then you can let things take their course.

By the by, are there orc females, and if the orcs come from elvish stock, what gives them (the orcs) the significantly higher birth rate as compared to the elves? Sure, elves read lots of poetry, which you'd think would be good for romance (as indicated by the greeting card industry), but then again, maybe they're too busy writing it, or thinking about writing it, to actually go out on a date.

I think there just have to be female Orcs as the alternatives are just too outlandish. In The Science of Middle-earth you'll find a number of mad ideas but I don't much like any of them - things like parthenogenesis, 'Queen' Orcs (like Bees) or that all the Orcs were actually female and bred without males. Why we have to deny the existence of female Orcs having Orc babies I think says a lot about us as readers feeling uncomfortable with the idea of 'nasty, evil Orcs' having cute lil Orc babes. But it's the most sensible solution that they bred in the normal way!

Would Orcs necessarily have a higher birth rate anyway? Yes, they could have that, especially as the idea of female Orcs being encouraged to breed like rabbits fits in with the idea of 'the machine' (as seen in the Nazi and Ceaucescu regimes). But so long as we don't know exactly where Orcs came from and if the creation of them as a race had essentially changed them as one of the original two Eru created species, we can't fix on what happened when an Orc died really, which leaves avenues to explore...If they were Elves and remained in terms of species as Elves then surely they would live and die in the manner of Elves? So, some form of re-embodiment then? Did they go to the actual Halls of Mandos? Did they go to a Morgoth-ian equivalent?