Making the Uruk-hai

[radagastly]

There have been a number of threads that discuss reproduction:


http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...t=reproduction

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...t=reproduction

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...t=reproduction

These are just a few. Sorry, I never learned to substitute text in a url link.

Since Tolkien considered orcs to be corrupted or "muitated" elves (and later considered that they might be corrupted men) the biology of reproduction would be identical to human biology.

Considering the social interaction needed to implement such breeding, I personally like to think of orc-women as being similar to the aggresiveness of Klingon women from the Star Trek universe. That's just me, though. I don't believe Tolkien ever really expressed himself on this subject.

As for Saruman keeping slaves for breeding, it's possible, I guess, but there is no reason to assume that an orc/human mating would produce a hybrid, incapable of producing their own progeny. Saruman could easily have found existing orc/human half-orcs somewhere in the mountains, perhaps, and mated them to produce more. I believe the Uruk-hai were just a different breed of Orcs, not a mix. I could be wrong, though

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by radagastly

As for Saruman keeping slaves for breeding, it's possible, I guess, but there is no reason to assume that an orc/human mating would produce a hybrid, incapable of producing their own progeny. Saruman could easily have found existing orc/human half-orcs somewhere in the mountains, perhaps, and mated them to produce more. I believe the Uruk-hai were just a different breed of Orcs, not a mix. I could be wrong, though

In support of the idea that Uruk-hai was a particular breed of "pure" Orc, we see Uglúk of Isengard using the term.

'But in the meantime the Uruk-hai of Isengard can do the dirty work, as usual'.

The Two Towers The Uruk-Hai

Bigger and more powerful Orcs, but not half-breeds.

It seems that Saruman gets the blame in the books for the racial mixing, so I think it unlikely there were any previously existing examples prior to his machinations. The Mannish subjects used by him would probably have come from Dunland, maybe of outlaws and such driven out by their fellows. I don't think those need necessarily have been totally unwilling slaves in every case. There could have been at least a few whose hatred of Rohan and the West surpassed any reluctance toward Orcish intimacy.