I Found the Entwives!

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I don't think there's much grounds for the 'no female orcs' theory

To take it further, there is in fact quite hard evidence of the existence of female Orcs from the pen of Professor Tolkien himself, as seen in the 'Munby Letter', quoted at the Tolkien Gateway here: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Mrs._...1_October_1963
Professor Tolkien told his correspondent that

There must have been orc-women. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

To take it further, there is in fact quite hard evidence of the existence of female Orcs from the pen of Professor Tolkien himself...

! Perhaps we need to take a cue from Teleporno the Entwife-finder and go on a hunt for any obscure passage that might indicate the presence of the Orcwives? Here, I'll start:

Originally Posted by Book 6 Chapter 2: The Land of Shadow

To their surprise they came upon dark pools fed by threads of water trickling down from some source higher up the valley. Upon its outer marges under the westward mountains Mordor was a dying land, but it was not yet dead. And here things still grew, harsh, twisted, bitter, struggling for life. In the glens of the Morgai on the other side of the valley low scrubby trees lurked and clung, coarse grey grass-tussocks fought with the stones, and withered mosses crawled on them; and everywhere great writhing, tangled brambles sprawled.

Obviously what we have here are the Gardens of the Orc-wives, where they grow their orchards and their berries. It's a miserable life - the Orc-wives are 'harsh, twisted, bitter, scrabbling for life' (obviously an in-joking commentary on the lives of the wives left behind by the poorer soldiers of WWI) - but it's all they've got. Note the specific use of the word 'glens', pointing us towards the Scottish highlands where the women stayed at home while the men went a'warring; the name 'Morgai' could also be another hint, since it evokes 'Morgan', as in le Fay, noted for being a women who was not attached to a man. And of course, i think we can take this passage as proof that all Orc-wives were named Marge...

(And, come to think of it, there's no reason not to claim the 'low scrubby trees' who 'cling' and 'lurk' are another one of those endless hints at Entwives, too...!)