The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien's Demonized Creatures

by Robert T. Tally Jr.

Overview

Despite its well-earned reputation as the richest world in fantasy, there exists a notable, troubling problem in Tolkien's legendarium: the existence of a sentient, rational being for whom no sympathy or moral feeling is ever shown. Examining the origin stories of the orc, which changed over time according to Tolkien's own worries about whether orcs were "redeemable," this book endeavors to show that these "inhuman" creatures are, in fact, among the most human (perhaps "all-too-human") to be found in The Lord of the Rings. This work discusses racism and class hierarchies in Tolkien's writings, contexts in which the characterization of orcs is particularly noticeable. But Tolkien's own writings reveal the nature of orcs to be worthy of sympathy, despite their often dehumanized or demonized depictions. Focusing on key scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, this study uncovers the richly diverse cultures, as well as the distinctive personalities of various orcs, who turn out to be a far cry from the monsters they are taken to be in the popular imagination. A revised understanding of the orcs as a people presents Middle-earth's history, geopolitics, and cultural anthropology in a new light.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476694351
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	06/19/2025
Pages:	201
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert T. Tally Jr. is a professor of English at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Always the Poor Uruks
1. “As real a creation as anything in ‘realistic’ fiction”: J.R.R. Tol­kien’s Vision of the Orcs
“A good name for these creatures”
“The hideous race”
“Orcs behind every tree”
“The rising tide of ‘orquerie’”
“Seeing good in Carthaginians”
2. Breeding Orcs: Origins, Revisions, and Speculations in the “Silmarillion”
Mockery of the Elves: The First Appearances of Orcs in The Silmarillion
“The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make”
Hearts of Granite: Early Origin Stories
“Orcs are not Elvish”: Revisionist Visions in Tol­kien’s Later Writings
“The whole of ‘­Middle-earth’ was Morgoth’s Ring”
3. Great Goblins: Orcs in The Hobbit
“Goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs of the worst description”
The Golfimbul Paragraph: Establishing Orcs in ­Middle-earth
“Down, down to Goblin Town”: The King Under the Misty Mountains
Beorn’s Captives; or, the Quality of Mercy
“This is how it fell out”: Orcs in Council and at War
The Orphaned Bolg
4. They Are Coming: The Resurgence of Orcs in The Fellowship of the Ring
“The old ­bogey-stories”: An Abundance of Monsters
The ­Squint-Eyed Southerner: Bree, Cosmopolitanism, and Xenophobia
Drums in the Deep: The Orcs of Moria
Yrch! Orcs Abroad
5. The Fighting ­Uruk-Hai: Orcs, Geopolitics, and the Utopian Impulse in The Two Towers
“Orcs travel fast”: Entrelacement and Political Geography
The Common Speech: Orcs in Debate
“The Whiteskins will catch you and eat you”: Orcs in Flight
Helm’s Deep, Isengard, and Ithilien: Orcs (and Men) in Battle
“No big bosses”: Orcs in Conversation
6. Don’t You Know We’re at War? The Ends of the Orcs in The Return of the King
Drûgs Are Not Orcs: Varieties of the Humane in the Siege of Gondor
Gothmog and the Mouth of Sauron; or, the State of Mordor
“Where there’s a whip there’s will”: Traversing the Plains of Gorgoroth
Witless and Purposeless: An Unlikely Demise of the Orcs
“­Orc-Talk”: In the Aftermath of the War of the Ring
Conclusion: In a Hole in the Ground There Lived an Orc
Notes
Bibliography
Index