82-461: Anduril may refer to: Andúril, a fictional sword in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings, originally known as Narsil Anduril (workflow engine) , an open-source workflow framework Anduril Industries , a defense technology company co-founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Palmer Luckey Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
164-720: A "strip of raw dried flesh ... the flesh of he dared not guess what creature". Half-orcs appear in The Lord of the Rings , created by interbreeding of orcs and Men; they were able to go in sunlight. The "sly Southerner" in The Fellowship of the Ring looks "more than half like a goblin"; similar but more orc-like hybrids appear in The Two Towers "man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed." In Peter Jackson 's Lord of
246-457: A Catholic, took it as a given that "evil cannot make, only mock", so orcs could not have an equal and opposite morality to that of men or elves. In a 1954 letter, Tolkien wrote that orcs were "fundamentally a race of 'rational incarnate' creatures, though horribly corrupted, if no more so than many Men to be met today." The scholar of English literature Robert Tally wrote in Mythlore that despite
328-675: A bow is the main weapon of Legolas, the Elf-member of the Fellowship of the Ring . When the Fellowship meet Galadriel , she gives Legolas a new bow. He later uses it to shoot all the way across the great river Anduin and bring down an airborne Nazgûl. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy assigns a bow to Aragorn and crossbows to the Uruk-hai. However, in Tolkien's writings Aragorn is armed only with
410-702: A class). They had similar names in other Middle-earth languages: uruk in Black Speech; in the language of the Drúedain gorgûn , "ork-folk"; in Khuzdul rukhs , plural rakhâs ; and in the language of Rohan and in the Common Speech , orka . Tolkien stated in a letter to the novelist Naomi Mitchison that his orcs had been influenced by George MacDonald 's The Princess and the Goblin . He explained that his word "orc"
492-646: A crude accent, was used as a common language. When Sauron returned to power in Mordor in the Third Age , Black Speech was used by the captains of his armies and by his servants in his tower of Barad-dûr . A sample of debased Black Speech can be found in The Two Towers , where a "yellow-fanged" guard Orc of Mordor curses Uglúk of Isengard (an Uruk-hai chief) with the words "Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!" In The Peoples of Middle-earth , Tolkien gives
574-487: A fixture of fantasy fiction and role-playing games . In the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ), orcs are creatures in the game, and somewhat based upon those described by Tolkien. These D&D orcs are implemented in the game rules as a multi- tribed race of hostile and bestial humanoids . The D&D orcs are endowed with muscular frames, large canine teeth like boar's tusks, and snouts rather than human-like noses. While
656-504: A heavy dint as of a club and cleft as a sword". It was later held by the Kings of Numenor, until lost in the downfall. Uruk-hai An orc (sometimes spelt ork ; / ɔːr k / ), in J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth fantasy fiction , is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls " goblin ". In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters , contrasting with
738-521: A letter dated 21 October 1963 to a Mrs. Munsby that "there must have been orc-women". In The Fall of Gondolin Morgoth made them of slime by sorcery, "bred from the heats and slimes of the earth". Or, they were " beasts of humanized shape", possibly, Tolkien wrote, Elves mated with beasts, and later Men. Or again, Tolkien noted, they could have been fallen Maiar , perhaps a kind called Boldog , like lesser Balrogs ; or corrupted Men. Shippey writes that
820-510: A long white horse-tail panache that trailed in the wind. The Crown of Gondor was a jewelled battle-helmet; Aragorn received it at his coronation. Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee use Orc-helmets as part of their disguise in Mordor. In the First Age, Dwarves made dragon-helms, which were said to protect against Dragons . The most famous of these was the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin . The Second Age
902-563: A need to do evil as to obtain fulfilment through the act of war. In the Warhammer 40,000 series of science-fiction games, they are a green-skinned alien species, called Orks . Orcs are an important race in Warcraft , a high fantasy franchise created by Blizzard Entertainment . Several orc characters from the Warcraft universe are playable heroes in their crossover multiplayer game Heroes of
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#1733086197570984-539: A pale light. This was the sword with which Fingolfin wounded Morgoth seven times, causing the first dark lord to limp forever afterward. In Tolkien's early writings, Ringil was the name of one of the two pillars supporting the Two Lamps of primeval Middle-earth. Sting is a large Elvish dagger in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . It functioned well as a sword for the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Bilbo named
1066-497: A private letter, Tolkien describes orcs as: squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types. O'Hehir describes orcs as "a subhuman race bred by Morgoth and/or Sauron (although not created by them) that is morally irredeemable and deserves only death. They are dark-skinned and slant-eyed, and although they possess reason, speech, social organization and, as Shippey mentions,
1148-413: A product of ancient necromancy , or a zombie -like creature. The term "orc" is used only once in the first edition of Tolkien's 1937 The Hobbit , which preferred the term "goblins". "Orc" was later used ubiquitously in The Lord of the Rings . The "orc-" element occurs in the sword name Orcrist , which is given as its Elvish language name, and glossed as "Goblin-cleaver". Tolkien began
1230-462: A pug-nose ("flat-nosed" ) was attributable to Tolkien's written correspondence, the pig-headed (pig-faced ) look was imparted on the orc by the D&;D original edition (1974). It was later modified from bald-headed to hairy in subsequent editions. In the third version of the game the orc became gray-skinned, even though a complicated color-palleted description of a (non-gray) orc had been implemented in
1312-600: A similarity with the Latin word orcus , noting that "the word used in translation of Q[uenya] urko , S[indarin] orch is Orc. But that is because of the similarity of the ancient English word orc , 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no connection between them". Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size. They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed. Most are small and avoid daylight. By
1394-455: A sort of moral sensibility, they are inherently evil." He notes Tolkien's own description of them, saying it could scarcely be more revealing as a representation of the " Other ", and states "it is also the product of his background and era, like most of our inescapable prejudices. At the level of conscious intention, he was not a racist or an anti-Semite " and mentions Tolkien's letters to this effect. The literary critic Jenny Turner, writing in
1476-691: A troll-hoard, Thorin Oakenshield carries the sword through the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood before being taken prisoner by the Elves ; it was laid on his tomb after his death in the Battle of Five Armies. It is the mate of Glamdring. Ringil (Sindarin: Cold-Star / Cold-Spark ) is a sword wielded by Fingolfin in The Silmarillion and The Lays of Beleriand . It bit with chilling cold, and glittered like ice with
1558-659: Is 23 inches (580 mm) long (24 while in scabbard ) and 3 inches (76 mm) wide at the hilt. Its scabbard is made of brown leather and reinforced with metal. Belthronding (Sindarin/Ilkorin: Intractable Bow ) is the bow wielded by Beleg Cúthalion (Strongbow) in The Silmarillion and The Lays of Beleriand . The black arrow was used in Esgaroth by Bard the Bowman; he mentions that it has been used many times, always successfully, and always recovered. An heirloom from many generations of Bard's family, that he believed had been made in
1640-547: Is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman 's orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of orcs and Men ? That would be a black evil! The Germanic studies scholar Sandra Ballif Straubhaar however argues against the "recurring accusations" of racism, stating that "a polycultured, polylingual world
1722-475: Is a sacred direction'. That is not true. The North-west of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man's home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not 'sacred', nor does it exhaust my affections. I do have, for instance, a particular fondness for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish. That it
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#17330861975701804-453: Is absolutely central" to Middle-earth, and that readers and filmgoers will easily see that. The historian and Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell likewise disagreed with any notions of racism inherent or latent in Tolkien's works, and wondered "if there were a way of writing epic fantasy about a battle against an evil spirit and his monstrous servants without its being subject to speculation of racist intent". The journalist David Ibata writes that
1886-429: Is generally thought to be derived from the Latin word/name Orcus , though Tolkien himself expressed doubt about this. The term orcus is glossed as " orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol " ("Goblin, spectre, or hell-devil") in the 10th century Old English Cleopatra Glossaries , about which Thomas Wright wrote, " Orcus was the name for Pluto , the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand
1968-577: Is the sword forged by Eöl the Dark Elf, similar to Anglachel which was given to Thingol of Doriath in The Silmarillion . It was the mate of Anglachel, was made of the same meteoritic iron, and had the same physical properties and capabilities as Anglachel, but there is no evidence of sentience in Anguirel. Anguirel was kept by Eöl until it was stolen by his son, Maeglin. Aranrúth (Sindarin: King's Ire )
2050-543: Is the sword that belonged to Théoden . Narsil ( Quenya : roughly, Red and White Flame ) is a sword in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion , influenced by the legendary Arthurian sword Excalibur and by Sigurd 's sword Gram, as described in the Old Norse Völsunga saga . The sword was forged during the First Age by the Dwarf Telchar of Nogrod, a famous weaponsmith and artificer who also made
2132-530: Is the sword wielded by King Thingol of Doriath in The Silmarillion . Later the sword of the Kings of Númenor. Glamdring (Sindarin: Foe-hammer ) is a sword in The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales forged in the First Age by the High Elves of the hidden city of Gondolin. It belonged first to Turgon , the King of Gondolin. Thousands of years later, in T.A. 2941, Gandalf discovered it among
2214-512: Is untrue for my story, a mere reading of the synopses should show. The North was the seat of the fortresses of the Devil [ie. Morgoth ]. Scholars of English literature William N. Rogers II and Michael R. Underwood note that a widespread element of late 19th century Western culture was fear of moral decline and degeneration; this led to eugenics . In The Two Towers , the Ent Treebeard says: It
2296-720: The Elder Edda and Gram in the Völsunga saga . The items illustrate the passage of time and the transfer of power or fate to their future bearers. Anglachel ( Sindarin : Iron of the Flaming Star ) was a sword forged of meteoritic iron by Eöl the Dark Elf , given to Thingol King of Doriath as a fee for leave to dwell in Nan Elmoth. It could cleave all earth-delved iron. Later wielded by Beleg Strongbow and ultimately Túrin ; Anglachel
2378-464: The London Review of Books , endorses Andrew O'Hehir's comment on Salon.com that orcs are "by design and intention a northern European's paranoid caricature of the races he has dimly heard about". Tally describes the orcs as a demonized enemy , despite (he writes) Tolkien's own objections to demonization of the enemy in the two World Wars. In a letter to his son, Christopher , who was serving in
2460-643: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Red Arrow is omitted and its role is conflated with the Beacons of Gondor . Hobbits "shot well with the bow". The Shire sent archers to the battles of the Fall of Arnor. Body armour in Tolkien's fiction is mainly in the form of mail or scale shirts, in keeping with Ancient and Early Medieval periods of history. In contrast, the Lord of
2542-668: The Monster Manual for the first edition (1977). Newer versions seem to have dropped references to skin-color. Early versions of the game introduced the "half-orc" as race. The orc was described in the first edition of Monster Manual ( op. cit. ), as a fiercely competitive bully, a tribal creature often dwelling and building underground; in newer editions, orcs (though still described as sometimes inhabiting cavern complexes) had been shifted to become more prone to non-subterranean habitation as well, adapting captured villages into communities, for instance. The mythology and attitudes of
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2624-696: The Elves of Gondolin use the mail armour , swords , shields , spears , axes and bows of Northern European warfare. In Tolkien's writings, such Medieval weapons and armour are used by his fictional races , including Elves , Dwarves , Men , Hobbits , and Orcs . As in his sources, Tolkien's characters often gave names to their weapons , sometimes with runic inscriptions to show they are magical and have their own history and power. Tolkien devised several constructed languages with terms for types of weapons. Swords symbolized physical prowess in battle for Tolkien, following Northern European culture. Tolkien writes that Elves and Dwarves produced
2706-806: The First Age . Other notable axe-bearers were Tuor (the wielder of the axe Dramborleg), the Men of the White Mountains who marched to the defence of Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings movie (replacing the axe-wielding men of Lossarnach from the book), and a contingent of Easterlings among the besiegers of Minas Tirith. Bows of different sizes and construction are featured in Tolkien's works. Elves of Lothlórien , Men, and Uruk-hai used longbows , while Elves of Mirkwood and Orcs of Mordor used smaller ones. These bows are said to be made of wood, horn and even steel. The most famous bowman in Tolkien's stories of
2788-507: The RAF in the Second World War, Tolkien wrote of orcs as appearing on both sides of the conflict: Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fiction ... only in real life they are on both sides, of course. For 'romance' has grown out of 'allegory', and its wars are still derived from the 'inner war' of allegory in which good is on one side and various modes of badness on
2870-539: The Riddermark in The Lord of the Rings . The name is found in the Old English poem Beowulf , where the hero uses the word as an epithet for the sword Hrunting, lent to him by Hrothgar 's thane Unferth for the fight with Grendel's mother . Hadhafang is the sword invented for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, where it was wielded by Arwen , although she is never actually seen using it in combat, as
2952-503: The Third Age , a new breed of orc had emerged, the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful, and no longer afraid of daylight. Orcs eat meat, including the flesh of Men , and may indulge in cannibalism : in The Two Towers , Grishnákh, an orc from Mordor , claims that the Isengard orcs eat orc-flesh. Whether that is true or spoken in malice is uncertain: an orc flings Peregrin Took stale bread and
3034-564: The First Age of Middle-earth is the Elf Beleg ; his bow was named Belthronding , and his arrow Dailir . Infamously Curufin, a lord of the Noldor , attempts to shoot the Elf-princess Lúthien with the bow of his brother Celegorm . His first arrow is intercepted by Huan ; Beren attempts to intercept the second shot, and is wounded. In The Lord of the Rings , set in the late Third Age ,
3116-598: The Rings and The Silmarillion . Tolkien modelled his fictional warfare on the Ancient and Early Medieval periods of history. His depiction of weapons and armour particularly reflect Northern European culture as seen in Beowulf and the Norse sagas . Tolkien established this relationship in The Fall of Gondolin , the first story in his legendarium to be written. In this story,
3198-562: The Rings and The Hobbit film adaptations, Sting is depicted as leaf-shaped, with gentle curving edges. Engraved on the blade and cross-guard are letters in Sindarin that read phonetically, Maegnas aen estar nin dagnir in yngyl im . Translated into English, they read, " Maegnas is my name, I am the spider's bane." According to the Appendix of The Silmarillion , the element maeg in Sindarin means "sharp" or "piercing". The film version of Sting
3280-446: The Rings film trilogy features later medieval plate armour suits. These kinds of plate armour are not found in Tolkien's writings, but plate does appear in the form of individual pieces such as vambraces (forearm guards) or greaves (leg and shin guards). As with other items of war, Elves and Dwarves produced the best armour. The mail shirt forged by Dwarves from the fictional metal mithril appears in The Hobbit and The Lord of
3362-459: The Rings film trilogy, Legolas possessed twin fighting knives carried in sheaths near his quiver. There are some special types of knife in Tolkien's fiction which do not have formal names, but nevertheless play important roles in the plot. The Witch-king of Angmar , leader of the Nazgûl , used a magical dagger called a " Morgul -blade" to wound Frodo Baggins at Weathertop . The dark magic of
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3444-422: The Rings films , the actors playing orcs are made up with masks designed to make them look evil. After a disagreement with the film producer Harvey Weinstein , Jackson had one of the masks made to resemble Weinstein, as an insult to him. The Orcs had no language of their own, merely a pidgin of many various languages. However, individual tribes developed dialects that differed so widely that Westron , often with
3526-673: The Rings , worn in turn by the protagonists Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. In Letter 211 of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien , the author compared the war-gear of the Rohirrim to the Bayeux Tapestry , made during the Norman Conquest of Anglo-Saxon England. Battle helmets are commonly used by virtually all races in Tolkien's writings. The Rohirrim were partly modelled on the Anglo-Saxons , who wore elaborate helmets ; Éomer 's helmet had
3608-495: The Storm . The orc features in numerous Magic: The Gathering collectible cards, in the 1993 game series published by Wizards of the Coast . In The Elder Scrolls series, many orcs or Orsimer are skilled blacksmiths. In Hasbro 's Heroscape products, orcs come from the pre-historic planet Grut. They are blue-skinned, with prominent tusks or horns. The Skylander Voodood from
3690-659: The Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand." The Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, also called the Helm of Hador , is the fabulous helmet of the lords of the House of Hador, including Húrin and Túrin. The helm was made of heavy steel, decorated with gold and runes ; a gold likeness of Glaurung the Dragon was set upon its crest. It was made for the Dwarf-king Azaghâl by Telchar ,
3772-540: The Sword that was Broken , remained an heirloom of Isildur's heirs throughout the Third Age, and were thus inherited by Aragorn. Elvish smiths re-forged the sword for Aragorn before the Fellowship of the Ring began their quest; Aragorn renamed it Andúril (Quenya: Flame of the West ). The reforged Andúril is described as very bright, shining red and white with the light of the sun and moon. The Silmarillion further states that
3854-619: The Witch-king. Battle axes are especially favoured by Dwarves in Tolkien's writings; Gimli uses the battle cry : Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you! ( Khuzdul : Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! ). For The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Gimli the Dwarf was assigned various axes of different makes during the course of the films. The Sindarin Elves of Doriath favoured axes as weapons during
3936-459: The benevolent Elves . He described their origins inconsistently, including as a corrupted race of elves, or bred by the Dark Lord Morgoth , or turned to evil in the wild. Tolkien's orcs serve as a conveniently wholly evil enemy that could be slaughtered without mercy. The orc was a sort of "hell-devil" in Old English literature, and the orc-né (pl. orc-néas , "demon-corpses")
4018-511: The best swords (and other war gear) and that Elvish swords glowed blue in the presence of Orcs . Elves generally used straight swords while Orcs generally used curved swords. Both races have exceptions: Egalmoth of Gondolin used a curved sword and the Uruk-hai of Isengard used short, broad blades. Tolkien often mentions the use of shields together with one-handed swords. Knives are mentioned in Tolkien's works, sometimes as backup weapons—such as
4100-407: The blade's design was for main use on horseback, and footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep was ultimately cut. The name is derived from Tolkien's etymological word list written in the 1930s; here Tolkien provides the word hadhathang (dissimilated: havathang, hadhafang ), which he translates as "throng-cleaver", though he never used this name in his writings. Herugrim (Old English: Fierce Sword )
4182-408: The conflicts between orcs and humans from the orcs' point of view. In Terry Pratchett 's Discworld series, orcs are close to extinction; in his Unseen Academicals , it is said that "When the Evil Emperor wanted fighters he got some of the Igors to turn goblins into orcs" to be used as weapons in a Great War, "encouraged" by whips and beatings. Orcs based on The Lord of the Rings have become
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#17330861975704264-400: The death of Beleg at the hand of his friend Túrin by Anglachel itself. Túrin asked the sword whether it would slay him swiftly if he cast himself on its point, and it responded at length (the only instance of Gurthang speaking with voice). The depiction of the sword was influenced by that of the sword of the Finnish character Kullervo in the Kalevala . Angrist (Sindarin: Iron-cleaver )
4346-405: The death of the Witch-king . The daggers had varying fates. The Witch-king broke Frodo's blade at the Ford of Bruinen. Sam Gamgee left his beside Frodo in Cirith Ungol ; it was returned to Gandalf , along with Frodo's mithril mail-shirt, by the Mouth of Sauron . Pippin Took used his dagger in the Battle of the Black Gate to slay a Troll . Merry's blade is destroyed during his attack on
4428-500: The explanation of hel - deofol . Orc , in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs , means a spectre, or goblin." In the sense of a monstrous being, the term is used just once in Beowulf , as the plural compound orcneas , one of the tribes belonging to the descendants of Cain , alongside the elves and ettins (giants) condemned by God: The meaning of Orcneas is uncertain. Frederick Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. orcus "the underworld" + neas "corpses", to which
4510-402: The forges of the King under the Mountain ; Bard recites its history, urges it to "go now and speed well", and shoots Smaug. It was lost with the Dragon's corpse in the Long Lake . Dailir is the arrow favoured by Beleg, the great bowman of the First Age of Middle-earth. Beleg was always able to retrieve this arrow for reuse. The Red Arrow is a black-feathered arrow barbed with steel; its tip
4592-406: The forms of the Children of Ilúvatar. Alternatively, they may have been East Elves (Avari) enslaved, tortured, and bred by Morgoth (as Melkor became known), or, "perhaps ... Avari [(a race of elves)] ... [turned] evil and savage in the wild", both according to The Silmarillion . The orcs "multiplied" like Elves and Men, meaning that they reproduced sexually . Tolkien stated in
4674-427: The great Dwarf-craftsman of Nogrod. Azaghâl ruled the neighbouring city of Belegost; he gave it to Maedhros , who gave it to Fingon. Fingon then gave it to Hador, along with the lordship of Dor-lómin. The Axe of Tuor, called Dramborleg (Gnomish: Thudder-Sharp ) in The Book of Lost Tales , is the great axe belonging to Tuor, son of Huor in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth that left wounds like "both
4756-436: The hoard of the three trolls in The Hobbit , and he carried it throughout his journeys with Bilbo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring. It was the mate of Orcrist , and like Orcrist would glow blue whenever orcs were nearby. Glamdring was nicknamed " Beater " by the goblins of the Misty Mountains . See Anglachel Gúthwinë ( Old English : gúð-wine Battle Friend ) is the sword wielded by Éomer, third marshal of
4838-465: The implied concept of evil as Boethian – that evil is the absence of good. He notes, however, that Tolkien did not agree with that concept of evil; Tolkien believed that evil had to be actively fought, with war if necessary. That is something that Shippey describes as representing the Manichean position– that evil coexists with good, and is at least equally as powerful. The possibility of racism in Tolkien's descriptions of orcs has been debated. In
4920-572: The interpretations of orcs in Peter Jackson 's Lord of the Rings films look much like "the worst depictions of the Japanese drawn by American and British illustrators during World War II ". As a response to the type-casting of orcs as generic evil characters or antagonists, some novels portray events from the point of view of the orcs, or make them more sympathetic characters. Mary Gentle 's 1992 novel Grunts! presents orcs as generic infantry, used as metaphorical cannon-fodder. A series of books by Stan Nicholls , Orcs: First Blood , focuses on
5002-403: The knife Angrist (which cut a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth) and the Helm of Hador (later used by Túrin Turambar ). By the end of the Second Age Narsil was borne by Elendil ; during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men it was broken in two pieces in the war against Sauron . Isildur used the hilt-shard to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. The two shards, acquiring the additional name
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#17330861975705084-405: The knife gravely affects Frodo's well-being, threatening to turn him into a wraith, especially because its detachable point migrated in Frodo's body for more than two weeks before it could be extracted, thus causing great damage. Recurring ill effects from the wound contribute to Frodo's eventual departure to Valinor . According to the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , the weapon may owe something to
5166-466: The more modern use of the English term "orc" to denote a race of evil humanoid beings. His earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) "monster", "ogre", "demon", together with orqindi and "ogresse". He sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts. He stated that the Elvish words for orc were derived from a root ruku , "fear, horror"; in Quenya , orco , plural orkor ; in Sindarin orch , plurals yrch and Orchoth (as
5248-410: The orcs are described in detail in Dragon #62 (June 1982), in Roger E. Moore 's article, "The Half-Orc Point of View". The orc for the D&D offshoot Pathfinder RPG are detailed in the 2008 book Classic Monsters Revisited issued by the game's publisher Paizo . Games Workshop 's Warhammer universe features cunning and brutal orcs in a fantasy setting, who are driven not so much by
5330-533: The orcs in The Lord of the Rings were almost certainly created just to equip Middle-earth with a continual supply of enemies who one could kill without compunction, or in Tolkien's words from The Monsters and the Critics "the infantry of the old war" ready to be slaughtered. Shippey states that all the same, orcs share the human concept of good and evil, with a familiar sense of morality , though he notes that, like many people, orcs are quite unable to apply their morals to themselves. Shippey opined that Tolkien, as
5412-428: The original Narsil already shone in such a manner, but its light was extinguished when it was broken. The reforged blade had "a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun, and about them was written many runes". Orcrist (Sindarin: Goblin-cleaver ), a sword in The Hobbit . was originally forged in Gondolin and was nicknamed " Biter " by the goblins of the Misty Mountains. After finding it in
5494-506: The other. In real (exterior) life men are on both sides: which means a motley alliance of orcs, beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men, and angels. John Magoun, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , states that Middle-earth has a "fully expressed moral geography ". Any moral bias towards a north-western geography, however, was directly denied by Tolkien in a letter to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, who had recently interviewed him in 1967: Auden has asserted that for me 'the North
5576-435: The sword Andúril, and crossbows are only mentioned in connection to hunting by Númenoreans in their lost homeland of Númenor. Sometimes individual arrows are given special mention in Tolkien's works. In The Hobbit , the Black Arrow was a royal heirloom used by Bard the Bowman to kill the dragon Smaug . In The Lord of the Rings , the Red Arrow was a token used by Gondor to summon its allies in time of need. In
5658-598: The title Anduril . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anduril&oldid=1050984512 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Narsil The weapons and armour of Middle-earth are all those mentioned J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth fantasy writings, such as The Hobbit , The Lord of
5740-561: The tradition of the " elf-shot " found in Old English medical texts and charms, where it denotes illnesses of presumed supernatural origin. Tom Bombadil recovers four magical daggers, forged by the Men of Westernesse to fight the powers of Angmar , from a tomb guarded by the Barrow-wight . After opening the barrow and freeing the hobbits, Tom Bombadil gives them the weapons, saying "Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people". One of these "Barrow-blades" – that given to Merry Brandybuck – proves instrumental in bringing about
5822-409: The translation "evil spirits" failed to do justice. It is generally supposed to contain an element -né , cognate to Gothic naus and Old Norse nár , both meaning 'corpse'. If *orcné is to be glossed as orcus 'corpse', then the compound word can be construed as "demon-corpses", or "corpse from Orcus (i.e. the underworld)". Hence orc-neas may have been some sort of walking dead monster,
5904-612: The translation: "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!" However, in a note published in Vinyar Tengwar he gives an alternative translation: "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!" Alexander Nemirovsky [ ru ] speculated that Tolkien might have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for Black Speech. The origin(s) of orcs were explained in multiple inconsistent ways by Tolkien. Early works depict them as creations of Morgoth, mimicking
5986-473: The uniform presentation of orcs as "loathsome, ugly, cruel, feared, and especially terminable", "Tolkien could not resist the urge to flesh out and 'humanize' these inhuman creatures from time to time", in the process giving them their own morality. Shippey notes that in The Two Towers , the orc Gorbag disapproves of the "regular elvish trick" (an immoral act) of abandoning a comrade, as he wrongly supposes Sam Gamgee has done to Frodo Baggins . Shippey describes
6068-448: The unnamed long knife of Legolas the archer. However, some individual knives are given more significance through naming (e.g. Sting , see below). In " The Scouring of the Shire ", Saruman attempts to stab Frodo with a knife, but is foiled by the mithril shirt worn under his jacket. Shortly afterwards Saruman's throat was fatally cut with a knife borne by Wormtongue . For The Lord of
6150-591: The weapon after using it to fend off the giant spiders in Mirkwood forest, then later passed it on to Frodo to use in his quest to destroy the One Ring. Sting glows blue when orcs are nearby, as in Moria . In Europe, bilbo blades were exceptionally fine swords, named after the city of Bilbao which made them. It is possible that Tolkien connected Bilbo's name with his acquisition of this weapon. In Peter Jackson 's The Lord of
6232-401: Was "derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability", and I originally took the word from Old English orc ( Beowulf 112 orc-neas and the gloss orc : þyrs ('ogre'), heldeofol ('hell-devil')). This is supposed not to be connected with modern English orc , ork , a name applied to various sea-beasts of the dolphin order". Tolkien also observed
6314-571: Was a knife made by the great weaponsmith Telchar of Nogrod, and borne by Curufin. Beren, who had taken it from Curufin, used it to cut a magical Silmaril jewel out of Morgoth 's Iron Crown; as Beren attempted to remove another, the knife snapped. In the earliest version of Beren's story in The Book of Lost Tales , he uses an ordinary household knife; the element of Curufin's involvement in Beren's affairs came later. Anguirel (Sindarin: Iron of Eternity )
6396-506: Was a race of corrupted beings and descendants of Cain , alongside the elf, according to the poem Beowulf . Tolkien adopted the term orc from these old attestations, which he professed was a choice made purely for "phonetic suitability" reasons. Tolkien's concept of orcs has been adapted into the fantasy fiction of other authors, and into games of many different genres such as Dungeons & Dragons , Magic: The Gathering , and Warcraft . The Anglo-Saxon word orc, which Tolkien used,
6478-777: Was dominated by Númenor. The Númenórean helmet, the karma , reached particularly elaborate forms. Those of the Uinendili , a guild of mariners, were "made of overlapping plates of metal, the 'fish-crest' of leather embossed and coloured". Tolkien's coloured drawing of the karma of a Uinendili captain features on the cover of Unfinished Tales . Tolkien emulated his Northern European mythological and literary sources in having his characters give names to their weapons , marking these out as important aspects of character and sometimes as ancient heirlooms. Named weapons in Medieval literature include Hrunting and Nægling in Beowulf , Tyrfing in
6560-669: Was forthcoming from Rohan. The Red Arrow has a historical antecedent in the Old English poem Elene in which Constantine the Great summoned an army of mounted Visigoths to his aid against the Huns by sending an arrow as a "token of war". Aeglos (Sindarin: Snow Point , i.e. icicle; also spelt Aiglos ) is the spear wielded by the Elf-King Gil-galad . It was said that "the Spear of Gil-galad and
6642-480: Was painted red. It was a token used by Gondor to summon Rohan in time of dire need. In The Return of the King , the Red Arrow was presented to Théoden by Hirgon with the message: "...the Lord Denethor asks for all your strength and all your speed, lest Gondor should fall at last." Théoden pledged his assistance, but Hirgon was killed during the ride back to Minas Tirith, leading Denethor to believe that no help
6724-555: Was reforged and renamed Gurthang (Sindarin: Iron of Death ). Túrin used Gurthang to kill Glaurung, the Father of Dragons , and later used the sword to take his own life in recompense for the accidental slaying of Beleg and the unjust slaying of Brandir. The stories endow the sword with a personality; Melian the Maia perceived malice in it as it was given to Beleg Cúthalion, and the elf Gwindor observed that Anglachel (so named then) seemed to mourn
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