[Scott from the Left Coast]

Well, it's kind of easy to see things in the world that seem to fit into great literature (because of its universal scope, LOTR is very easy to apply to many situations that occur in the world at large), sort of like how people make varied and personal interpretations of songs that they like.

I have no idea what Tolkien was actually thinking of when he created Orcs (other than that they started as "Goblins" in The Hobbit), and my interpretation of their characteristics will probably be "personal". So I hesitate to make a connection like that.

But perhaps those, like Overtaxed, with access to those fancy reference books can enlighten us on if there are any ideas like that in Tolkien's writings???

[Overtaxed]

Ummmm....okay...Orc research. I'll see what I can find out from those fancy reference books I mooched...er...borrowed from my siblings! :)

[Sam Cree]

Isn't Orc a word from the ancient Norse legends (on which LOTR is based) that means roughly the same thing as it does in LOTR?

[Wordsmith]

If the point hasn't already been made, my reading of Tolkien and his critics would lead me to say that the Orcs are a stylized view of human nature deeply corrupted by sin. As a Catholic, Tolkien was steeped in the belief in the interpenetration of physical and spiritual reality. The Orcs twisted nature is thus equally manifest in both their physical form and their inner mental/moral being.

The contrast is with the Elves as a stylized view of human nature deeply elevated by Grace. With the actual humans more about the muddled middle. As we'll get to later, the human allies of Sauron are redeemable in a way the Orcs are not.