Tolkien Tolkien wrote that his orcs were influenced by the goblins in George MacDonald's 1872 The Princess and the Goblin. Hence orc-neas may have been some sort of walking dead monster, a product of ancient necromancy, or a zombie-like creature. 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. It is generally supposed to contain an element -né, cognate to Gothic naus and Old Norse nár, both meaning 'corpse'. orcus 'the underworld' + neas 'corpses', to which the translation 'evil spirits' failed to do justice. Frederick Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. 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.īeowulf 's eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas, 'ogres and elves and demon-corpses', inspiring Tolkien to create orcs and other races Tolkien adopted the term orc from these old attestations, which he professed was a choice made purely for 'phonetic suitability' reasons.

orc-néas, 'demon-corpses') was a race of corrupted beings and descendants of Cain, alongside the elf, according to the poem Beowulf. The orc was a sort of 'hell-devil' in Old English literature, and the orc-né (pl.

They are a corrupted race of elves, either bred that way by Morgoth, or turned savage in that manner, according to the Silmarillion. Tolkien's Middle Earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls ' goblin'.Įspecially in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. For specific characters and other uses, see Orc (disambiguation) and Ork (disambiguation).Īn orc (sometimes spelt ork / ɔːr k/ ), in J. This article is about the fictional humanoid monster.

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