“So,” said the man. He knelt so that his long red hair kissed the sand, but still he towered over them. “Which of you is which? I’m sure you’re sick of being asked, but I promise not to do it twice – I have the trick of telling twins apart.”
Elrond and Elros said nothing. The other man, who had dragged them from the cave, was silent too, even when the kneeling man glanced to him with a frown upon his handsome face.
“We’re your closest kin upon these shores,“ he said when the silence had stretched long. “And so we’ll guard you until your parents return for you.” Guard could be taken a number of ways but he did not choose to clarify.
“They won’t come back,” said Elrond, who was given to portentous prophecy.
“You killed them,” said Elros, because you didn’t need the foresight of the Eldar to read bloody blades and corpses on the nursery floor.
The man stood at their backs made a dry clacking sound. They would later learn it was a laugh. He was as ugly as the other man was handsome with a twisted mouth, spindly, crooked fingers, and pale eyes that stared and stared.
“My brother does not speak,” said the kneeling man, in his place. “And your mother lives, as far as we can tell. It is our hope as much as yours that she return.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“As I said, we are kin. Do you know us?”
“Kinslayers,” said Elros.
“Fëanorians,” said Elrond.
“Precious little distinction these days,” said Maedhros – for surely that was who knelt before them – as his brother clacked another laugh. “Our people will see to your needs. Pelingil will-”
The grip upon their shoulders tightened and the mute man made a sound that was almost words.
“I do not think that wise,” said his brother.
The sound again, but more insistent and Elrond, despite his resolution, flinched away from those cold, broken fingers. The man let him go and he staggered, righted himself and almost took off running, but Elros was still held and where would they run to now?
“Are you certain?” Maedhros said.
“Ekh,” hissed the man.
“As you wish.” And then, to the twins, “My brother will have the keeping of you.” He stood, brushed himself off, and was away up the beach, calling orders to his soldiers, as his brother knelt between them, looking from boy to boy with bright, pale eyes.
He made a new noise and tapped Elros’ chest. Even had it not been for the anger and the fear, they would have struggled to make out that tongueless gurgle, and he had to repeat himself again before they could find sense in it.
Evidently, Maedhros was not the only brother with the trick of telling twins apart, for the word that he had mangled was Elros’ name.
“… but Turambar indeed shall stand beside Fionwe in the Great Wrack, and Melko and his drakes shall curse the sword of Mormakil.”
— The Book Of Lost Tales 2, Turambar And Foloake
Orcs were wicked and cruel creatures brought about by the first Dark Lord of Middle Earth, Morgoth. They were the product of Morgoth taking droves of elves captive and submitting them to dark torture and mutilation, leaving them a ruined and terrible form of life. As the ages passed, orcs split and diversified according to their specific origins. Goblin, orc, uruk, and Uruk-hai all fell under the malformed classification of ‘orc’.
They were miserable beings, hating everyone including their fellow orcs. They made no beautiful things, but rather designed cunning devices made to hurt and destroy. Orcs delighted in the technology of war and some fancied themselves harbingers of progress itself.
After Sauron’s defeat at the end of the Third Age, what orcs remained scattered and fled in dismayed horror. They were never a threat to the world again and likely went extinct in the age of peace that followed.
like what if an orc were raised by humans or something
Well… almost certainly not. Probably. Um. It’s complicated. You have to remember, Tolkien’s depiction of good and evil isn’t exactly nuanced – no, wait, that’s not true, when it comes to humans and elves and dwarves, it’s very nuanced, especially in the Silmarillion. But Orcs are a different matter, as they were made by pure evil to be pure evil. In fact, Tolkien’s initial concept of the Orcs was that they weren’t even people, but made by Melkor/Morgoth out of slime with hearts of stone. But he later changed his cosmogony and concepts to say that Morgoth couldn’t create life, only warp what had been created by Eru Iluvatar (God), and that’s when Tolkien developed the story that Orcs had once been Elves, captured and tortured and transformed by Morgoth.
Still, even though that’s the story that was published in the Silmarillion after Tolkien’s death,
and is about as canon as LOTR gets (IIRC it’s related in the movies during the creation of the Uruk-hai),
Christopher Tolkien later admitted that his father was never really happy with that concept. You see, there’s a certain element of Christian theology deep in LOTR because of Tolkien’s faith, not on the level of allegory (as in Narnia) which Tolkien disdained, but it’s there because Eru is God and Arda is our world. So the idea of souls being good creations of God, but tainted by original sin, Morgoth’s (Satan’s) corruption, is something that Tolkien had to reconcile in his worldbuilding. Orc origins and their potential for evil (or good) were part of that.
This is probably the most thorough explanation of Orcs in canon I’ve seen so far, if anyone is curious.
The trouble with orcs is that Tolkien himself had several reversals of opinion on his own canon and a choppy relationship with How Much Catholicism Was Too Much Catholicism to add to his fantasy story, so the final word on the matter of orcish origins, free will, and redeemability is essentially “???”. I think this post covers all the bases of what we DO know from the source material, and asks all the right questions, including ‘What Would Terry Do?’, which I appreciate.
*(I myself take the canon on orcs to be more of a suggestion than law, or at least, I prefer to think that most of the information we learn about orcs in-narrative comes from unreliable and biased sources– as I do with most things Strictly Evil in Tolkien.)
Å Silibrand körde uppå höga loftessvala Allt under den linden så gröna Där fick han se sin dotter i lunden fara I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Å välest mig välest mig vad jag nu ser Allt under den linden så gröna Jag ser min dotter hon kommer till mig I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Å Silibrand fämnar ut kap-pan så blå Allt under den linden så gröna Där föder hon två karska svenbarnen på I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Min fader skall jag giva min gån-gare grå Allt under den linden så gröna Som han skall rida till kyrkan uppå I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Min syster skall jag giva mina guld-ringar sju Allt under den linden så gröna Som jag ej haft sen jag stod brud I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Min broder skall jag giva mina hand-skar små Allt under den linden så gröna Som han skall ha lik-vart han går I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
Den ene så för dom till Frejas dop Allt under den linden så gröna Den andre så för dom till Vallhalla sal I riden så varliga genom lunden med henne
I got a bit behind on commissions this week, being sort of distracted by starting college and such, but I should be back on track? Apologies to everyone who has been waiting!
Here we have Tyelpe working on some… Ring Theory, is the idea? Whimsical spectral theory? Fun metaphysical elf math? commissioned by @thearrogantemu, who happens to be responsible for creating some of my very favorite Celebrimbor content. Thank you so much!
~ Colossal statue of a winged human-headed bull from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II.
Date: 865-860 B.C.
Period/culture: Neo-Assyrian
Medium: Gypsum
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 