Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien's Inhuman Creatures
2010; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
ResumoIN J.R.R TOLKIEN'S SPRAWLING LEGENDARIUM, mythic world of Middle-earth and its suburbs, Orcs provide a seemingly endless supply of enemies to challenge mettle of noble Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits. As every reader of books (and every viewer of blockbuster films) knows, Orcs are inevitable foot soldiers of evil, employed both traitorous wizard Saruman and Great Enemy Sauron in The Lord of Rings, forming infantry of Morgoth's vast armies in The Silmarillion, and being one race against which all others unite in The Hobbit's Battle of Five Armies. For most part, good and evil are strictly demarcated in Tolkien's world (with a few interesting exceptions), but, even that almost Manichean standard, Orcs are presented with surprising uniformity as loathsome, ugly, cruel, feared, and especially terminable. In Tolkien's world, as Mary Ellmann once put it, the only good is a dead Orc (225). Yet, as dedicated readers discern, could not resist urge to flesh out and humanize these inhuman creatures from time to time. In such examples as those I discuss below, presents Orcs who have human--even humane--qualities, notwithstanding their generally negative characteristics. fact makes it a bit disturbing, then, that Tolkien's heroes, without least pang of conscience, dispatch Orcs thousands. Indeed, letters and unpublished manuscripts reveal that himself struggled with metaphysical and moral problems he had set up inventing and using Orcs as he does. uneasiness is understandable when considering origins of Orcs (i.e., in Tolkien's world, not philological or folkloric origins in ours), a subject of some disagreement as even changed his mind over time. The canonical view presented in The Silmarillion is that by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed hideous race of Orcs in envy and mockery of Elves (Silmarillion 47). In The Two Towers, Treebeard explains to Merry and Pippin that Trolls are only counterfeits, made Enemy in Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves (III.4.486). Elsewhere in The Silmarillion, surmise that Orcs were former Elves--specifically Avari or Dark Elves, who did not go to Valinor as did Light Elves--is given further credence: Whence they [the Orcs] came, or what they were, knew not then, thinking them perhaps to be Avari who had become evil and savage in wild; in which they guessed all too near, it is said (Silmarillion 103-104). explanation would make most sense in Tolkien's legendarium, if only because Orcs appear after but before in mythic history of Arda. However, as Dimitra Fimi points out, the thought that hideous and malicious Orcs were once Elves--the 'highest' beings of Middle-earth--became increasingly unbearable to Tolkien (155). Indeed, in unpublished manuscripts written in 1950s and 1960s (see, e.g, Morgoth's Ring 408-425), toyed with several different ideas to explain Orcs' existence, ranging from corrupted (rather than corrupted Elves) to low-level Maia (and hence, fallen angels like Sauron himself) and even to automata without reason who were essentially puppets controlled Morgoth or Sauron (an admittedly unlikely scenario). There is even vague suggestion that Orcs were a kind of man, distant cousins of Druedain or related to Pukel who appear in The Return of King. [S]ome thought, nonetheless, that there had been a remote kinship, which accounted for their special enmity. Orcs and Drugs each regarded other as renegades (Unfinished Tales 401-02). And, as Christopher concludes, This then, as it may appear, was my father's final view on matter: Orcs were bred from Men (Morgoth's Ring 421). The crucial philosophical point in various arguments concerning origins is that their very existence shows they have value and are worthy of being. …
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