🧙♂️📜 On Orcs and other curiosities: A mini-thread essay to help viewers of The Rings of Power understand the sources used from J.R.R. Tolkien.
2/🧵 This thread will cover quotes and lore from J.R.R. Tolkien to help assist people in understanding the sources used by Amazon’s The Rings of Power Season 2 and hopefully inform, educate and resolve any confusions.
3/🧵 Fans seem to be confused over the nature of orcs and the existence of orc families in Middle-earth. Let’s go directly to Tolkien on this matter in a reference to how orcs get more orcs…
4/🧵”multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar” – they had sex and gave birth to children, it’s quite clear.
#TRoPSpoiler The doubt from fans came over an orc woman appearing in the show. Tolkien is clear on that too.
4/🧵Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey (@UppsalaBooks) discussed this in his wonderful “The Road to Middle-earth” but also examined Tolkien’s internal conflict over the varied implications regarding an Elven origin of orcs.
@UppsalaBooks 5/🧵 Note this book was (I believe) written before the Munby Letter was public knowledge where Tolkien himself says there must be female orcs.
6/🧵 I would be amiss to not acknowledge that Tolkien was ultimately in conflict over his orc origin, but it’s clear he understood that they reproduced and had babies. But he did toy with the origins. Dwarf origins seem mixed with orcs in the below quote.
7/🧵 As well as the fact there are female orcs and also they reproduce and have babies, across the legendarium there are hints this exists. There are half-orcs (LOTR).
8/🧵 We also have “goblin imps” (Hobbit). These imply Gollum was eating goblin babies/children whilst living in the Goblin cave system under the Misty Mountains.
9/🧵 We also have family lines of orcs: Azog (d. Battle of Azanulbizar) and his son Bolg (d. Battle of Five Armies). Sons of orc chieftains became leaders themselves in the wars against Men, Dwarves and Elves – implying a hereditary system of leadership?
10/🧵So on the matter of Orcs with families, I think Tolkien is clear – they existed, he had considered them, but he didn’t include them in his works. Christopher included an incomplete essay by Tolkien on the origins of orcs in “Morgoth’s Ring” (HoME 10).
@TolkienGateway @Wikipedia 12/🧵Other subjects that have come up include Sauron’s own nature: was he evil from the beginning? Tolkien is clear on this point in one of his letters, as follows:
@TolkienGateway @Wikipedia 13/🧵Something pointed out to me in the TORN discord (thanks to that person): Sauron was as much as breeder of orcs as Morgoth and this idea may well have been used by the writers/showrunners in Season 2 – that is deep lore.
14/🧵#TROPSpoilers
The part alluded to is Adar explaining it was Sauron who fed him wine on the mountain top when Morgoth converted 13 elves. Sauron was an active participant in the corruption of those elves.
15/🧵I think part of why we are seeing fan confusion over orc families is caused by the Peter Jackson films – there is nothing in Tolkien’s writings that fits with how we see the Uruk-Hai "births" in the LOTR: The Two Towers, it’s completely non-canon but is fixed in fans’ minds.
16/🧵#TROPspoilers Some deep cuts in Episode 2 and Elf slander with poor Rúmil and Daeron. Naughty Círdan!
The Embracer CEO, Lars Wingefors, being vague about the future Tolkien IP via Middle-earth Enterprises. 1/ variety.com/2022/film/glob…
From the article - "Wingefors noted during his presentation that Embracer now has four licensed “Lord of the Rings” games in production with external developers."
Those could be: 2/
1] Daedalic - LOTR: Gollum (still in development - PC/console game)
2] Free Range Games - LOTR: Return to Moria (2023 release - PC/console game)
3/
Let's talk about Elon. This is the world's richest man, who claims to be in touch with people like you and I. He's mates with right wing nutjobs like The Trump. He retweets rw nutjob conspiracy theories. 1/
He's creepy-breaks employer/employee etiquette by having a child with someone he promotes in his workplace whilst his partner is due their own child. He swaggers into his new work with a sink, knowing full well he's going to crap on a lot of workers there soon. 2/
He has publicly supported people in the past who are openly anti-LGBT+. racist and misogynistic. His talk of "free speech" is to give access to such rhetoric again 3/
It's become clear, over the last few days, that there is confusion regarding the various entities involved with Tolkien. So I'm post this thread to clarify some details. I'll go chronologically as much as I can. 1/16
The first entity is the Tolkien Estate. This is Tolkien's family. Christopher was head of the Estate, he stepped down from that position just before we sadly lost him. They own the book rights and anything else, except those stated below. Website: tolkienestate.com/en/home.html 2/16
I'll take more about the Estate after I introduce two more entities, both appearing in 1969. 3/16