Tolkiens Orcs

 

prompt “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes, roughly humanoid in shape with pointed ears, sharpened teeth and grimy skin, horribly corrupted, with dirty yellow to dark brown skin” ai art, it rejected ‘slanted eyed’ against platform safety policy 

Tolkiens Orcs

Internet is full of a description Tolkien put in a private letter, now released publicly, describing Orcs to have slant eyes. This is perceived by some as Tolkien being racist against peoples who have slanted eyes. Which is ridiculous. My cat has slant eyes, that is not racism. He was describing something specific. Look at Tolkiens illustrations of the dragon Smaug. It also has slanted eyes. That’s what he was describing. An aesthetic. 

What I did not find available on the internet is how Tolkien described Orcs in the manuscript of Lord of the Rings itself. I find this peculiar given it should be the go-to resource on how Orcs are described in Lord of the Rings. 

It has been quite some time since I read it. First at the age of eleven and again in my late twenties. From memory, which is about as good as Radagasts, I recall Tolkien having mentioned something about Orcs being sallow, pallid-skinned and of hollowed, degenerated form. 

By the same way Tolkien never once mentioned Elves to have pointy ears, we can assume he was not describing the Warhammer Orcs and Elves which came much later. 

Sallow, degenerated, pallid, because they are undernourished and inbred, living as animals without animal intuition. 

Tolkien got me thinking at age 11 about how people could not read for most of history, how the assumption most people had semblance of sustainable culture is ridiculous. 

The Grendel is not a story about a rare incident. The Grendel is a story about the others who were not taught to speak, to count, who were shunned and had no civilized ways. They did not built huts, harvest crops for thatch, they couldn’t hunt with a bow or start fire because such things were beyond their ability to fathom. 

They had emotion untamed by living with other people in a community. They were wild, feral, sometimes hunting in packs or preying on one another. Sometimes they killed each other for food if they could find no worms or berry’s. Or out of anger or lust. The wild peoples were not a unified tribe. They were descendants of outcasts born in a lair to parents with no clothing or tools, no human ways whatsoever. 

That’s most of us for most of human history. Most of your ancestors. What we call history began at the very recent end of a long succession of that. There were still people living that way during the medieval era only a handful of generations ago. Possibly there still are even today, somewhere in the world. 

And toward to the future, if we are not careful to sustain the very best of what we already have achieved by way of knowledge and the cultures which sustain it. 

What wisdom is worth saving for those to come? What wisdom do we have? As individuals who pass before passing it forward? None. As communities listening to the voices of the wise and sharing of their ways? A small number contrasted against billions who haven’t yet. 

The importance of kingship and governance to hold together a sustainable civilization that even our small and dwindling wisdom may be passed to the next generation and beyond. 

The necessity of colonial schools to educate us with a common frame of reference that should yet another catastrophe strike, the survivors will at very least know how to make soap, weave clothes and rope and baskets, spark fire and plant seeds for vegetables and trees. 

Tolkiens Orcs were those who did not know how to do such things, though could raise an arm to wield a weapon and they could raid. 

The armies of Mordor consisted of scavengers, imbeciles, bullied into swelling the ranks and awed at the might of what can be achieved through working together to the best of their actual ability. 

Tolkiens Orcs were not monsters, they were men, women and children who had never benefited from development of the mind, of the heart, of any cultural values beyond immediate need and survival. Golem at least is a step up from them, is arguably the best of them. 

When I read Lord of the Rings as a child I had already seen green-skinned, red-eyed Orcs on television, a machine which had not existed during Tolkiens lifetime until his later years. I was conscious to read Middle Earth free of influence of what I had seen on tv. 

To read it for what it was, what the words described and not how other peoples imagination were infecting my mind to misperceive the words. 

Middle Earth was populated by gangly outcasts unfit for civilised folks to teach the warmth of companionship, living in primal fear and need. The symbols of the rural agricultural Shire, the Stately Home of Elrond and the ancient Elves and so many ruins of fallen Human empire. 

Northern lands where nobody much mentions and nobody but Rangers and Dwarves ever visit. The kingdom of Gondor and Rohan is the highest culture amongst Humans. 

A handful of hyper-educated folk stand out, labeled as Wizards who read and write and gather histories into towers to keep them safe. Protecting their zones with the magical they alone have the burden to protect. Such the responsibility of wisdom which the irresponsible care nothing for, to such extent they seek actively to destroy it. 

Mordor represents many things. Callous and destructive hatred from those who lust for power without any patience to develop accountability. Anger against those of a higher power who seek only peace and sustainability. Those who know forgiveness, gentleness, foresight, caring. Those raised by ideals to better the world or at least to not worsen it. By what merits this is accomplished.