The Origin of the Orc

Nowadays, you say the word "orc" and it immediately conjures an image based on your media experiences.  Perhaps you see the hulking green-skinned barbarians of "Warhammer" fame, or the misunderstood Noble Savages of "Elder Scrolls;" maybe your vision of the orc is the pig-snouted monsters made famous by artist David C. Sutherland III for "Dungeons & Dragons."  Or, like me, you speak the word and in your mind’s eye you see a horde of bestial creatures enslaved to a Dark Lord, as personified by (and, indeed, originating with) the works of English scholar and author J.R.R. Tolkien.  And Tolkien is undoubtedly the founder of this particular feast.  The orc as we know it came into being in the early 20th century, as the faceless minions of Tolkien’s original dark lord, Melkor, in the writings that would become "The Silmarillion."

Despite serving as their creator, orcs occupy hardly any time on the pages of Tolkien’s seminal trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings."  The narrative goes on for more than 300 pages before we see the first orc, a great chieftain in Moria; after that, we see them again in three chapters and meet only a dozen or so named orc characters, often in passing.  Nevertheless, something about these foot-soldiers of evil struck a chord with readers.  After the success of "The Lord of the Rings" in the 1960s, orcs became eponymous as cannon-fodder; a race of disposable, faceless mooks.  They migrated into the nascent tabletop role-playing game hobby via "Dungeons & Dragons" (1974) and then into video games and other media.

Along the way, a strange thing happened.  Other writers took it upon themselves to liberate orcs from their status as lowly minions.

Along the way, a strange thing happened.  Other writers took it upon themselves to liberate orcs from their status as lowly minions.  While they took center stage in Mary Gentle’s 1992 satirical fantasy novel, "Grunts," it was British author Stan Nicholls who properly launched the “Orcish renaissance” with the 1999 publication of "Bodyguard of Lightning," the first book in his "Orcs: First Blood" trilogy.  In the twenty-one years since, orcs have grown beyond the role set forth by their creator to become protagonists in their own right.

So, we know what they are, but where did Tolkien find the word "orc"?  Like much of what makes up the good Professor’s expansive legendarium, Tolkien did not so much invent the word as he did merely repurpose it.  Indeed, it hails from Old...

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