This is supposed not to be connected with modern English orc, ork, a name applied to various sea-beasts of the dolphin order'. I originally took the word from Old English orc ( Beowulf 112 orc-neas and the gloss orc: þyrs ('ogre'), heldeofol ('hell-devil')). He explained that his 'orc' was 'derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability', and

Tolkien stated in a letter to the novelist Naomi Mitchison that his Orcs had been influenced by George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin. They had similar names in other Middle-earth languages: uruk in Black Speech (restricted to the larger soldier-orcs) in the language of the Drúedain gorgûn, 'ork-folk' in Khuzdul rukhs, plural rakhâs and in the language of Rohan and in the Common Speech, orka. He stated that the Elvish words for orc were derived from a root ruku, 'fear, horror' in Quenya, orco, plural orkor in Sindarin orch, plurals yrch and Orchoth (as a class). He sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts. His earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) 'monster', 'ogre', 'demon', together with orqindi and 'ogresse'. Tolkien began the modern use of the English term 'orc' to denote a race of evil, humanoid creatures. Illustration 'The goblins fell back a little when he began, and made horrible grimaces' by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920 Stated etymology Tolkien wrote that his orcs were influenced by the goblins in George MacDonald's 1872 The Princess and the Goblin. Tolkien probably read the latter as he uses rare terms like 'horse-boy' which are found in that book. 'Orc' appears as one of a list of imaginary creatures in Charles Kingsley's 1863 The Water-Babies and his 1865 Hereward the Wake. It is possible that Tolkien was influenced by more recent sources. 'Ogre', to describe a large, hairy, tusked, mannish beast which could speak, lived in a dark forest or garden and might capture and eat humans. In the tales, Basile used huorco, huerco or uerco, the Neapolitan form of Italian orco, lit. It is presumed that 'orke'/'ogre' came into English via continental fairy-tales, especially from the 17th-century French writer Charles Perrault, who borrowed most of his stories and developed his ' ogre' from the 16th-century Italian writers Giovanni Francesco Straparola (credited with introducing the literary form of the fairy tale) and Giambattista Basile, who wrote in the Naples dialect, stating that he was passing on oral folktales from his region. The Oxford English Dictionary records an Early Modern period orke, meaning 'ogre', in Samuel Holland's 1656 fairy tale Don Zara del Fogo, a pastiche of Spanish romances such as Don Quixote. Early Modern Ī monster called Orcus is mentioned in Edmund Spenser's 1590 Faerie Queene. the underworld)', or 'devil-corpse', understood as some sort of walking dead monster.

If *orcné is to be glossed as orcus 'corpse', the meaning may be 'corpse from Orcus (i.e. The usual Old English word for corpse is líc, but -né appears in nebbed 'corpse bed', and in dryhtné 'dead body of a warrior', where dryht is a military unit. It is generally supposed to contain an element -né, cognate to Gothic naus and Old Norse nár, both meaning 'corpse'. orcus 'the underworld' + neas 'corpses', to which the translation 'evil spirits' failed to do justice. Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. Orcneas is translated 'evil spirits' above, but its meaning is uncertain. Tolkien's concept of orcs has been adapted into the fantasy fiction of other authors, and into games of many different genres such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Warcraft.īeowulf 's eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas, 'ogres and elves and devil-corpses', inspiring Tolkien to create orcs and other races

The orc appears on lists of imaginary creatures in two of Charles Kingsley's mid-1860s novels. Tolkien stated that he took the name from Beowulf. Mythological monsters with names similar to 'orc' can be found in the Old English poem Beowulf, in Early Modern poetry, and in Northern European folk tales and fairy tales. There is a suggestion, among several somewhat contradictory origin stories, that they are a corrupted race of elves. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves and serving an evil power, though they share a human sense of morality. Tolkien, especially The Lord of the Rings. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. An Orc (or Ork) / ɔːr k/ is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin.

Powercard monster