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What was the relationship between Orcs and Goblins? (entry
from the Tolkien Monster Encyclopedia)
They are different names for the
same race of creatures. Of the two, "Orc" is the correct one. This has been a
matter of widespread debate and misunderstanding, mostly resulting from the
usage in the The Hobbit (Tolkien had changed his mind about it by The Lord of
the Rings but the confusion in the earlier book was made worse by inconsistent
backwards modifications). There are a couple of statements in the The Hobbit
which, if taken literally, suggest that Orcs are a subset of goblins. If we are
to believe the indications from all other areas of Tolkien's
writing, this is not correct. These are: some fairly clear statements in
letters, the evolution of his standard terminology, and the actual usage in The
Lord of the Rings, all of which suggest that "Orc" was the true name of the
race. (The pedigrees in Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia are thoroughly
inaccurate and undependable.)
What happened
was this.
The creatures
so referred to were invented along with the rest of Tolkien's subcreation during
the writing of the Book of Lost Tales (pre-The Silmarillion). His usage in the
early writing is somewhat varied but the movement is away from "goblin" and
towards "orc". It was part of a general trend away from the terminology of
traditional folklore (he felt that the familiar words would call up the wrong
associations in the readers' minds, since his creations were quite different in
specific ways). For the same general reasons he began calling the Deep Elves "Noldor"
rather than "Gnomes", and avoided "Faerie" altogether. (On the other hand, he
was stuck with "Wizards", an "imperfect" translation of Istari ('the Wise'),
"Elves", and "Dwarves"; he did say once that he would have preferred "dwarrow",
which, so he said, was more historically and linguistically correct, if he'd
thought of it in time...)
In the The
Hobbit, which originally was unconnected with the The Silmarillion, he used the
familiar term "goblin" for the benefit of modern readers. By the time of The
Lord of the Rings, however, he'd decided that "goblin" wouldn't do - Orcs were
not storybook goblins. Thus, in The Lord of the Rings, the proper name of the
race is "Orcs" (capital "O"), and that name is found in the index along with
Ents, Men, etc., while "goblin" is not in the index at all. There are a handful
of examples of "goblin" being used (always with a small "g") but it seems in
these cases to be a kind of slang for Orcs. Tolkien's explanation inside the
story was that the "true" name of the creatures was Orc (an anglicised version
of Sindarin Orch , pl. Yrch). As the "translator" of the ancient manuscripts, he
"substituted" "Goblin" for "Orch" when he translated Bilbo's diary, but for The
Red Book he reverted to a form of the ancient word.
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It is indeed hard
to trace back the origins of all the names of Tolkien's characters. E.g. the
word ORC is derived from the name of a Roman god of named Orcus. The name
EARENDIL was borrowed by Tolkien from
the
Crist of
Cynewulf
Eálá Earendel engla
beorhtast
Ofer middangeard monnum sended
-
"Hail Earendel brightest of angels, over Middle
Earth sent to men ".
I
came across EOMER in Beowulf, and my best advice to those
thinking that nothing will surprise you about Tolkien is to
flip through the first couple of pages of the Elder Edda to
meet Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Thorin, Thror and many others.
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A very good question. You can either check out the old Languages section of
the website or try the Encyclopedia of Arda or Ardalambion for extra info
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For the sole purpose of collecting
ALL possible information on the creatures of Tolkien, as well
as his world. I do realize though that this job is actually
too big a piece of work for anyone to handle on his/her own.
So if any of you out there would like to cooperate, I would
appreciate any kind of help.
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The
webmaster, designer and owner, is me, Melianna. I won't be
wasting time telling you about my aliases and personalities
in the world of Tolkien... One of the important things to
know is that my first Arda personality is a half-orkish one
(actually it is quarter-orkish), the other one is Lady Melian,
the Maia who lived in Doriath, and yet another is related
to Rohan. When I am asked for what an image of my fantasy
character would be, I usually give a few. Here is my current
favorite.
If
you are interested and would like to find out more, or if
you have suggestions concerning the website, feel free to
email me @ daereth_elflady@yahoo.com
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I have been busy compiling the
articles for the Tolkien Encyclopedia for more than five years.
I am the author of all the encyclopedia articles, unless stated
otherwise. Some single articles in the Characters of the Dark
section of the encyclopedia are the only exceptions. A few
of the smaller ones were taken from the Silmarillion index.
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I believe you may. The only thing you have to do if you finally
got that bit of info you've been browsing for for ages, is
to link to us. A link to www.ardalibrary.net
will suffice, and an authorship notice (Daereth) will also
be appreciated. Same goes for information from Melian's Crafts.
Please note that the images in the Fan Art gallery are exempt
from this rule. You may download images from this site, but
if you want to place them on your web, be sure you have the
artist's permission as well.
The texts from the Olde Library are usually free-access, unless otherwise specified (this mostly concerns articles).
Copyright © 2010 Daereth
Elflady. All rights reserved.
Revised:
27/06/10
.
