There is a letter that mentions
orc-women, written in the 1960s if I recall correctly, and auctioned at Sotheby's (and not in the book that collects many of
Tolkien's letters). In part of this letter JRRT describes:
'There must have been orc-women. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known.'
About the origin of orcs, at another forum I tried to represent Tolkien's changing mind about this (over the years), in 'outline' form. It's likely not complete but if anyone has trouble sleeping at night, reading the following might help. I tried to note the notable! In the following, quotes from Tolkien should be
in this colour, and otherwise you might have to trust that I've described something well enough and without a sneaky opinion working its way in.
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1916-17 (
Fall of Gondolin, later read at Exeter College in
1920): Melko made the Orcs
'bred of subterranean heats and slime' and they were the
'foul broodlings of Melko'
1920s: Tolkien was largely concerned with poetry in these years. His poetry includes references to orcs, but not necessarily any that indicate origin. Or that is, I'm too lazy at the moment to try any find any such references.
1930 (Qenta Noldorinwa): the
Dark Lord now makes Orcs
'of stone' with
'hearts of hatred'
Mid to late 1930s: (
Quenta Silmarillion)
Melkor still makes Orcs:
'yet the Orcs were not made until he had looked upon the Elves.' (...)
'The Orcs Morgoth made in envy and mockery of the Elves, and they were made of stone, but their hearts of hatred.'
1940s and finishing up The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien, perhaps while writing
The Lord of the Rings, possibly shifts from Morgoth creating Orcs to Morgoth needing to pervert something already living -- as
Frodo thinks might be the case -- although right now I'm unable to exactly date this passage from Frodo (The
Tower of Cirith Ungol);
'No, they eat and drink Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them;...' Appendix F merely states that the orcs were first 'bred' by the Dark Power in the Elder Days. Also
Treebeard notes a few things that might speak to chronology, but I'll ignore these here.
early 1950s: in
The Annals of Aman as first written Melkor still 'made' orcs from something
-- but the idea now enters 'Silmarillion related texts' that Melkor cannot create a true living being, as the
Elf Pengolod will argue -- and a darker tale is noted among
the Wise of Eressea, one that says Morgoth captured and perverted Elves, twisting them into orcs.
Christopher Tolkien chose this idea for the 1977 Silmarillion -- along with other texts from this 'phase' of writing incidentally.
1954: in both letter 144 and (draft) letter 153 Tolkien essentially explains that Morgoth cannot create a spirit, and the orcs are corruptions -- leaving open the possibility of other kinds of makings, which would be puppet-like by comparison.
later 1950s (or around this time anyway): Tolkien will question whether it could be true that Orcs were actually Elves in origin, and if they could be 'immortal' if so, for example, and he writes various origins in order to figure out things. I'll call these (collectively) the
Myths Transformed Orc-related Essays, and use Christopher Tolkien's numbering of the texts. The various ideas include:
A)
Orcs possibly created out of the discords of the music (text VII). Tolkien writes:
'Hence Orcs? Part of the Elf-Man idea gone wrong. Though as for Orcs the Eldar believed that Morgoth had actually 'bred' them by capturing Men (and Elves) early and increasing to the utmost any corrupt tendencies they possessed.'
B)
Orcs created from beasts; also some Maiar early on (Text VIII)
-- possibly an Elvish element too, but seemingly JRRT then reverts to orcs simply being perverted beasts.
C)
Orcs from Elves (probably later from Men), some Maiar early on (text IX)
D)
Orcs created from Men, some Maiar early on (text X) in this essay, soon
after Morgoth's return he will have a great number of Orcs to command -- as it was left to
Sauron to produce
great numbers of Orcs (from Men)
while Morgoth was in captivity. Tolkien is aware that he will need to adjust the existing chronology in order to allow the possibility of this origin from Men.
1969 or later: two notes on Orcs now accompany one copy of text X -- that is, the Orcs from Men essay (or D above)
1) one of these notes carries a statement that denies an essential conception found in D -- and I have tried to explain this conception under D above -- the denial hails from the detail that this later note suggests Morgoth had great numbers of Orcs
at the height of his power and still after his return from captivity. And to muddy things further here, this may be a draft version for a variant passage that does not include this detail!
2) this short note concerns the spelling of the word
orc: here Tolkien notes that he will spell it
ork -- just as he had noted in text IX (or C above), where Orcs were from Elves (and 'probably later also of Men').
I think Christopher Tolkien's point with these notes is that they
might throw some measure of doubt upon the seemingly 'final' idea that 'regular Orcs' were bred from Men (text X). That said, there is another late text which appears to have Elves stating that Men are the source for Orcs:
Late text (lacks date other than final period of Tolkien's writings): author's note (note 5) to
The Druedain:
'To the unfriendly who, not knowing them well, declared that Morgoth must have bred the Orcs from such a stock the Eldar answered: 'Doubtless Morgoth, since he can make no living thing, bred Orcs from various kinds of Men, but the Druedain must have escaped his shadow;...' I can't really tell if this description is later or earlier than the two notes dated 1969 or later.
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As I say... in brief :*D
