The Lord of the Rings: The Uruk-Hai [Part Two]

 

The Tale

The Orcs are debating what to do now, which way to go and what to do with the prisoners, Merry and Pippin. Some want to kill them right away; they don’t have time to do it ‘properly’ (with as much drawn-out torture as possible) but they are a nuisance to lug about and they need to get going.

An Orc with a deep voice, Ugluk (Isengard), says that his orders from Saruman are that they are to be brought to him alive and unspoiled [not looted] as quickly as possible; they have something wanted for the War, some ‘elvish plot’ or something. At that some voices say they should search them and find it for themselves.

Another voice interjects, sneering, ‘softer than the others but more evil.’ It is Grishnakh (Mordor). He may have to report that bit of treason. His orders from Sauron are the same: no plundering. The Orcs from Moria say they have no orders; they just want to kill, avenge their folk, then go home. Ugluk (I) says they’re under his orders now. They’re going straight to Isengard. Grishnakh (M) asks if Saruman is the master of the Great Eye? They’re going to Lugburz [the Dark Tower]. A winged Nazgul awaits them across the Anduin River.

The other Orcs suspect they’ll fly away then and leave them in the Horse-country, a land full of ‘foul rebels and brigands’. They must stick together. Ugluk (I) agrees. And they will do it under his command. He and his folk, the fighting Uruk-hai, killed Boromir and took the prisoners and led them here, and will lead them back to Saruman, ‘the White Hand, the Hand that gives us man’s-flesh to eat.’ Grishnakh (M) sneers that such boastful talk might interest them in Mordor, and where he might have got his strange ideas from. Saruman is a dirty treacherous fool, but ’the Great Eye is on him’. And Grishnakh warrants that it’s orc-flesh that the Isengarders eat.

There are yells at this insult, and a fight begins. Pippin turns over cautiously. Their guards have gone to join the fray. The hobbit sees Ugluk (I), ‘a large black Orc’, confronting Grishnakh (M) ‘a short crook-legged creature, very broad and with long arms that hung almost to the ground’, surrounded by smaller goblins. Ugluk calls up some other big Isengarders, then suddenly lops a couple of heads off the lesser Orcs. Grishnakh runs off into the night. There is more fighting, and the hobbits’ yellow-fanged guard falls next to Pippin, still clutching his knife convulsively in his dead hand.

There is more cursing and fighting, and two more Orcs are killed. While Ugluk is calling for order, Pippin takes the opportunity to use the knife to cut the bonds around his hands, then loops the rope and slips it over his hands so that it looks like he is still tied up. ‘Then he lay very still.’

Bits and Bobs

We gain further insights into the Uruk-hai (‘Orc-folk’) as we go along in chapter.  In the books, the term ‘Uruk-hai’ seems to apply mostly to those Orcs bred in Isengard, with the Orcs of Mordor called black Uruks or Uruks of Mordor. The Uruk-hai are taller, stronger, and more tolerant to sunlight than other Orcs, and carry short straight swords and yew bows, like Men. There is some speculation that Saruman had somehow, in the creation of the Uruk-hai, crossed the races of Orcs and Men. Let’s hope that is was by some sorcerous genetic engineering and not through the more ‘natural’ way.

But it becomes clear that it is not only Orc bodies that have become twisted and corrupted. Their outlook on life, their morals, have also been bent, but not totally abolished. They expect loyalty, but only to the strongest ‘boss’ of their ‘party’. To them, the Rohirrim are ‘rebels’, not because Rohan has ever owed Sauron or Saruman allegiance, but because they should somehow; their boss is right, the duly constituted divine ruler of Middle-earth by right of might. Eating man’s-flesh is alright, but eating orc-flesh, well, that’s obviously cannibalism. But man’s-flesh is the right kind of cannibalism. Any secret move against their masters is an ‘elvish plot’, ‘elvish’ being to them a term of obloquy.

It becomes obvious that both Saruman and Sauron have become aware that the Ring is being carried by a Halfling. It is also obvious that they have not told any of their troops the details of the situation. Of course, the Orcs can’t be trusted with that knowledge; at worst one would run off with it and try to become their own Dark Lord; though he would be unlikely to succeed, it would take some time to recover it, and there might be a chance it would fall back into the West’s hands. The wizard and the dark lord are also crafty and sneaky. No sense telling the slaves more than they need to know. It is this distrust that ultimately saves Pippin and Merry’s lives.

I have noted Ugluk’s and Grishnakh’s affiliation in an effort to keep them straight in my head.

It is this little fight that leaves the five Orc-corpses that Aragorn and the others later find on the trail. It’s strange, but I’ve always found the image of them simply lying unburied on the vast plains of Rohan, just carrion under the sky, to be rather pathetic. As evil and as unpleasant as they are, it seems to punctuate the ultimate tragedy of Orc existence; their deaths have no meaning, not even to their fellows. They have been made what they are, and seem can do no other. As Gandalf says, ‘I pity even his slaves.’    

Pippin is finally taking some initiative, risky as it is. As they tell him later, he’s taking his luck into his hands. Time for Master Took to grow up a bit.