LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS ORCS: SIMPLE HUMANITY IN TOLKIEN'S INHUMAN CREATURES

Abstract

[...]like Men and Elves, Orcs are in a way also the "Children of Iluvatar." [...]perhaps even more than the Elves, whose near-perfection marks them with a profound otherness, Orcs are shown to be human. [...]race or racial prejudice is not reaUy the issue. [...]as he pointed out in one letter, referring to the horrors of combat, "I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fiction [...] only in real life they are on both sides, of course" (Letters 82).