Orc

An orc (sometimes spelt ork; /ɔːrk/), in <a href="/facts/J._R._R._Tolkien/41HPhk5C">J. R. R. Tolkien</a>'s <a href="/facts/Tolkien%2527s_legendarium/eI1du5Ij">Middle-earth fantasy fiction</a>, is a race of <a href="/facts/Humanoid/hTPy3T6J">humanoid</a> monsters, which he also calls "<a href="/facts/Goblin/5z16X9mR">goblin</a>".
In Tolkien's <a href="/facts/The_Lord_of_the_Rings/aS5RH7YT">The Lord of the Rings</a>, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent <a href="/facts/Tolkien%2527s_monsters/7feLlBNx">race of monsters</a>, contrasting with the benevolent <a href="/facts/Elves_in_Middle-earth/FccW53tg">Elves</a>. He described their origins inconsistently, including as a corrupted race of elves, or bred by the <a href="/facts/Dark_Lord/mXuzEPoy">Dark Lord</a> <a href="/facts/Morgoth/b9JsEtWs">Morgoth</a>, or turned to evil in the wild. Tolkien's orcs serve as a <a href="/facts/Tolkien%2527s_moral_dilemma/NvoKjDhY">conveniently wholly evil enemy</a> that could be slaughtered without mercy.
The orc was a sort of "hell-devil" in <a href="/facts/Old_English/9rsmQG2a">Old English</a> literature, and the orc-né (pl. orc-néas, "demon-corpses") was a race of corrupted beings and descendants of <a href="/facts/Cain/5U5vXdYK">Cain</a>, alongside the elf, according to the poem <a href="/facts/Beowulf/hqbQ7cCQ">Beowulf</a>. Tolkien adopted the term orc from these old attestations, which he professed was a choice made purely for "phonetic suitability" reasons.
Tolkien's concept of orcs has been adapted into the fantasy fiction of other authors, and into games of many different genres such as <a href="/facts/Dungeons_%2526_Dragons/1FQKcQSL">Dungeons & Dragons</a>, <a href="/facts/Magic%3a_The_Gathering/opgT6NDV">Magic: The Gathering</a>, and <a href="/facts/Warcraft/MYYjIyuD">Warcraft</a>.

Orc open-in-new

Orc