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In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of ''The Silmarillion'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''—Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman. Although not entirely dim-witted and occasionally crafty, they are portrayed as miserable beings, hating everyone including themselves and their masters, whom they serve out of fear. They make no beautiful things, but rather design cunning devices made to hurt and destroy. In some of his unpublished early work, Tolkien appears to distinguish orcs from goblins. By the time of his published work, however, the terms had become synonymous. ''The Hobbit'' generally uses the term ''goblin'', while the ''Lord of the Rings'' prefers ''orc''. The opponents of the dwarves in "Dwarf and Goblin War" of ''The Hobbit'' are described as orcs in Appendix A of ''The Lord of the Rings''. No distinction is made by size; large orcs, including the Uruk-hai, are just as much goblins as are smaller ones. ==Tolkien's influences== ''Orc'' is from Old English ''orcneas'', which appears in the epic poem ''Beowulf'', and refers to one of the races who are called the ''offspring of Cain'' during the initial description of Grendel ("Þanon untydras ealle onwocon,/eotenas ond ylfe, ond orcneas", ll. 111–112). In a letter of 1954 Tolkien gave ''orc'' as "demon" and claimed he used the word because of its "phonetic suitability"—its similarity to various equivalent terms in his Middle-earth languages. In an essay on Elven languages, written in 1954, Tolkien gives meaning of 'orc' as "evil spirit or bogey" and goes on to state that the origin of the Old English word is the Latin name Orcus—god of the underworld. About the goblins of ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien wrote: They are not based on direct experience of mine; but owe, I suppose, a good deal to the goblin tradition ... especially as it appears in George MacDonald, except for the soft feet which I never believed in.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Orc (Middle-earth)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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