I like to think that LotR is the basis of the use of Orcs, Elves, (and other races and such in Middle-Earth). That Warcraft, Everquest, and other storylines and such derive from the same kind of fantasy.
But was there anything before LotR that JRR Tolkien may have got ‘Orcs’ and such from? Or was he the one who devised up the race.
The Orcs are my main focus… I’m sure there were some sorts of Elves and Dwarves in other novels or something.
Orcs - according to this link there are almost no uses of the word orc to describe a creature similar to the Middle earth ones before Tolkien:
The “Common Speech” (Westron) of Middle Earth is represented as being translated into Modern English – but with Tolkien’s phenomenal professional knowledge of ancient vocabulary available to describe things that one would find then but not now. To christen some of the races which he invented or borrowed from old traditions, he resorted to Anglo-Saxon or Old Germanic terms. The entire Rohan material, for example, is borrowings of Anglo-Saxon terms that did not survive into Modern English to describe their specialized political structures. When Eomer is described of commanding an eored of the Riddermark, and Shadowfax as one of the Mearas, these are modernizations of terms that Bede the Venerable and Ethelred the Unready would have recognized.
“Orc” was used in medieval times with the sense of “goblin, ugly evil creature” Merriam-Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary gives two definitions for orc: “(1) grampus [“killer whale”] or some other sea animal supposed to resemble it; (2) a giant, ogre, or other mythical creature, usually of horrid form or aspect.”
“Ent” was another term for “giant” before Tolkien filed the serial numbers off it to use it for “treeherd.” Stonehenge and other megalithic structures were known to the Anglo-Saxons as “the work of the Old Giants,” eald enta geweorc, with reference to mythological beings, supported after Christianization by Genesis 6:4.
C.S. Lewis’s The Discarded Image devotes a chapter to elves, fairies, and other non-human co-dwellers-on-Earth in the medieval conception, stressing that the whole “wee little fairy” scenario is a late development, and that they were generally regarded as being of similar size to humans. While their powers and motives were generally mysterious, they shared many traits with humans, and did live an indefinitely long time. Tolkien’s Elves are merely his own elaboration on this traditional belief. (And much the same can be said for his Dwarves, ceteris paribus.)
Polycarp beat me to it, but I was going to say that the terms “Elf” and “Fairy” have been effectively reversed. Originally the Faerie were the more or less humanoid ones, and Elves were the tiny creatures (think Dobby the House Elf, or Santa’s elves). But by the late 19th century a Fairy was the tiny winged creature and Tolkein’s stamp on the mythos has nearly replaced the original idea of Elves.
It’s been a long time since I had Wiliam Blake, but didn’t he once use “Orc” to mean a rebellious spirit of some sort? And he was writing in the eighteenth century.
That was long before Tolkien. And as a professor of English literature at Oxford, Tolkien would have been undoubtedly familiar with Blake’s work.
Tolkien specifically describes the Elves as man-sized to make sure that we don’t get images of Santa’s little helpers. He avoided the term “fairy” because it evoked images of cute little Tinkerbell-like beings. The Dwarves are pretty much your standard fairy-tale dwarves. I remember reading that he adopted the term “orc” because “goblin” had some connotation that he wanted to avoid, but I don’t remember what that was. Perhaps because goblins are normally thought of as being mindless monsters, and not the type of thing that can form organized armies?
Well, we still have The Sandman interpitation of fairie.
Behold, the Orc.
Sorry, the above picture somewhat naughty.
You have been warned.
And HERE , for your edification, is a perky cheerleader orc.
Hunt around on that site.
Can’t cite it, but I seem to recall that he liked “orc” over “goblin” because “goblin” had pretty much been inextricably linked with “hobgoblin”… i.e., a children’s bugaboo.
Tolkien didn’t want anyone laughing at his orcs. He wanted them to be scary, disgusting, and dangerous.
But then he went ahead and used “goblin” in The Hobbit…
Well, yes, but “Hobbit” was intended to be a children’s book.
Touche.
He used “goblin” in The Fellowship of the Ring, at least. After Boromir’s death, the party finds four warriors larger than orcs - goblins - with the white hand on their shields.
In the Song of Roland, from the Carolinian time of Frances histroy.
(i.e. Charlemagne and his Peers),
Dwarves were small magical beings who were intune with magic.
Orcs were giant bad guys, essentially what most people think of ogres.
Elves were strange human like people like Tolkien elves, but I think Song of Roland Elves are Middle Easterners or Indians.
Fairies were sprites essentially.
What I want to know is, where did Dwarves get their Scottish accents?
H.G. Wells created a foul race of subterranean dwelling baddies called Morlocks in The Time Machine, first published in 1895.
My friend and I were trying to figure that out ourselves.
Grumble, if Gimli said “Laddie” one more time in the JP films, I was going to throw my popcorn at the screen.
FWIW, there was a fairly interesting discussion on the FotR EE DVD on the directer/writers soundtrack regarding why Pippin had a Scottish accent. The actor (Billy Boyd) was keen to do a cockney accent, but everyone thought he sounded better his (native) Scottish accent.
So Fran or Phillipa? theorized that Pippin was a Took, and Tooks a) live across a river in b) a strange realm named Buckland, and are c) regarded with some suspicion by the rest of the Shire folk. A light dawns – Tolkien was saying that the Tooks are Scots! So Billy Boyd kept his accent. I’m not sure I buy the interpretation, but, what the heck, it’s arguable.
That having been, said I’m damned if I can buy Gimli broguing about like he did in the film. It works until he starts “Laddy”-ing.
Everyone knows Dwarves should have Welsh accents, they being miners and all.