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Tolkien's Racist Lies Exposed
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Tolkien's Racist Lies Exposed
(Part 2)

The disobedient Moria Orcs

One of the most disgusting examples for racist violence against orcs, documented in detail in The Lord of the Rings, is the Fellowship's passage through Moria and the event known as the "Massacre of Mazarbul".

Print edition, front cover

The facts according to Tolkien are widely known - the Fellowship enters Moria, bloodthirsty orcs attack them, Gandalf and the Balrog fall into the abyss, the others narrowly escape. An exciting story. Unfortunately, in many aspects it is completely invented and full of anti-orc slander.

Let us make a step forward first. In The Two Towers, we learn that Merry and Pippin are abducted by orcs from three different groups: Uruk-hai from Isengard, loyal to Saruman, under their leader Uglúk; Mordor Orcs, loyal to Sauron, under Grishnakh; and a couple of Moria Orcs. Now let us listen to an excerpt from the dialogue between these groups:

" 'The prisoners are NOT to be searched or plundered: those are my orders.' [Grishnakh]
   'And mine too', said the deep voice [Uglúk]. 'Alive and as captured; no spoiling. That's my orders.'
   'Not our orders!' said one of the earlier voices [Moria Orcs]. 'We have come all the way from the Mines to kill, and avenge our folk.' " (LotR, The Uruk-hai)

Tolkien leaves us puzzled here. The Moria Orcs openly defy both Mordor and Isengard. In these times, so far away from home, this must be a sign of great courage. And that is not only lip service. We learn how readily these orcs give their lives to fight those still loyal to the orders of their Dark Lords:

"Five dead Orcs lay there. They had been hewn with many cruel strokes, and two had been beheaded. The ground was wet with their dark blood. (...) 'These are Northern Orcs from far away. Among the slain are none of the great Orcs with the strange badges. There was a quarrel, I guess: it is no uncommon thing with these foul folk.' [Aragorn]" (LotR, The Riders of Rohan)

An intriguing riddle: What is the "revenge" they were talking about? What injustice has happened to them in Moria, an injustice so obvious and glaring that they would sacrifice their lives to rectify it? Let us take the veil of Tolkien's lies from one of the most shocking crimes of the late Third Age.

The truth about Mazarbul

Let us recall what happened in the depths of Moria. The Fellowship suffered exactly one loss there - Gandalf, who fell into the abyss while fighting the Balrog, a mythical being from ancient times. It is plain ridiculous to blame this on the orcs, who themselves are more than frightened by this fiery demon:

"The ranks of the Orcs had opened, and they crowded away, as if they themselves were afraid." (LotR, The Bridge Of Khazad-dûm)

In contrast to this, how many orcs were slain in the battle in the Chamber of Mazarbul?

"Legolas shot two through the throat. Gimli hewed the legs from under another that had sprung up on Balin's tomb. Boromir and Aragorn slew many. When thirteen had fallen the rest fled shrieking, leaving the defenders unhatmed, except for Sam who had a scratch along the scalp." (ibid.)

The Orcs outnumbered the Fellowship and had better knowledge of the terrain. Why was it impossible for them to kill at least one or two of the (poorly-trained) hobbits? The only logical reason is that they did not want to kill. They were ready to switch sides and join the Fellowship in its quest to destroy the Ring; yet the blinded humans, elf and dwarf opened their attack without warning. Is it necessary to tell who shed the first blood when the cave troll tried to open the blocked door? Frodo, the so-called "elf-friend", who suddenly and without warning stabbed his foot.

I will give further proof - the fate of the Orc chieftain. Let us analyze what this chieftain does sentence by sentence. Suddenly

"(...) a huge Orc-chieftain, almost man-high, clad in black mail from head to foot, leaped into the chamber, behind him his followers clustered in the doorway." (ibid.)

What does this chieftain do now? Does he stab around wildly, attempting to kill the first foe available? No. He...

"(...) charged into the company and thrust with his spear straight at Frodo." (ibid.)

So does the chieftain want to kill Frodo, the Ringbearer? That would be foolish, as Frodo wears a mithril-coat able to ward off the thrust easily. Notice that the orc chieftain does not target Frodo's head, throat or lower parts - he aims exactly at the coat! The aim was the Ring Frodo wore (on a chain around his neck), not Frodo himself. What other possibilities does the chieftain have to show that he also wants to see the Ring destroyed? The Fellowship had already shown, by murdering thirteen orcs, that they would not hearken to peaceful arguments. What could be more convincing than such a desperate attempt to destroy the Ring?

These who have seen Jackson's movie will notice a nice analogy here. In the movie - though not in the book - Gimli does exactly the same in Rivendell. He tries to smash the Ring with his axe. What is the reaction of the others? At least Gimli is not killed at once!

But even this unmistakeable gesture of the Orc-chieftain does not convince the Fellowship of his good intents:

"But even as the Orc flung down the truncheon and swept out his scimitar, Andúril came down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The Orc fell with cloven head." (ibid.)

What a perfidy! The Orc chieftain, who clearly had addressed Frodo only, is killed from the behind by the totally uninvolved Aragorn. This passage should convince everybody that the events in the Chamber of Mazarbul are nothing else but cowardly murder motivated by racism. Besides, that is not the only orc chieftain who is slain by Aragorn in his rage:

"There was a guard of Orcs crouching in the shadows behind the great door-posts towering on either side, but the gates were shattered and cast down. Aragorn smote to the ground the captain that stood in his path, and the rest fled in terror of his wrath." (ibid.)

This chieftain not even draws his weapon. He just stands around and is unlucky enough to get into the path of the bloodthirsty ranger. Can one now really begrudge the Orcs for looking for revenge, after their humble peace offers were answered like that?

Of course, the orcs of Moria left no documents, so all this has been forgotten. If only they had written down their peaceful intentions in, say, a party programme, then it would have been harder for Tolkien to tell such blatant lies. This shows the need for a socialist mass party.

The most evil Steward of Gondor

At the end, let us find some arguments for those who now are convinced that orcs are no murderous bastards, but still see them as some kind of barbarians without culture. Luckily, Tolkien can not totally black out a few interesting passages which show - by direct confrontation - that orcs often even have more culture than humans.

Normally one would assume that the Steward of Gondor, the realm that keeps up the flag of the sunken Númenor, is someone who could not be compared to a filthy common orc on the battlefield. Unfortunately (for the Steward), he takes a quite unbiased hobbit into his service, who quickly recognizes the fact that the Steward Denethor is in fact more evil than any orc he has ever met. Tolkien tells us that:

"No hours so dark had Pippin known, not even in the clutches of the Uruk-hai." (LotR, The Siege of Gondor)

And given the fact that Pippin had been captured, tormented and dragged through half of Rohan by these Uruk-hai, one shudders trying to imagine how Denethor could have made the time even darker for this poor hobbit.

Now this is not the only occasion where a human is reported to far outmatch any orc in wickedness. One cannot refrain from drawing similarities between this ominous Steward and another man, known as "the Mouth of Sauron":

"(...) and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron, and he was more cruel than any Orc" (LotR, The Black Gate Opens)

A worthy counterpart for Denethor, indeed. Should we judge who of them was more evil? I do not think the textual evidence is good enough for that. Let me just mention one little thought - as far as Tolkien tells us, the Mouth of Sauron did not try to burn his son alive, whether he had one or not. PS: Socialist mass party. (I'm getting lazy.)

The ugly music of the Rohirrim

One of the main reasons why Tolkien hates orcs seem to be their, let's call it disharmonic appearance. An ugly visage, a mean-sounding language, no sense for the beauty of music. Especially the latter was very important for Tolkien (cf. Sil., Ainulindale). All the more we have to wonder why we do not hear a word from him judging the most ugly and disharmonic music ever, delivered by the Riders of Rohan. Once again orcs and humans are measured differently.

The further details of this ear-injuring incident are given in The Lord Of The Rings. The battle of the Hornburg, marking the final confrontation between Saruman and the Rohirrim, was suddenly and horribly disrupted by Erkenbrand, a man without any musical knowledge:

"The Orcs upon the Rock, hearing the rumour of dismay, wavered and looked back. And then, sudden and terrible, from the terror above, the sound of the great horn of Helm rang out." (LotR, Helm's Deep)

So the sound of the horn is terrible. And indeed:

"All that heard that sound trembled." (ibid.)

It has to be clarified that Tolkien does not write "all foes trembled". The defenders of the Hornburg are included in the dismay. But why should befriended armies tremble when a horn is blown? Well, the only logical explanation is this one: The sound of Helm's Horn was so hideous that even the Rohirrim were shook in abhorrence.

Now what happens to the orcs? Would one not assume that they like these ugly tunes, when they are so ugly and corrupted themselves? On the contrary:

"Many of the Orcs cast themselves on their faces and covered their ears with their claws." (ibid.)

Their reaction, even stronger than the one of the defenders, should settle the question who is more civilized here. It seems as if the Uruk-hai of Saruman - though they were most probably not even pure orcs, but of mixed orcish and human blood - still stood higher on the ladder of civilization than these barbarians from the North!

We never hear anything about socialist parties founded in Rohan. This clearly shows that barbarism is allowed to reign when there is no socialist mass party.

Part 1