Posted by Ar on September 08, 1999 at 11:45:30
In Reply to: Re: Dragons posted by Cuiviar on September 03, 1999 at 15:10:19:
: On your second point, I really hope you're not talking about the : Uruk-Hai, because then you'd have to be smacked on the arse with : a copy of The Two Towers. The sturdier orcs, the ones : Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli followed were the Uruk-Hai, men-orcs bred : by Saruman. (there were some of Sauron's orcs there too, but they : were whining and complaining about the sun the whole way) : If you're not talking about the Uruk-Hai, the orcs are still : orcs. It's not like changing a wolf into a dog, it's more like : refining a specific breed: foxhounds will still be foxhounds 100 : years down the line, they might just be better foxhounds.
Nice story. But you should know better than to trust secondary sources. There is no seperate race Uruk-Hai. If I have understood correctly, these were created by ICE when they needed foes with better 'values'. (Admitidly, my sources for that is at best third hand). Anyhow, the missunderstanding seems to be spreading fast now a days. But in Tolkiens world, Uruk-Hai is simply a word in the language called the BlacK Speech. Two parts, Uruk and Hai. Uruk is very easy to trace, since primitive elven forms are identical. It's the base for Orc. Hai is a bit more problematic, but there rally is only one way for it. It's a so called class plural. (English don't have them but many of Tolkiens languages have.) In this case a class plural denoting race/nation/people/folk. So putting Hai on a word means you are refering to all of that word, not any specific one. Saying a creature is Uruk-Hai simply means it is of the Orc race. That's why both Sauron and Sauroman have them, everyone that has Orcs have Uruk-Hai, the things arte identical. As for breeds there are surley many of those, and it seems likely Saruman has one that is mixed with human blood. But as for a sperate race of Uruk_Hai you have been found guilty. *smack*
Ar
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