Orc
The word Ork (English orc , ork ) denotes a fictional kind of non-human beings and is probably derived from the Latin Orcus (underworld). In the 20th century, the term was revived by JRR Tolkien . Orcs populate his fantasy world Middle-earth and serve there the forces of evil as willing executors.
Origin of the word
In Roman mythology , Orcus was an alternative name for Pluto , Hades or Dis Pater , the god of the realm of the dead. The name "Orcus" seems to denote its evil side, which tormented sinners in the afterlife.
Pliny the Elder writes in his Historia naturalis of long-toothed sea monsters as orcs . In Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando furioso , the maid Angelica is caught by a sea monster, also called orc , and then freed by the hero Rogero, riding a hippogriff . Here lies the origin of the scientific name Orcinus orca of the killer whale , which is also called Orca in English . Also in the Orlando Furioso, in addition to the orc living in the water, there is also an orc living on land: a man-eating blind giant who kidnaps King Norandin of Damascus and his lover Lucina and his entourage. This orc cannot be defeated, it can only be deceived by a ruse.
There is also the Ork (or Org , Norg , Nörglein , Lorko and Orco ) in Tyrol or the surrounding Alpine region, in the form of a malicious demon , which lives on mountain heights, alpine pastures and rock holes, individually or together. Both its shape ( dwarfish , huge, with an animal shape, etc.) as well as its character vary. He can either act as guardian of the forest or master of the animals , then he warns the noble game about the hunter, or as a demonic cattle guardian who helps the cattle or brings them ruin. If he is described as a wine nag , he lives in wine taverns and torkel cellars .
In the early Christian Middle Ages , the orc, like many Celtic and ancient mythical figures or rituals, became an evil and diabolical figure.
From these sources the word orc found its way into the English language . The first mention in English is in " Beowulf " - verse 112 "orcneas" - commonly translated as "spirits of the dead" and etymologically associated with the Latin "Orcus". Michael Drayton uses the term in his Polyolbion , John Milton in Paradise Lost . William Blake calls one of his mythological figures Orc , as the embodiment of creative energy and as the opposite pole to Urizen , who stands for the rational. In Robert Browning's 1864 poem Caliban upon Setebos , the orc is mentioned as an armored , carnivorous creature.
Furthermore, orc is the Middle Irish word for "piglet, young animal", a cognate of the Latin word for pig, porcus .
About the Latin Orcus , the term orc related to the name of the monster ogre .
Tolkien's orcs
The JRR Tolkien , made famous by The Lord of the Rings , invented his people of the orcs to a previously clearly differently occupied term. He depicts them as humanoid, slightly smaller than human size, ugly, grayish-black skin color and bow-legged. It is believed that Tolkien created his orcs based on the Fomorii , who are known from the Irish legend about the second battle of Mag Tuireadh . They break up into innumerable small tribes with always uncouth and jarring languages. Weaker orcs and sometimes elves , humans and dwarves prisoner of war are kept as slaves by the stronger orcs. In the book The Hobbit they appear as plundering gangs, in the book The Lord of the Rings they raise entire armies.
Regarding World War I , Tolkien said, “ We were all orcs in the Great War ”. Tolkien himself had increasing problems in old age with the thought embodied by the orcs of "born to evil", "subhuman" intelligent beings. Many of his last notes on the Silmarillion attempt philosophically different approaches as to how the orcs can be better integrated into Tolkien's fundamentally Catholic worldview without openly contradicting the books that have already been published; Tolkien never reached a solution that satisfied himself.
Tolkien knew the word "ork" from the Old English language (Old English orc = "demon"). According to his own statement, his orcs were mainly influenced by George MacDonald's interpretation of the traditional goblins , which is why they are usually still called " goblins " in the original Hobbit . Nevertheless, Tolkien insisted on the independence of his invention.
Orcs in the fantasy genre
Since Tolkien revived the orcs in his novel The Lord of the Rings , orcs have populated the fantasy worlds of many authors of books and game systems. In addition, they have established themselves as indispensable figures in fantasy role-playing games , the character traits being more or less based on Tolkien's orcs. They are often depicted as raw, violent, uncivilized, but not very strongly. In some fantasy worlds, however, they are also considered to be warrior people with pronounced fighting skills. In most fantasy worlds, you can count them through and through to the "bad guys", mostly in the " cannon fodder " category .
The appearance of the orcs varies considerably from fantasy world to fantasy world. Everything is represented, from ape-like primeval human appearance to slime-spewing monsters. Orcs are often depicted as green, strong, bloodthirsty, extremely large and primitive humanoids with tusks. This image was originally conveyed by Games Workshop with their tabletop game Warhammer. However, sometimes - as in the Lord of the Rings film series - they are dark and rather small.
Not only the appearance, but all properties vary greatly. In Tolkien, orcs have problems with sunlight, but in some novels they don't.
Interpretations
The author Stan Nicholls offers a very loving, but also very different, portrayal of the orcs in his fantasy novel The Orks . This book is about the story of an orc war party that is well organized and ranked. It is often criticized that Nicholls' orcs lack every characteristic of this species except for the name. They appear here as an old race of warriors who more accidentally become saviors of their world, which is threatened by the actions of a new race (humans).
Fantasy systems like Das Schwarze Auge (DSA) sometimes try to provide a more differentiated representation. In the fantasy world of Aventuria , on which the role-playing game DSA is based, orcs are now described as creators of culture with human-like features who have built up a remarkable culture. But since they keep getting into conflicts with people, they are seen, especially by civilized cultures, as exactly the bloodthirsty berserkers that they represent in other game systems. Hardly anyone tries to get on the track of the truth and those who do are viewed by their environment as dangerous lunatics. It is noticeable that the image of the orc in the DSA game system has undergone an extreme change. In the early days of the game (1984–1988) orcs were still characterless point suppliers without a developed past of their own, so in the second edition (from 1988) of the game they were granted history, social structure and a certain systematic action. Since the third edition (from 1993), the orcs have been seen as a power factor parallel to the other culture-creating peoples and have also been elaborated historically (both in terms of the past and future plans). In the fourth edition (from 2002) the orcs represent a race suitable as a hero type with specific advantages and disadvantages.
In the Earthdawn system , orcs belong to the namesake and are thus placed on the same level as humans and other peoples. It is the same with the science fiction role-playing game Shadowrun , here they were brought back into the world together with the trolls , elves and dwarves through a revival of magic in the world . In Warhammer 40,000 they are seen as spacefaring competitors of the other races and are considered to be one of the oldest races alongside the Eldar and Necrons.
The role play Ork! by Green Ronin Publishing concentrates in a parodistically exaggerated way on the - mostly negative - characteristics ascribed to the orcs: “To be an orc means to be rude, loud, aggressive, devious and mean. It means you're killing that orc over there because you don't like his hat. It means that you tear the beating heart out of your enemy's chest and eat it. It means that you want to be at the top of all the orcs and knock all the other orcs out of the field. It means that you are constantly in a state of barely controlled psychotic madness. "
In The dwarves of Markus Heitz Orcs are bloodthirsty, patriarchal organized beings who possess some intelligence, but usually only think about fighting. You are tall, muscular and have a lot of physical strength. In the third volume, The Revenge of the Dwarfs, there are hybrid orcs. Fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons or DSA also know half-orc, which were created by crossing orcs with humans in a natural way or between orcs and elves using magic (“Holberker”, DSA). Heitz's Revenge of the Dwarves mixes orcs with albums (dark elves) into dangerous adversaries. The engineer Furgas fuses these orc hybrid beings with machines and magic to form a kind of evil androids.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld , the orcs are first introduced in The Invisible Scholars Club . Interestingly, they are not a "natural" species, but rather artificially created beings by the surgically gifted Igors on behalf of a dark, evil ruler. In retrospect, it has long been assumed by the residents that the orcs developed out of goblins. In the tradition they are considered bloodthirsty, brainless and brutal enemies of humans, the dwarfs and also the trolls. They were exterminated in a long war. In the course of the novel, however, it turns out that the orcs were made of humans, as only this species was capable of the following brutal acts. In addition, the orcs did not commit these acts voluntarily, but were forced to do so by humans, similar to war elephants . At the end of the novel there is a small population of free orcs who have a chance of not falling victim to extinction, but of being accepted as another species of the Discworld by demonstrating their peacefulness.
In the novels The Orcs and Wizards by Michael Peinkofer the orcs are Rammar and Balbok major protagonists in The Wizard it comes among other things, the history of Orc Shamans Rambok .
Orcs in computer games
Orcs are used in a number of fantasy games for PC and consoles, either as playable characters or parties or opponents, with both appearance and character traits varying greatly. This happens both in computer game adaptations of existing role-playing games, but also in other games.
The orcs became known for the Warcraft video game series, even if they had appeared a few times in other games before. In 1994 in the first part “Orcs and Humans” you could not only go into battle with the humans, but also with the green-skinned orcs against the other party, as was the case with the two successors. In 2005 World of Warcraft appeared , in which you could play an orc yourself on the side of the Horde. In the Warcraft universe, the representation of the orcs has changed a lot. They were portrayed as a warlike people in every part of the series, but after WarCraft II they freed themselves from their demonic masters and found their way back to a shamanistic tribal system with a pronounced hierarchy and a strong sense of honor.
In the game series The Elder Scrolls, on the other hand, the orcs live more or less peacefully together with the various peoples of humans, elves and beastmen. They, too, are large, powerful humanoid beings with fangs who live as honorable warriors. You can also choose an orc as a character and design it yourself.
In the video game series Gothic , the orcs in parts 1 and 2 are a race of big, strong warriors. Their strength is symbolized by their weapons, which they wield with one hand, but which humans can only handle with two hands. They are a warrior people whose lower warriors gather around shamans and warlords. They are able to learn the human language, but only a few of them succeed. Your own language is a typical example of a clichéd , dull language (e.g. “(H) Ugajakka!”, A kind of “attack cry”, or “Ulumulu”, an orc standard to symbolize friendship). In this fantasy epic they represent a very honorable people who wage war against humans. They also differ in two races, the uncivilized Khorin orcs, and the Nordland orcs, who seem to be winning the war against the King of Men.
In the third part of the series, the representation of the orcs is significantly more differentiated (which is explained by the fact that the orcs on Khorinis are a subspecies, the so-called Khorinis orcs): They have a certain individuality and human-like intelligence. It is an honorable and warlike people who have subjugated the people and now control the cities. Many orcs now also correctly articulate human language, but they continue to use certain terms such as "Morra" for humans. The people have either been enslaved by them or work for them as mercenaries. The player can decide whether to fight the orcs or to carry out orders for them. The orcs pray to the god Beliar , the god of the underworld.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ork entry as a person in the German National Library
- ↑ Caliban upon Setebos , English text on the website poetryfoundation.com
- ↑ See JRR Tolkien, Letters, edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1991, p. 235 (No. 144 to Naomi Mitchison of April 25, 1954).
- ↑ For example in Tolkien, Letters , p. 245 (No. 151 to Hugh Brogan, September 18, 1954).
- ↑ Orc! ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Description of the Truant publishing house, which sells the German translation of the role-playing game.
