Who Were The First Orcs In Tolkien's Lore?

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Adar may be one of the first Orcs. His name means father in Elvish, and Galadriel also seems to agree that his role at the head of the Orc army is more than just a matter of rank. But why is this important? Who exactly were the first Orcs? 

In The Book of the Lost Tales, compiled posthumously from Tolkien’s notes after his death, Orcs were “bred from the heats and slimes of the earth.” However, Tolkien has a different view in his other works, and this is not considered their canon origin story. 

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In the beginning, the Elves first appeared on the shore of Cuiviénen. Before any of the Valar noticed, Morgoth discovered them first. According to Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, the Elves Morgoth kidnapped were “put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved.” After they were broken and became enslaved to Morgoth, they would multiply in number in the ancient fortress of Angband. This is currently the official version of their origin.

Tolkien did not go into specifics about what Morgoth did to create the Orcs, but he makes it clear that it was intended as a mockery and a desecration. Galadriel’s rant to the imprisoned Adar in Episode 6 of The Rings of Power was not an exaggeration. It was in step with the original text. The Valar up until this point had been unwilling to take on Mogorth as they thought that the fallout from any war would not be worth it. Now, they were so horrified at what he done and what he had created, they immediately took up arms against him. The resulting battles ravaged the land, to the point where the continents split into the regions (Middle-earth, Southlands, etc) that we see in The Rings of Power. The creation of the first Orcs was the reason why the map of Arda looks as it does.

Despite the (probable) origins of the first Orcs, don’t expect any sympathies towards the former Elves whose loyalties firmly lay with Morgoth, and by extension, Sauron. Adar’s expression of his race as Uruk, is simply “Orc” in the Black Tongue, showing that he even prefers to use that language. It will be interesting to see if Amazon includes any other first Orcs like him. There is so much ambiguity in the text that gives the production team freedom and flexibility to tell their story.

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Source(s): One Wiki to Rule Them All [1], [2], [3], Den of Geek, Wikipedia

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