The Rings of Power: The Fallen Elves and the Origin of the Orcs in ISDA Explained
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is nearing the finale of the first season. The latest episode amazed fans because it touched on the controversial topic of the origin of the Orcs. SPOILERS for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 6, “Udûn” follow. The Rings of Power addresses this subject after the battle to defend the Southern Lands from Adar and his Orcs. Galadriel and the Numenoreans arrive in time to help the inhabitants of the Southern Lands, apparently saving the situation (their victory is short-lived). Galadriel and Halbrand pursue Adar himself. Eventually, Galadriel convinces the king of the Southlands to capture rather than kill Adar.
The Rings of Power: Orc Origin Explained
Once captured, Galadriel has a tense conversation with Adar. She claims to recognize him as one of the Elves captured by Melkor (aka the Dark Lord Morgoth) and tortured to create the Orcs. Adar does not deny it but claims to have killed Sauron to free his people from him and give him a place to call home. “We are creations of the One, Master of Secret Fire, just like you,” says Adar. “We are worthy of the breath of life and just as worthy of a home“.
Who is the One, Master of Secret Fire in The Lord of the Rings?
The “One” Adar refers to is Eru Ilúvatar, the capital “D” God of Arda, the world in which Middle-earth exists. The Secret Fire is a poetic way of referring to Eru’s ability to endow the living beings of Arda with sensitivity and soul. Galadriel believes that it is right to kill all the Orcs on the spot because they are evil and have suffered the drying up of all the goodness of the Elves centuries ago. He is happy to commit genocide against them. JRR Tolkien’s writings generally support the idea that killing orcs is just and heroic action.
Adar counters by arguing that the Orcs are sentient and free-willed individuals, an idea also supported by Tolkien’s writings, and are children of Eru as much as the Elves. This idea echoes part of the creation story of Arda, which Tolkien describes in detail in the Silmarillion. At the very creation of the world, Melkor sought to alter Eru’s plan for the world. He inserted a song of his invention into that of Eru, which Eru sang in unison with the Ainur (divine spirits, the first creations of Eru, of which Melkor was the greatest). Eru corrected Melkor’s deviation, but Arda still carried some effect of Mekor’s tampering. However, Eru chastised Melkor by saying that his attempts to alter Eru’s plans are also part of the project, as nothing can exist outside of Eru’s chant:
“Then Ilúvatar spoke and said: “Mighty are the Ainur and the mightiest among them is Melkor; but so that he and all the Ainur may know that I am Ilúvatar, the things you sang I will show you, so that you may see what you have done. And you, Melkor, will see that no theme can be played that does not have its deepest source in me, nor can the music be altered despite me. Because the one who tries to do it will turn out to be just my tool for devising more wonderful things, which he has not imagined”.
How Did The Elves Become Orcs?
Tolkien never established an origin for the Orcs, and the one widely accepted as canonical was only published after his death in the Silmarillion. This origin is one of many conceived by Tolkien. An early origin story suggested that Melkor had created the Orcs from stone. In later versions, Tolkien struggled with the inherently racist implications of labeling a race of beings “fit to be killed”. These later origins suggest that Melkor fashioned the orcs with all kinds of other already corrupted beings or spirits of the dead.
Even the Silmarillion suggests that no one in Middle-Earth knows for sure how orcs were born. However, the widely accepted origin story is that Melkor created the Orcs by torturing and corrupting the Elves. The Elves were the first beings created by Eru in Arda. Melkor was the first of the Ainur to find the awakened Elves. Jealous of Eru’s Sacred Flame, Melkor immediately began tempting the Elves into corruption. Those who strayed from others were kidnapped, tortured, corrupted, and used to create the first Uruk or Orcs. The Rings of Power suggests that Adar is one of them, apparently confirming that this origin story is true (at least in the version of The Rings of Power mythology).
It’s bold that The Rings of Power harks back to the origin of the Orcs and makes them more likable. The representation of the Orcs in Tolkien’s world, as well as many other elements of Middle-Earth, has been extensively taken up without much thought and adapted to other forms of fantasy fiction. A controversial point remains, which has become a reason for reconsideration even for Tolkien himself. It will be interesting to see how The Rings of Power fits into this conversation and where he eventually lands.
The Genesis Of The Orcs
Some elves decided, during the War of Wrath, to join Morgoth: it is something we know, but which is confirmed by Galadriel herself when she finds herself talking with Adar. Torture and mutilation, which we read about in The Silmarillion, cannot be cited, because the entire first season of Rings of Power is based on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, not on the work that offers an overview of what Tolkien accomplished for giving life to Arda. Yet those events involved the Elves who first moved away from the lake of Cuivienen, the place that had given them birth.
There they became servants of Morgoth, the first true antagonist in the history of Arda, from whom then came the shadow of Sauron. Just the fall of Morgoth represents a topical moment for the Orcs: their nature is linked to that of the evil lord, almost putative father of Sauron, therefore his death at the hands of the Alliance has brought the orcs very close to extinction. We are not, therefore, in front of that race that in the Third Era by the hand of Saruman, the corrupt Istari, was transformed into Uruk Hai, but of something that represents a progeny, which he sees in Adar, the original character of the Amazon Prime series Video, a full-fledged father, a guide.
It is a different moment of that threat that moves like a gray spot throughout Middle-earth, able to ensnare even those men who want their guide in Sauron, no longer the light. They had not been wiped out but reduced to small groups hiding in the darkness, away from the light, and moving in the tunnels created by their own hands. Sooner or later, they would return to the surface, but only by covering themselves properly and waiting for someone to guide them to see the sun. We don’t know very much about their race, because we have always seen them fight, being created from scratch, from the furnaces that Saruman had set up under his Tower and that Sauron had also created from the flames of Mordor. This time, however, we are in the presence of something different, a group that goes into battle, but that at home – in the tunnels – could have left some orcs. A hypothesis that Tolkien himself took into consideration by specifying that not so much was known about female orcs, being we focused only on the battle and not on the rest of their daily lives.
The Father Of The Orcs According To Amazon
We now have the chance to focus on the character of Adar as well, a mysterious figure placed in charge of the Orcs of the South Lands. His resemblance to an elf allows Galadriel to make that connection that was fundamental for us to push the derivation of the orcs towards the elves who were ensnared by Morgoth. Some Wood Elves have speculated that Adar may have been a manifestation of Sauron, but the story regarding the Second Age tells us not only that the Dark Lord’s first appearance was in the guise of Annatar, lord of gifts, a shining elf, but he is the Adar himself said that it was his hands that ended the era of Sauron.
His name in Sindarin means “father”, which is why he appears not only as a commander but as a real parent for all the orcs, who rely on him in the first episodes and put him in charge of the expedition to the villages of the Southern lands in the following moments. In his observing the sun he states that soon this will disappear, to be able to allow all his orcs to be able to live peacefully but also to allow the darkness to emerge and get the better of the light. The illusion that it could be Sauron affects not only the viewer, but also the men who decide to follow him, abandoning their fellow men to join the orcs. Their end, however, is tragic, and the last episode of Rings of Powerspeak for them (we also talked about it in our review of The Rings of Power 1X06).
What will happen in this Friday’s episode has only been anticipated, but not entirely shown: Mount Doom was able to erupt for the first time, giving life to that forge that Sauron will soon use to forge the One Ring, with the support of what will be the formula devised by Celebrimbor. Galadriel watches the story helpless, realizing not only that Evil has begun to proliferate, but that under his eyes Adar has managed to escape, to continue to give hope to the world of the Orcs.
