Real Orcs Don't Do Windows - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
In the index to The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, Christopher Tolkien provided the following entry:
GOBLINS Frequently used as alternative term to Orcs (cf. Melko's goblins, the Orcs of the hills 157, but sometimes apparently distinguished, 31, 230)....The first is from the "Tale of Tinuviel", and describes Angamandi (Melko's fortress): "...Nigh were the sad chambers where the thrall-Noldoli laboured bitterly under the Orcs and goblins of the hills...." The second passage comes in "The Nauglafring", and describes how Naugladur, a dwarf-king, gathers an army of dark creatures: "Moreover he gathered about him a great host of the Orcs, and wandering goblins, promising them a good wage, and the pleasure of their Master forever, and a rich booty at the end;..." Both distinctions seem rather ambiguous. Tolkien could have been using Orcs and goblins interchangeably to refer to similar creatures, or he could have been implying that some creatures were Orcs and some were goblins. It's not really clear what he intended at that point. But when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit to amuse his children, he carelessly threw together many elements from several traditions in order to make his story more interesting. Upon bringing the book to publication, he naturally tightened it up a little bit, and kept the Orcs to a minimum while lavishing goblins galore upon the tale. Goblins had become, by the mid-1930s, a staple in the diet of the Tolkien family's imaginary adventures. The Father Christmas Letters, which JRRT sent to his children from 1920 to 1943, occasionally regaled the children with incidents (and drawings which showed how the mayhem unfolded) involving goblins, little dark creatures who could bring on no end of mischief. The Hobbit's goblins are a blend of many creatures, drawing upon folklore, Tolkien lore, and ideas from George Macdonald's The Princess and the Goblin. These goblins do not have to be very serious at all. They capture Bilbo and his dwarven companions but miss Gandalf, who slays their fashionless leader the Great Goblin in the heart of their Goblin Town. But the Hobbit goblins gradually become more terrifying creatures, partially as part of the effect of Tolkien's story-telling, partially due to the necessity of introducing a convincing menace near the end of the story. When The Hobbit was first considered for publication, it had no ending. The Battle of Five Armies had not yet been imagined, and Bolg of the North marks the first appearance of a major goblin-character (even if a non-speaking one) intended for publication. That is, he was not conceived of until Tolkien needed to present a finished tale to the publisher.
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