Real Orcs Don't Do Windows - Page 3
© Michael Martinez
When The Hobbit became a published success, Tolkien briefly aspired to bring his Silmarillion stories to publication. His publishers wanted to bring out more books about Hobbits, however, and Tolkien had to set The Silmarillion (which had replaced The Book of Lost Tales as his primary mythological project) aside for many years.
From 1937 to 1948, Tolkien strove to produce a sequel to The Hobbit which would not only entertain his readership, but which would also interest him. During those years, he used the word "goblin" less and less -- ultimately consigning it to a few passages of Hobbit dialogue -- and "Orc" more and more.
While it can be said that "Orc" sounds more threatening than "Goblin", Tolkien may have had a more urgent reason to abandon the long-used word. As a philologist, he undoubtedly knew the history of the word "goblin", which came to late Old English from Norman French. That is, goblins are not true English bogeys. Instead, they are named for a gobelin, a spirit which is said to have haunted the French town of Evreux in the 1100s.
"Orc", on the other hand, has a very mysterious past. Most commentators now suggest it probably came from Anglo-Saxon orcneas, usually translate as "whales" (because it comes from the Latin Orca, meaning "hell" or "death"). The original Anglo-Saxon text is found in "Beowulf", line 112, "eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas" (Ettins and Elves and Orcs -- descendants of Cain).
"Ettins" are giants or trolls. Elves are, in the Christian view, evil creatures. Orcs are impossible to describe, except that they must be fairy creatures familiar to the audience of the Beowulf poet. Some people today (and perhaps even Tolkien) suggest they may have been spirits or demons (although ascribing a descent from Cain thus makes no sense). However, if an Orc is a spirit or demon, and a goblin is a malevolent spirit, then substituting Orc for Goblin starts to make sense.
So, at some point in his development of Middle-earth, Tolkien may have decided to abandon "goblin" in favor of "Orc" because "goblin" had a tainted linguistic history (Tolkien was not very fond of the French language).
And here things become interesting, because even though he had suggested some changes be made to The Hobbit in 1947 to make it more compatible with The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien seems to have begun experimenting with Hobbit-related matters prior to that time.
For example, in Note 35 for "The Ring Goes South", published in The Return of the Shadow, Christopher pauses to reflect on his father's use of "Orcs" in the following passage (where the Fellowship discuss the Mines of Moria):
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