Uruk-hai
From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.
- "You do not know pain, you do not know fear. You will taste man-flesh."
- —Saruman
- "Whom do you serve?"
- —Saruman
- For other uses of Uruk-hai see also: Uruk-hai (disambiguation)
The Uruk-hai (Black Speech: Orc folk) are an advanced breed of Orcs that appeared during the Third Age.
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[edit] Books
- "We are the fighting Uruk-Hai! We slew the great warrior. We took the prisoners. We are the servants of Saruman the Wise, The White Hand: The Hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat. We came out of Isengard, and led you here, and we shall lead you back by the way we choose."
- —Ugluk
The Uruk-Hai (or Uruk) made up a large part of Saruman's army, together with the Dunlendings and other human enemies of Rohan, and also served as the elite troops of Mordor. They are faster than normal Orcs and could travel during the day without being weakened. They are not only faster but smarter, stronger and larger: unlike Orcs, they are taller than Men. There are suggestions that the Uruk-hai were the result of crossbreeding Orcs and Men. Certainly, other creatures in Saruman's armies, and under his command in the Shire, appear to have been hybrids, though these "half-orcs" were as tall as Men and are never described simply as Orcs, as the Uruk-hai frequently are. Saruman's army of Uruk-hai fought against King Théoden of Rohan and his people at Helm's Deep.
They first appeared about the year TA 2475, when they conquered Ithilien and destroyed the city of Osgiliath.
The Orcs and Uruks in the service of Barad-dûr, the folk of Mordor, used the symbol of the red Eye of Sauron. The Red Eye was also painted on their shields. At least one, a guard, on the march with Merry and Pippin had a black knife with a long saw-edged blade, used by Pippin to cut through the ropes on his hands. These Uruks of Mordor referred to Sauron as the Great Eye, and Grishnákh was their Captain. They were all long-armed and crook-legged, not as tall as the Isengarder Uruks but larger than the Moria Orcs. They could see better in the dark than the Isengarders could.
The Uruks of Saruman the White used an S elf-rune wrought in white metal on the front of their iron helms. It was clear this "S" stood for Saruman, because their shields had a small white hand (the symbol of Saruman) centered on a black field. Aragorn commented that their gear was not in the manner of other Orcs at all. Instead of curved scimitars, they used short, broad-bladed swords. Their great bows were made of yew wood, in length and shape as those of Men. They also appeared different physically: greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, thick legs and large hands. Although they did not like the light of the sun, they could withstand it better than other Orcs. Saruman promised them man-flesh as a treat. He aided them with his wizardry as well: when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas followed the party of Uruks who kidnapped Merry and Pippin, Saruman's will caused weariness of the heart for the pursuers and lent speed to the Orcs. Ugluk led the Uruk-hai of Isengard, and since they were the strongest he felt that he led the hobbit march as well, insisting on going back by way of Isengard. This was the group that slew Boromir.
The name Uruk-Hai has the element Uruk, which is a Black Speech word meaning Orc, related to the (Valinorean) Quenya word Urko (Ñoldorin Quenya: Orko) of the same meaning.
[edit] Movies
- "Do you know how the Orcs first came to be? They were Elves once, taken by the Dark Lord, tortured and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life. And now, perfected. My fighting Uruk-Hai."
- —Saruman
In The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, Saruman appeared to be the only one who created the Uruks. However, the book, Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, cleared up this discrepancy by explaining that he is in fact only replicating the method that had already been used by Sauron. Sauron's Uruks, seen in The Return of the King have noticeably rougher features than Sauruman's. They are shown in the movie as being released from a kind of membrane in the mud deep under Isengard (special commentary on the DVD edition explained that they were trying to base the scene on a early description of Tolkien's that Orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots"). In the movies Uruk-hai are described as a crossbreed between Orcs and "goblin-men": this is probably a dialogue error because in Tolkien's works "Orc" is a synonym for goblin. These Uruks are sent after the Fellowship, and their leader is Lurtz, a movie-only character.
His Uruks include Pikemen, Uruk-Hai swordsmen, Warg riders, crossbowmen, sappers, scouts and Berserkers. The Berserkers are even larger and more vicious Uruks. They shave their heads and fill their helmets with human blood, so that when they put on the helmets the blood runs down their backs and its scent sends them into a killing frenzy. They carry doubly-bent swords. The sappers were responsible for crewing the ballistae, handling the ladders and carrying Saruman's bombs. Pikemen, as the name suggests, carry pikes. Crossbowmen carry crossbows. Normal Uruk infantry wield a sword. They also sometimes use bladed shields with the white hand painted on them , as seen in Amon Hen during Aragorn's fight against Lurtz. Scouts wear light, leather armor and have leather helmets with no crests or brimm's, and wield short swords, axes, daggers and powerfull bows of yew with a tremendous draw weight. Their armour is grey and is made up of large lames and has a groin guard. Underneath is a layer of chainmail that covers the torso, half the arm and a small fraction of the legs. They also wear arm armour but they have bare legs. For footwear they have puttees and sandals that are covered by foot and leg armour. The helmets vary. Heavy uruk helms are metal caps with an eye slit, horizontal crests and two smaller crests at either side of the mouth. Crossbow and engineer helms are a simple metal cap that covers the top half of the head (just the eyes on the face) and have huge brimms at the bottom. Berserker helms have two circular eyeholes and an empty space for the mouth. They have no crests or brimms. Commander helms are basically berserker helms with massive crests. Almost all the helms have the white painted on them.
[edit] The term
The name "Uruk-hai" has the element Uruk, which is a Black Speech word related to Orc, related to the (Valinórean) Quenya word Urko (Noldorin Quenya: Orko) of the same meaning. The element hai means "folk", so "Uruk-hai" is "Orc-folk". A similar term is Olog-hai ("troll-folk"), used for a breed of especially strong and vicious trolls capable of surviving sunlight.
Christopher Tolkien describes "Uruks" as an anglicization of "Uruk-hai" and his father used the two terms interchangeably a number of times. Some readers assume the two terms are different because in The Lord of the Rings 'Uruk-hai' is used primarily to describe Saruman's forces while 'Uruks' and 'Black Uruks of Mordor' are used primarily to describe Sauron's. However, there are examples of each term being used in reference to either group. While 'Uruk-hai' means simply 'Orc-folk' the term was reserved for the soldier orcs of Mordor and Isengard, with snaga ('slave') being their term for other breeds.
Hai is a collective plural. "The Uruk-hai" in some contexts is to "Uruk" as "Mankind" is to "man". But it can also mean all Uruks under consideration. "Saruman's Uruk-hai" means all Saruman's Uruks, "The Uruk-hai" in the description of a battle would mean all Uruks present on the battlefield. It is not used for ordinary plural, as in "several Uruks", and of course never in the singular.[citation needed]
[edit] Crossbreeding with Men
Following Treebeard's speculative statements, some readers have questioned whether Saruman's Uruk-hai at least, and all Uruk-hai at most, were bred by crossbreeding with Men. The book does not directly state this, though it heavily hints at it.
Other forces in Saruman's armies, and under his command in the Shire, definitely appear to have been hybrids, though these individuals, called "half-orcs" and "goblin-men" in The Two Towers, were as tall as Men and are never described simply as Orcs, as the Uruk-hai frequently are, and an account of the first Battle of the Fords of Isen in Unfinished Tales (part of Tolkien's hitherto unpublished writings) apparently treats Uruk-hai and "orc-men" separately.
Given that "Orc-man" and "Man-orcs" are treated as distinct types of hybrids, and that "orc-man" are differentiated from Uruk-hai in Unfinished Tales, some then assume that the "Man-orcs large and cunning" are the Uruk-hai, at least those of Saruman. However, there is nothing in the quote itself that states that the term "Man-orcs" specifically applies to Uruk-hai.
Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth makes no references to Uruk-hai as the results of crossbreeding since the issue hinges on material unpublished when his book was written.
[edit] Music
Uruk-Hai is the original name of the one-man black metal band Burzum. There is also a Spanish black metal band called Uruk-Hai as well.
[edit] See also
[edit] Alternative Article
For a much more comprehensive article on Uruk-hai, with more emphasis on the books, then please visit The One Wiki to Rule them All's partner the Tolkien Gateway.
The following is a direct link to this page on the Tolkien Gateway: Uruk-hai
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Ainu | Dwarf | Ents | Hobbit | Man | Elf Evil Races:
Dragons | Orc | Uruk-hai | Warg | Werewolves | White Wolves |
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