Orc

Orcs are of human shape, of varying size but always smaller than Men. They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed and some have dark skin as if burned. In a private letter, Tolkien describes them as "squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes... ...degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types". They are portrayed as miserable, crafty and vicious beings.

They fight ferociously as long as a guiding 'will' (such as Morgoth or Sauron) compels or directs them. Tolkien sometimes describes Orcs as mainly being battle fodder. Orcs are used as soldiers by both the greater and lesser villains of The Lord of the Rings, such as Sauron and Saruman.

Orcs eat all manner of flesh, including the flesh of Men. In Chapter II of The Two Towers, Grishnákh, an Orc from Mordor, claims that the Isengard Orcs eat Orc-flesh, but whether that is true, or a statement spoken in malice, is uncertain. What does seem certain is that the Orcs resented that description. From descriptions and events relating to the Orcs, it seems likely that they indulge in cannibalism. In The Two Towers, Merry and Pippin are presented with meat by an Orc after a fight occurred in which the Uruk-hai killed several Orcs; the narration is vague as to what species the flesh belongs to.