Wherefore Orcs?

[Pbartender]

I'm not saying you can't call Tolkien a liar, just that he specifically says he made up the name tooling around with Old English roots and seeing how they'd be today.

He may very well be lying (although I certainly don't believe he was.) Stranger coincidences than that have certainly been known to happen.

No, Tolkien actually used a surprising number of names and words straight out of Old English. Here are just a few of the names he'd taken straight from Old English and their rough translations...

Beorn... "Man" or "Warrior"
Eored... "Mounted Soldiers"
Ent... "Giant"
Grima... "Mask"
Orc or Orcneas... "Monster"
Orthanc... "Cleverness", "Intelligence", "Mind" or "Skill"
Theoden... "Chief of a Tribe", "King" or "Prince"

 

[BOZ]

Orcs

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I have also encountered the word 'orc' in a pre Lord of the Rings translation of the Song of Roland (Pyle?) where the word was used for a sea monster.

The Auld Grump