T ‘Tolkien

and Horror’: The 16th Annual Tolkien in Vermont Conference, UVM, April 5th & 6th, 2019

Marc Zender, Assistant Professor of Anthropology & Linguistics, Tulane University, New Orleans
[Pippin] woke. Cold air blew on his face. He was lying on his back. ...
His wrists, legs, and ankles were tied with cords. Beside him Merry
lay, white-faced, with a dirty rag bound across his brows. All about
them sat or stood a great company of Orcs.
— The Lord of the Rings, Bk III, Ch 3, ‘The Uruk-hai’

painting by Julia Alekseeva

He struggled a little, quite uselessly. One of the Orcs sitting near
laughed and said something to a companion in their abominable
tongue.
Rest while you
can, little fool!

he said then to Pippin, in the Common Speech,

which he made almost as hideous as his own
language.

Rest while you can!

We’ll find a use for your legs
before long. You’ll wish you had got
none before we get home.
 If I had my way,
you’d wish you were
dead now,

said the other.

I'd make
you squeak, you
miserable rat.

He stooped over Pippin, bringing his yellow

fangs close to his face. He had a black knife
with a long jagged blade in his hand.
Lie quiet, or
I’ll tickle you
with this,
he hissed.
‘Don’t draw attention to yourself, or I may forget my orders. Curse
the Isengarders! Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh
skai ’: he passed into a long angry speech in his own tongue that
slowly died away into muttering and snarling.

Terrified Pippin lay still, though the

pain at his wrists and ankles was
growing, and the stones beneath
him were boring into his back. To
take his mind off himself he
listened intently to all that he
could hear.

James Turner Mohan
Pippin's observations as the source of Appendix F's facts about Orcs
To Pippin’s surprise he found that much of the talk was intelligible;
many of the Orcs were using ordinary language. Apparently the
members of two or three quite different tribes were present, and they
could not understand one another’s orc-speech.

— The Lord of the Rings, Bk III, Ch 3, ‘The Uruk-hai’

‘Rest while you can, little fool!’ he said then to Pippin in the Common
Speech, which he made almost as hideous as his own language.

— The Lord of the Rings, Bk III, Ch 3, ‘The Uruk-hai’

The Orcs ... being filled with malice, hating even their own kind, ...
developed as many barbarous dialects as there were groups or
settlements of their race, so that their Orkish speech was of little
use to them in intercourse between different tribes. So it was that in
the Third Age Orcs used for communication between breed and
breed the Westron tongue ... though in such a fashion as to make it
hardly less unlovely than Orkish.

— The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, ‘Orcs and the Black Speech’
 ‘There's no time to kill them properly,’ said one. ‘No time for play
on this trip.’

‘That can't be helped,’ said another. ‘But why not kill them quick,
kill them now? They're a cursed nuisance, and we're in a hurry.
Evening's coming on, and we ought to get a move on.’

‘Orders,’ said a third voice in a deep growl. ‘Kill all but NOT the
Halflings; they are to be brought back ALIVE as quickly as possible.
That's my orders.’

‘What are they wanted for?’ asked several voices. ‘Why alive? Do
they give good sport?’

‘No! I heard that one of them has got something, something that's
wanted for the War, some Elvish plot or other. Anyway they'll both be
questioned.’

‘Is that all you know? Why don't we search them and find out? We
might find something that we could use ourselves.’

‘That is a very interesting remark,’ sneered a voice, softer than the

others but more evil. ‘I may have to report that. The prisoners are NOT
to be searched or plundered: those are my orders.’

— The Lord of the Rings, Bk III, Ch 3, ‘The Uruk-hai’

Note the presence here of:
1. Uruk-hai of Isengard
2. Orcs of Mordor
3. Orcs from Moria
Each with conflicting orders and aims
 Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai

1. Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth — pig-guts gah!

Typescript of Appendix E (Hostetter 1992: 16), wherein Tolkien also observes that “[t]he bh in the
fragment of corrupt Black Speech ... occurs in a compound word búb-hosh".

2. Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!

From the penultimate draft of Appendix F (PM: 83, n.6).

3. Uglúk to torture (chamber) with stinking Saruman-filth. dung-heap. skai!

From Tolkien's incomplete 1960s linguistic index of The Lord of the Rings (PE17:78)
u, to
bagronk, torture chamber (amended from ‘dungeon’)
sha, with
pushdug, stinking (amended to ‘squalid’, then ‘filthy’, then ‘stinking’)
Saruman-glob, of Saruman's filth (amended from ‘foul’)
búbhosh, dung heap, muck heap
skai!, interject[ion] of contempt
All three differ significantly (bagronk, for example,
being rendered both as ‘cesspool’ and as ‘torture
chamber’); from which it seems clear that my father
was at this time devising interpretations of the words,
whatever he may have intended them to mean when
he first wrote them.

— Christopher Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth, 1996, p. xii

I rarely disagree Christopher Tolkien, but in this case I believe
there's another way to view these diverging translations.

First, note that each represents an authoritative translation by
the hand of the author, at least at the time that he provided it.
From this perspective, three different translations are three
times as useful as one; not less useful than one otherwise
unsupported albeit uncontested translation.

Second, close comparison of Tolkien's three translations reveals
remarkably consistent threads—variations on a theme—and
most of the diverging elements can actually be explained, either
on the basis of the usual difficulties of translation between
unrelated languages, or with respect to what Tolkien tells us
explicitly about the nature of Orc speech.
Third, while Christopher Tolkien's words might be taken to
imply that we have little guidance regarding his father's
intentions when he first wrote the Orc-curse, these in fact
emerge reasonably clearly from the surrounding events in the
Uruk-hai chapter, and in their reiteration in Appendix F.

Finally, as we'll see, the nature of Orc speech, particularly its
close relationship to Eldarin languages, provides still other,
independent clues to word-meaning.

That said, before we turn to a detailed examination of the Orc-
curse, it will be instructive to view another untranslated
sentence in a foreign language from The Lord of the RIngs for
which Tolkien has elsewhere provided several divergent
translations: the Sindarin hymn to Elbereth.
The Road Goes Ever On, 1967, p 62
This is Tolkien's Tengwar manuscript of the Sindarin hymn to
Elbereth (A Elbereth, Aerlinn in Edhil o Imladris).

This text is nowhere translated in The Lord of the RIngs itself,
but early Tolkienian linguists suggested various more or less
correct translations by at least the mid 1960s (see e.g.,
Blackmun 1967, and Hostetter 2007). And we now know for a
certainty that the meaning of this hymn did not change at any
time during or after the writing of the novel.

As such, those divergences which appear in Tolkien's later
translations of the hymn do no reflect on-the spot invention,
but rather the usual perils of translation between very different
idioms.
The Road Goes Ever On, 1967, p 62
 Tolkien's varying translations of the hymn to Elbereth
Rhone Beare letter Dick Plotz letter 1960s lndex
(8 June 1961) (26 Oct 1965) (PE 17, 2007)

A O! O! O!

Elbereth Elbereth Elbereth Elbereth

Gilthoniel Kindler-of the-stars Gilthoniel Gilthoniel

silivren radiant glittering crystalline

penna falls slanting comes slanting down falls

míriel glittering like jewels sparkling like jewels twinkling like jewels

o from from from

menel firmament heaven the firmament

aglar glory glory the radiance

elenath of the star-host (of) star-host of the (host) of stars

identical translated proper name synonyms and etymologies
 Tolkien's varying translations of the hymn to Elbereth
Rhone Beare letter Dick Plotz letter 1960s lndex
(8 June 1961) (26 Oct 1965) (PE 17, 2007)

A O! O! O!

Elbereth Elbereth Elbereth Elbereth

Gilthoniel Kindler-of the-stars Gilthoniel Gilthoniel

silivren radiant glittering crystalline

penna falls slanting comes slanting down falls

Etymologically, menel is ‘path of (the) star(s),’ so
míriel firmament and heaven both capture different, non-
glittering like jewels sparkling like jewels twinkling like jewels

o
literal facets of the original Elvish term.
from from from

menel firmament heaven the firmament

aglar glory glory the radiance

elenath of the star-host (of) star-host of the (host) of stars

identical translated proper name synonyms and etymologies
Given that the varying translations of Tolkien's Sindarin hymn to
Elbereth do not reflect either errors or changes in meaning, but
merely the expected complexities of translation between
languages, it's worth considering that the same might also be
true of Tolkien's divergent translations of the Mordor-orc's
curse.
 Tolkien's varying translations of the Mordor-orc curse
Appendix E typescript Appendix F typescript 1960s lndex
(VT 26:16, 1992) (Peoples, 1996, pp. xi-xii, 83) (PE 17, 2007)

Uglúk Uglúk Uglúk Uglúk

u to to to
dungeon
bagronk the dung-pit the cesspool
> torture chamber
sha with sha! with
squalid
pushdug stinking the dungfilth > filthy
> stinking
Saruman-glob Saruman-filth Saruman-fool of Saruman's filth

búbhosh pig-guts great (i.e., big) dung heap

skai gah! skai! skai!

identical synonyms and etymologies actual discrepancies

... Orcs ... spoke as they would, without love of words or things;
and their language was actually more degraded and filthy than I
have shown it. I do not suppose that any will wish for a closer
rendering, though models are easy to find. Much the same sort
of talk can still be heard among the orc-minded; dreary and
repetitive with hatred and contempt, too long removed from
good to retain even verbal vigour, save in the ears of those to
whom only the squalid sounds strong.

— The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, ‘On Translation’

... since some remnant of good will, and true thought and
Alan Lee
perception, is required to keep even a base language alive and
useful even for base purposes, their tongues were endlessly
diversified in form, as they were deadly monotonous in
purport, fluent only in the expression of abuse, of hatred and
fear.

— The Peoples of Middle-earth, 1996, p. 21

The Orcs ... had no language of their own, but took what
they could of other tongues and perverted it to their own
liking; yet they made only brutal jargons, scarcely sufficient
even for their own needs, unless it were for curses and
abuse. ... In this jargon tark, ‘man of Gondor’, was a
debased form of tarkil, a Quenya word used in Westron for
one of Númenórean descent. ... From the Black Speech ...
were derived many of the words that were in the Third Age
wide-spread among the Orcs, such as ghâsh ‘fire’ ...

— The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, ‘Orcs and the Black Speech’

tark Westron tarkil ‘Númenórean’ < Quenya tarcil ‘great man’

(cf. √TAR ‘high, exalted’, √KHIL ‘man’ (VT 46:17, PE 17:101)

Noldorin lhach n. ‘fire, leaping flame’ (PE 13:148)

ghâsh
Sindarin lacho imp.v. ‘flame!’ (UT:65)
bagronk, cn., dung-pit / cesspool / dungeon > torture chamber

Perhaps from Quenya unque ‘a hollow’ (LotR, App. E), from √UNUK-
‘hole, hollow’ (VT 46:20). The basic sense was likely ‘hole’, with the
senses ‘dung-pit’ and ‘cesspool’ arising from the uses to which holes
were put. Similarly, ‘dungeon’ perhaps developed from an idiom not
unlike English “throw him in the hole”, and ‘torture chamber’ from
activities taking place in dungeons.

sha, prep., with

Perhaps from Qenya ar ~ as prep., with (VT 47:31), as in i Héru aselyë

‘the Lord is with thee’ (VT 43:29).

pushdug, cn., stinking / dungfilth / squalid > filthy > stinking

For pus- or pushd-, see Gnomish faust, n., smell, odour (PE 11:34) and
Qenya pus-, v., puff, snort, blow, whiff (PE 12:76).
-glob, n. or adj., filth / fool / foul

Perhaps from Gnomish gol- stink, golog stinking, golod stench (PE
11:41). However, Grishnákh's opinion of Saruman—i.e., “Saruman is a
fool, and a dirty treacherous fool”—suggests that “Saruman-fool” may
have been Tolkien's original intention. Further, “fool” was apparently a
frequent Orcish oath, appearing five times in the Uruk-hai chapter.

búbhosh, cn. or adj., pig-guts / great / dung-heap

Tolkien's ‘pig-guts’ gloss is perhaps closest to his original intentions

given the associated linguistic note that its represents a compound
noun búb-hosh. Contextually speaking, the Orc-curse also appears
amidst frequent references to “swine,” “guts,” and “sties” in the
exchanges between Uglúk and Grishnákh.

skai, interj., gah! (interjection of contempt)

Tolkien considered this an unpleasant sound, noting that “cellar

door” is beautiful... More beautiful than, say, sky” (Carpenter 1977:56).
 A contextualized interpretation of the Mordor-orc’s curse
Appendix E typescript Appendix F typescript 1960s lndex
(VT 26:16, 1992) (Peoples, 1996, pp. xi-xii, 8) (PE 17, 2007)

Uglúk Uglúk Uglúk Uglúk

u to to to

bagronk the dung-pit the cesspool the torture chamber

sha with sha! with

pushdug the stinking the dungfilth stinking

Saruman-glob Saruman-filth Saruman-fool of Saruman's filth

búbhosh pig-guts the great (big) dung heap

skai gah! skai! skai!



T ‘Tolkien and Horror’: The 16th Annual Tolkien in Vermont Conference, UVM, April 5th & 6th, 2019

Marc Zender, Assistant Professor of Anthropology & Linguistics, Tulane University, New Orleans