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DainPig
Gondor
Jul 24 2015, 9:25pm
Post #1 of 3
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Orcs and Satyrs
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I am the only one around here who read the books imagining the orcs as ugly satyr?
I think this make sense, because horns and hooves are scary...
How aaaaaaaaaaaaaare you all???
Hey guys, my blog is: dainpigblog.blogspot.com
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squire
Half-elven
Jul 24 2015, 9:55pm
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I suppose because to the degree that Tolkien describes Orcs, he emphasizes their squat, bow-legged bodies, shortness, squinty eyes, hairy but not furry skin, and fangs while leaving no doubt that they are essentially humanoid in that they can cross-breed with humans and/or elves. Satyrs can be scary things, as you say, but their hooves and horns are much more 'inhuman' than what I always saw the orcs as being.
As well, satyrs have a sexual overtone from classical mythology and a diabolical overtone from Christian mythology, both of which directions I think Tolkien wanted to steer away from in creating his Middle-earth.
That is a great picture you found, and I agree that in some other fantasy universe such creatures could definitely occupy the place of orcs as the villainous hordes of the Dark Lord..
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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Morthoron
Gondor
Jul 26 2015, 1:28am
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Satyrs were not evil but amoral followers of Dionysus in the god's revels. They danced about with nymphs and carried off women, and their description by the Greeks and Romans were not that they were ugly, even with some equine or goat features.The Greeks portrayed them as very human-looking, unlike the picture you displayed, which is much more animalistic, and the Romans eventually convoluted the satyr with another mythic creature the faun. Unlike Orcs, satyrs were not murderers, pillagers or warlike, and in some stories were actually benevolently inclined to mortals.
Please visit my blog...The Dark Elf File...a slighty skewed journal of music and literary comment, fan-fiction and interminable essays.
(This post was edited by Morthoron on Jul 26 2015, 1:30am)
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