Loading...
Location
Weatherford, Oklahoma
Document Type
Paper
Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-54.htm
Start Date
25-7-2026 2:30 PM
End Date
25-7-2026 3:20 PM
Description
“Leg it!” Ever wanted to “foot it through the Horse-country” with Uglúk? Cross the Great River with Grishnákh? Travel with goblin messengers “to and fro between all their cities, colonies, and strongholds,” by “tunnel or under dark,” to “Gundabad of the North,” their “capital”? Or perhaps you can “slip off” with Gorbag and “a few trusty lads” to places “where there’s good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses”? It might be enough to join those who’ve just “come all the way from the Mines” to “avenge our folk” and “then go back north”? And if you’re feeling a bit weary, no worries: “Where there’s a whip there’s a will”!
Orcs feature prominently along the roads of Middle-earth. While they certainly have their redoubts, enclaves, and even cities, they’re often depicted as almost nomadic, roaming the lands in search of trouble, or else fleeing their enemies lest they be hunted into oblivion. The journeys of Orcs are mostly implied, as our perspective on their habits is limited to that of their enemies, but traveling Orcs are as much a part of life in the Third Age as the peregrinations of other wanderers. Indeed, the networks of Orkish transit—connecting Mordor to Isengard, Moria to Gundabad, Mount Gram to the Shire itself, not to mention such unseen lands as Khand and Harad to the south or Rhûn to the east—contribute mightily to the geopolitical character of Middle-earth more generally. For Orcs, as with Bilbo Baggins and others, Roads goes ever ever on …
In this talk, notorious Orc-sympathizer and Urukologist Robert Tally will discuss the significance of Orcs “on the road,” while arguing for their crucial place along the highways, byways, avenues, and trails of Tolkien’s world.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Orc Road Trip; or, We’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!
Weatherford, Oklahoma
“Leg it!” Ever wanted to “foot it through the Horse-country” with Uglúk? Cross the Great River with Grishnákh? Travel with goblin messengers “to and fro between all their cities, colonies, and strongholds,” by “tunnel or under dark,” to “Gundabad of the North,” their “capital”? Or perhaps you can “slip off” with Gorbag and “a few trusty lads” to places “where there’s good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses”? It might be enough to join those who’ve just “come all the way from the Mines” to “avenge our folk” and “then go back north”? And if you’re feeling a bit weary, no worries: “Where there’s a whip there’s a will”!
Orcs feature prominently along the roads of Middle-earth. While they certainly have their redoubts, enclaves, and even cities, they’re often depicted as almost nomadic, roaming the lands in search of trouble, or else fleeing their enemies lest they be hunted into oblivion. The journeys of Orcs are mostly implied, as our perspective on their habits is limited to that of their enemies, but traveling Orcs are as much a part of life in the Third Age as the peregrinations of other wanderers. Indeed, the networks of Orkish transit—connecting Mordor to Isengard, Moria to Gundabad, Mount Gram to the Shire itself, not to mention such unseen lands as Khand and Harad to the south or Rhûn to the east—contribute mightily to the geopolitical character of Middle-earth more generally. For Orcs, as with Bilbo Baggins and others, Roads goes ever ever on …
In this talk, notorious Orc-sympathizer and Urukologist Robert Tally will discuss the significance of Orcs “on the road,” while arguing for their crucial place along the highways, byways, avenues, and trails of Tolkien’s world.
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc54/schedule/16
