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    Are Orcs and Goblins Different in Middle-Earth? – Let’s Get Nerdy!

    Ashley Victoria RobinsonBy 6 Mins Read

    Free Range Games recently released brand new Lord of the Rings video game – Return to Moria! Since the SAG-AFTRA strike is still in place and struck work is still struck I want to dive in and explore some of the characters and important features of gameplay for you in the new game. We want all Spoilerites to have the best playing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!

    A few weeks ago I wrote about Cave Trolls who play a pretty significant part as foes in Return to Moria. Cave Trolls serve the role of minor bosses throughout the gameplay and below them as “annoyances at best” (think Goombas in any Mario game – btw if you’re not playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder I highly recommend!), are characters called Orcs.

    Orcs are very much present in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings canon. Eagle-eyed Spoilerties who are familiar with the work will also know when it comes to Moria, Khazad-dûm, The Lonely Mountain, and other subterranean dwellings often have similar monsters which tend to be referred to as “Goblins”.

    So, Ashley, what’s the difference?

    Well, Spoilerite, I’m so pleased you asked!

    Screenshot 2023 11 01 at 2.26.11 PM
    Orcs in Return to Moria

    To muddy the water a touch, J.R.R. Tolkien, himself, seems to address this in the opening to The Hobbit:

    Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places [in The Hobbit]but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds).

    Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, and the rest of the company use the word Golin quite liberally, whereas in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins and The Fellowship of the Ring lean more heavily on the word Orc.

    Honestly, Orc is a much scarier-sounding word. I can understand the pivot made by Tolkien as the tone from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings trilogy shifts into a much darker, more dramatic, and more serious tone.

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    Orcs in Return to Moria

    TL;DR: Mountain-dwelling Orcs are colloquially referred to as “Goblins” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.

    Slightly deeper TL;DR the Orcs our POV characters encounter in the Misty Mountains or the northern regions of Middle-Earth. 

    For those who may be wondering the Uruk-Hai come later and are a completely different subsection of Orcish creature altogether. That’s something we may get into at another time here on Let’s Get Nerdy! to be determined … when I arrange my headcanon (and let it be known my belief about fandom above all else is to Make Your Own Continuity), I think of the Orcs as being the baddies who live above the ground and the Goblins as being the baddies who live underground. 

    In past articles I have answered the question: 

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    She/her. Canadian actress. Bi Queen. Canadian co-host of Geek History Lesson. Canadian comic book writer: Witchblade, Apollo IX, Jupiter Jet series, Science! The Elements of Dark Energy, Aurora and The Eagle. Award-losing: actor, writer, podcaster. https://linktr.ee/AshleyVRobinson

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