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Dates
Bred by Saruman in the years before the War of the Ring1
Location
Originated in Isengard
Origins
Race
Other names
Apparently a type of Half-orc, or a creature of similar kind; related to (or possibly synonymous with) Orc-men
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A name given to certain of the servants of Saruman who fought during the War of the Ring. The name (and the related 'Orc-men' or 'Half-orcs') suggests Men with Orc-like qualities, but how literally this was intended remains unclear. They may represent a literal melding of the races of Orcs and Men to breed soldiers who could withstand the light of the Sun (as true Orcs could not) and this would certainly make sense if Saruman had the capability of creating beings like this.2 On an alternative reading, though, terms like 'Goblin-men' and 'Half-orcs' were simply intended as insulting terms by their enemies, for Men who associated with Orcs, or happened to have Orc-like habits or an Orc-like appearance. Our closest view of such a creature was a spy of Saruman in Bree, identified only as a squint-eyed Southerner, who is described as having an Orc-like appearance. In The Hunt for the Ring in Unfinished Tales, he is revealed to be a Dunlending, but one who was rumoured to have Orc-blood. This tells us at least that the merging of Orcs and Men was not considered impossible, but for such a thing to be the subject of rumour, it presumably was not commonplace. It is notable that Gamling of Rohan was apparently able to distinguish Goblin-men from Half-orcs (at least, he named them separately as if they were distinct types of being). No explanation is offered to account for this distinction, but perhaps we're to take it that 'Half-orcs' were literally half-Man and half-Orc, while 'Goblin-men' were those with some Goblin ancestry that was more remote, but still detectable, as in the case of the Southerner encountered in Bree. Whatever their nature, the Goblin-men were evidently useful to Saruman as spies and infiltrators. They were also numerous, and at the Battle of the Hornburg the Rohirrim were forced to defend themselves against huge numbers of these Goblin-men among the true Orcs and Dunlendings that made up Saruman's forces. The Rohirrim were ultimately victorious, and the Goblin-men were either slain or surrendered.3 Notes
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