Orcs were the most prevalent monsters in J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings and his other Middle-earth stories. They were the backbone of both Sauron‘s and Saruman‘s armies, and they opposed the heroes of Middle-earth at every turn. Yet the Orcs were not a united front. In The Lord of the Rings, the Orcs belonged to three main factions: the Mordor Orcs, the Misty Mountain Orcs, and the Isengard Orcs. In the chapter “The Uruk-hai” from The Two Towers, these three factions come into conflict over what to do with their captives, Merry and Pippin.

In the novel, the Isengard Orcs — who originally captured Merry and Pippin — wanted to bring them to Saruman, while the Mordor Orcs instead wanted to bring them to Sauron. The Misty Mountain Orcs wanted to kill them as revenge for the Fellowship’s actions in the Mines of Moria. An argument over the hobbits devolved into a physical fight in which the Isengard Orcs killed three Mordor Orcs and two Misty Mountain Orcs. A similar scene occurred in Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers film, although the Orcs did not get into a physical confrontation until later, right before the Rohirrim arrived. So what were the differences between these three factions of Orcs, and why did they hate each other so much that they were willing to jeopardize the outcome of the war by fighting among themselves?

Mordor Orcs Were the Oldest Orcs in Middle-earth

Sauron’s master, the Dark Lord Morgoth, made the first Orcs early in Middle-earth’s history. Sauron may have contributed to their creation, as in The Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote that Sauron had a hand in all of Morgoth’s evil actions. Following Morgoth’s defeat in the First Age, Sauron gathered the surviving Orcs in Mordor and bred them to create his own Orc army. The Mordor Orcs were therefore the largest and oldest faction of Orcs in The Lord of the Rings. They were loyal to Sauron, and they made up the majority of his fighting force, often battling alongside Men like Easterlings and Haradrim. Some Mordor Orcs came from Minas Morgul and served the Nazgûl, but since the Nazgûl were loyal to Sauron, these Orcs were still Sauron’s minions.

Mordor Orcs besieged Minas Tirith and defended the Black Gate in The Return of the King. Mordor Orcs were larger and tougher than most other Orcs, although not to the extent of Saruman’s Uruk-hai. In the chapter “The Bridge of Khazad-dûm” from The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf said that the Mordor Orcs were “large and evil” in comparison to the other Orcs in Moria. In the novel, the Mordor Orcs painted red eyes on their armor and shields, representing the Eye of Sauron. For this reason, they were also known as Orcs of the Eye. Other Orcs believed that Mordor Orcs were cowardly and untrustworthy. In “The Uruk-hai,” Uglúk told Grishnákh, “I don’t trust you little swine. You’ve no guts outside your own sties. But for us, you’d all have run away.”

Misty Mountain Orcs Were the Dwarves’ Nemeses

The video game Middle-earth: Shadow of War divided the Mordor Orcs into nine tribes.
There were two Orcs called Snaga in the novel, one from Mordor and one from Isengard.
Snaga was a Black Speech word meaning “slave,” so this may have been a title rather than an actual name.

Misty Mountain Orcs, also called Northerners, inhabited the caves of the Misty Mountains, including Goblin-town, Mount Gundabad, and most importantly to The Lord of the Rings, the Mines of Moria. When the armies of Morgoth and Sauron lost in battle, the surviving Orcs often fled to the Misty Mountains, sometimes forming new colonies there. Sauron also purposefully sent some Orcs to occupy the Misty Mountains so that the Dwarves could not reclaim them. Though the Misty Mountain Orcs still showed loyalty to Sauron, they did not directly serve in his army. They were mostly independent, and so long as they kept Sauron’s enemies out of the Misty Mountains, he cared little about what they did there.

Misty Mountain Orcs troubled Bilbo and Thorin’s Company often throughout The Hobbit, and they attacked the Fellowship in Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. Misty Mountain Orcs were typically smaller than the rest of their kind. There were exceptions to this, such as the mighty Azog, although even though he was not as large as Jackson’s The Hobbit films depicted him; the tallest Orcs in Tolkien’s novels were still shorter than most Men. Other Orcs disdained Misty Mountain Orcs for being weak and undisciplined. All Orcs hated sunlight, but the Misty Mountain Orcs were especially sensitive to it since they lived underground. When one of them complained about traveling during the day, Uglúk asked, “What’s the use of sending out mountain maggots on a trip, only half-trained?”

Saruman Made Isengard Orcs More Deadly

Isengard Orcs, also called Isengarders, were loyal to the White Wizard Saruman instead of Sauron. They were originally Misty Mountain Orcs, but Saruman recruited them for his cause, just as he did the Dunlendings. Saruman wanted to build an army to rival Sauron’s so that he could usurp the Dark Lord and claim the One Ring for himself. Through breeding, training, and vile experimentation, Saruman transformed his Isengard Orcs into more powerful beings. He created Goblin-men, Half-orcs, and most dangerous of all, Uruk-hai. The Uruk-hai were larger, stronger, faster, and more resistant to sunlight than ordinary Orcs in The Lord of the Rings.

The Orcs who attacked the Fellowship at Amon Hen were Isengard Orcs, as were those who marched on Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers. Thanks to Saruman’s great forges, the Isengard Orcs were better equipped than those from Mordor or the Misty Mountains. Like Mordor Orcs, they painted symbols on their armor and shields, but instead of red eyes, they bore the White Hand of Saruman. The Isengard Orcs were conceited, especially after killing Boromir and capturing Merry and Pippin. This earned them the ire of other Orcs, as did their disloyalty to Sauron. In response to Uglúk’s insults, Grishnákh called the Isengard Orcs “the muckrakers of a dirty little wizard.” Along with an accusation that the Isengard Orcs were cannibals, this was the final straw that caused the fight.

Tolkien mentioned a few other groups of Orcs, including the Eastern Orcs who lived in the far-off lands of Rhûn, but they played minimal roles in The Lord of the Rings. The disunity among the Orcs showed the ineffectuality of evil. The three factions’ bickering in “The Uruk-hai” allowed Pippin to free himself, and later, infighting within the Orcs’ ranks in the Tower of Cirith Ungol allowed Sam to rescue Frodo. The heroes of The Lord of the Rings were unified, and they showed deep loyalty to one another. It was through teamwork and cooperation that they were able to overcome the vastly superior number of Orcs they faced and claim victory in the War of the Ring.