Uruk-hai

This article refers to the race itself. For other namesakes, see Uruk-hai (disambiguation).

Uruk-hai
Other names	Black Uruks or simply Uruks
Origins	bred by Sauron
Dominions	Mordor, Misty Mountains (including Moria), Isengard
Languages	Native dialects, Black Speech, Westron
Distinctions	Thick legs, large hands, slanted eyes
Height	Taller than other Orcs, but shorter than Men
Weaponry	Orkish scimitars, spears, shields, knives (in Mordor) Short broad-bladed swords, yew bows, shields, knives (in Isengard)

"‘There are Orcs, very many of them,’ he said. ‘And some are large and evil: black Uruks of Mordor. For the moment they are hanging back, but there is something else there. A great cave-troll, I think, or more than one. There is no hope of escape that way.’"

—Gandalf in "Chapter 5" of The Fellowship of the Ring

Uruk-hai (a pure Black Speech's form, which is rendered as Uruks in English) were brutal warriors of Middle-earth, and the strongest breed of Orc. The term Uruk-hai refers to those bred in Isengard as Isengarders as well the enhanced breed amid Sauron's forces in Mordor.

History

Described as elite "black Orcs", these were the first Orc-kind in Middle-earth to be referred to as uruks, originating centuries before the Great Years when they first appeared out of Mordor in the year 2475 of the Third Age, making assaults in Ithilien and destroyed the city of Osgiliath. The Uruks in the service of Barad-dûr used the symbol of the red Eye of Sauron, which was also painted on their shields. In TA 2480, Sauron also populated the Misty Mountains with his creatures of evil, including Uruks of Mordor.

An Uruk of Isengard, depicted by Nicolas Chacin

Uruk-hai were later bred almost a millennium later by the wizard Saruman the White late in the Third Age by his dark arts at Isengard. They were "large, swart" and "slant-eyed".

In the late Third Age, Boromir spotted Uruks of Mordor in Moria moments before the skirmish in the Chamber of Mazarbul between the Fellowship of the Ring and the many Orc-kinds inhabiting Moria.

In the War of the Ring, the Uruk-hai made up a large part of Saruman's army, together with the Dunlendings, man-enemies of Rohan. Saruman originally commanded some Uruks which had come down from the Misty Mountains to serve the Wizard as mercenaries. He also later bred his own Uruks, and this was kept secret from The White Council at the time.

The Uruk-hai were speculated by Treebeard to have been created as hybrids of orcs and men, due to their larger size and resistance to sunlight. Treebeard called this possible crossbreeding "A black evil." There were also other creatures in Saruman's armies, and under his command in the Shire, that appear to have been hybrids. These "half-orcs" were as tall as Men, sallow-skinned and are never described simply as Orcs, in contrast to the Uruk-hai.

Uruks of Isengard used an "S" Elf-rune wrought in white metal on the front of their iron helms. It was clear this stood for Saruman, because their shields had a small White Hand centered on a black field. Aragorn commented, when first encountering them, that their gear was not in the manner of other Orcs at all. Instead of the curved scimitar, they used short, broad-bladed swords. Their great bows were made of yew wood, of the same length and shape as those of Men. Saruman's army of Uruk-hai fought against King Théoden of Rohan and his people in the Second Battle of the Fords of Isen and the Battle of the Hornburg together with Northern Orcs, Dunlandish Men and half-orcs.

Uruk warriors portrayed in film

Saruman appeared to aid his Orcs with wizardry as well: when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas followed the party of Uruks who had kidnapped Merry and Pippin, Saruman's will caused weariness of the heart for the pursuers and lent speed to the Orcs. This was the group that had slain Boromir, and was later annihilated by Éomer and his éored.

Shagrat of Cirith Ungol

Within Mordor, some Uruk-hai were stationed at the Tower of Cirith Ungol. After escaping from there, the Hobbits Frodo and Sam saw Uruks march from Durthang towards the Black Gate amidst the mass-movement of all of Sauron's remaining forces.

Etymology

In Black Speech of Mordor, Uruk-hai was a collective term that meant "Orc-folk". The name "Uruk-hai" has the element Uruk, a Black Speech word related to "orc" and to the (Valinórean) Quenya word urko (Ñoldorin Quenya: orko) of the same meaning. The element hai means "folk," so "Uruk-hai" is "Orc-folk." A similar term is Olog-hai ("troll-folk"), used for a breed of especially strong and vicious trolls capable of surviving sunlight.

Christopher Tolkien describes "uruks" as an anglicization of "Uruk-hai," and his father used the two terms interchangeably a number of times.

In adaptations

Saruman's Orcs, possibly Uruks (1978)

The Lord of the Rings (1978 animated film)

While their role in the books is recreated for this film, the word "Uruk" is never used in The Lord of the Rings nor are they clearly distinguished from other Orcs. Hence, it is unknown if they exist in this adaptation.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

"Do you know how the Orcs first came to being? They were Elves once, taken by the dark powers, tortured and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life. And now, perfected. My fighting Uruk-hai."

—Saruman

All Uruks depicted in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson are recognizable by their broader stature and long hair resembling that of the Isengard Uruk-hai. Gorbag was therefore depicted as a black Uruk, being instead skinny, with the natural slouch of other common Orcs.

The Uruk-hai force assembled at the foot of the Orthanc

In trilogy, Saruman appeared to believe that the Uruks were his invention. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf mentions Saruman creating Uruks by crossbreeding "Orcs with goblin men." He states that they are "An army that can move in sunlight and cover great distance at speed." However, the film-lore book The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare clears up this discrepancy by explaining that Saruman was in fact only replicating Sauron's method. Sauron's Uruks, seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, have noticeably rougher features than Saruman's. Saruman's Uruk-hai are shown as being released from a kind of membrane in the mud deep under Isengard (special commentary on the DVD edition explained that they were trying to base the scene on an early description of Tolkien's that Orcs "worm their way out of the ground like maggots"). The Uruks of Mordor are frequently seen: the invented character Murgash is one of them, at the Siege of Gondor, and many others march through the Orc-camp encountered by Sam and Frodo in western Mordor. Most notably, Shagrat, in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, is portrayed as an Uruk.

The army of Minas Morgul had Uruks of Mordor in their ranks

Weaponry & army composition

Uruk-hai in full armour in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

His Uruks army includes pikemen, swordsmen, crossbowmen, sappers, scouts, and berserkers. The berserkers are even larger and more vicious Uruks. They shave their heads and fill their helmets with human blood, so that when they put on the helmets the blood runs down their backs and its scent sends them into a killing frenzy. They carry double-bent swords. These swords were feared by their Rohirrim enemies for good reason. First, they had double spikes on the end (used for hamstringing or disemboweling horses). Second, the tremendous strength of the berserkers could easily take the head off of any human. Last, they had a keen cutting edge that could easily cut through the leather armor of the Rohirrim (for the massive swords were powerful enough to cut through even steel armor). The sappers were responsible for crewing the ballistae, handling the ladders and carrying Saruman's bombs.

The army additionally had many hundreds of pikemen and a smaller count of deadly crossbowmen. Normal Uruk infantry wielded swords and shields. These swords would maximize the brute strength of the Uruks, being able to cut off limbs and heads very easily.

An Uruk "Berserker"

They also sometimes use bladed shields with the White Hand painted on them, as seen on Amon Hen during Aragorn's fight against Lurtz. These were broad shields, made of durable iron that could defend well against incoming attacks and would provide an alternative weapon by using the bladed side, should the Uruk lose his other weapon. Scouts wear light, leather armor and have leather helmets with no crests or brims, and wield short swords, axes, daggers, and powerful bows of yew with a tremendous draw weight. Their armor is grey and is made up of large lames and has a groin guard. Underneath is a layer of chainmail that covers the torso, half the arm and a small fraction of the legs. They also wear arm armor but they have bare legs. For footwear they have puttees and sandals that are covered by foot and leg armor.

As the Isengard Uruk-hai were an army that was being rapidly grown, mass production of arms was required to equip them quickly. The metal weapons used by the Isengard uruks, as depicted in The Fellowship of the Ring, are made from iron melted in a foundry, cast in open molds, then forged, and finally finished by sharpening on grindstones. Armor and helmets are also seen being hammered and shaped en masse. Though the weapons and armor were competently crafted, the quality is depicted as relatively crude compared to the more finely honed weapons of the Elves, Men, and Dwarves. This lack of quality is not shown as hindering effectiveness.

Ambiguity in films and games

In some adaptations, the label of "Black Uruk" is made synonymous with Black Orc (such as in EA's The Rise of the Witch-king) or even Morannon Orc - on the grounds that all three names denote a tougher breed of Mordor-indigenous Orc.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War

Uruk-hai, or "Uruks" as they are termed in the games, appear in both Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War as the games' primary antagonists throughout the land of Mordor. A wide variety of Uruks are depicted, including a hierarchy of captains and warchiefs within Sauron's army. Some are also shown to be necromancers, wielding dark sorcery.

Their appearances in these games do not resemble their film depiction.

Notable Uruk-hai

• Uglúk - One of Saruman's Uruk-hai who commanded the scouts that attacked the Fellowship of the Ring and captured Merry and Pippin. Uglúk later died fighting Éomer when his band was slain by Rohirrim.

• Mauhúr led an attack on the Rohirrim surrounding Uglúk's company, but failed to drive them off.

• Lugdush - He was one of Saruman's Uruks, and appears to be a trusted subordinate of Uglúk. He was tasked with guarding the captive Merry and Pippin. He was presumably killed along the other Orcs by the Riders of Rohan near Fangorn Forest.

Lurtz observing his strength after being born from the mud of Isengard

In adaptations

• Lurtz - Lurtz was a character created specifically for Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He is the first Uruk-hai bred in Isengard, and kills the first thing he sees, strangling the Orc who oversaw his birth. As the first Uruk made, he is shown to be the strongest Uruk, and his skin appears a muddy brown instead of the other Uruk-hai's more reddish skin. Saruman places him in command of the "Uruk-hai scouts" and sends him along with a company of Uruks to find the Fellowship of the Ring. He kills Boromir with a bow, shooting him three times, and then violently duels with Aragorn, in which he loses his arm, is impaled by Aragorn's sword, and finally beheaded. He was portrayed by New Zealand actor Lawrence Makoare.

See also

• Olog-hai

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Amharic	ዑሩክ፡ሃኢ
Arabic	أوروك-هاي
Armenian	ՈՒրուկ-հաի
Belarusian Cyrillic	Урук-хаі
Bengali	উড়ুক-হয়
Bosnian	Juruk-hai
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Урук-хай
Chinese	乌鲁克族
Czech	Skurut-hai
Esperanto	Uruk-hajoj
Georgian	ურუქ-ჰაი
Greek	Ουρούκ-Χάι
Gujarati	ઉરુક-હૈ
Hebrew	אורוק האי
Hindi	उरुक हाइ
Japanese	ウルク＝ハイ
Kannada	ಉರುಕ್-ಹೈ
Kazakh	Ұрұк-һаі (Cyrillic) Uruk-hai (Latin)
Korean	우르크하이
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Урук-Гаи
Macedonian Cyrillic	Урук-хаи
Marathi	ऊरुखै
Mongolian Cyrillic	Урук-hаи
Nepalese	उरुक हाइ
Persian	اوروک-هی
Punjabi	ਊਰੁਖੈ
Russian	Урук-Хай
Serbian	Урук-хаи (Cyrillic) Uruk-hai (Latin)
Sinhalese	ඌරුක්-හ්ඓ
Tajik Cyrillic	Урук-ха
Tamil	உருக்-ஹை
Telugu	ఉరుక్-హై
Thai	อูรุก-ไฮ
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Урук-хай
Uzbek	Урук-ҳаи (Cyrillic) Uruk-hai (Latin)
Yiddish	ורוק-האַי

External links

• List of weapons and armour in Middle-earth at Wikipedia

Races of Arda Free Peoples of the World: Ainur (Valar & Maiar) | Dwarves | Elves | Ents | Great Eagles | Hobbits | Huorns | Men | Petty-dwarves | Skin-changers (Beornings) Servants of the Shadow: Barrow-wights | Ettens | Dragons (Fire-drakes & Cold-drakes) | Ogres | Orcs (Uruk-hai) | Spiders | Trolls | Úmaiar (Balrogs) | Úvanimor | Vampires | Wargs | Werewolves