“Where do the little orc babies actually come from?” With this question, we titled an article in which we already looked after the first real appearance of Adar (Joseph Mawle) in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episode 4 explored how the elves and the origins of the orcs are related. In episode 6 it has now been confirmed that the Amazon series also adheres to the most well-known version of the Ork Origin story:
The first Orcs were Elves captured, tortured and eventually formed into a new species by Morgoth (the predecessor and master of Sauron) many, many years ago. Although Adar is a series invention, there are some similar cases in JRR Tolkien’s books, such as Maeglin and Gwindor. These Elves are referred to by Galadriel as “Moriondor, the Sons of the Dark”.
As you can see from Adar, the first Orcs have (or Uruks as they call themselves, that’s the word for “Orc” in the Black Speech of Mordor) but optically still much more in common with elves than the bow-legged and disfigured creatures otherwise seen in The Rings of Power or The Lord of the Rings.
And Adar really was once an Elf himself: Speaking Elvish, he exchanges views with Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) in episode 4 about the long-lost kingdom of Beleriand, and performs the same Elvish pre-battle ritual (“New Life, Despite Death”) that Arondir later taught Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) shows. And yet he is clearly on the side of the orcs.
However, whether he is also on the side of evil is debatable. Sure, the actions of Adar and his orcs are clearly ruthless and bloodthirsty, but they themselves believe it justified, because they are just looking for a new home and want to be left alone. Incidentally, their path has led them from the Gray Mountains in the north (nearby is Erebor, the Lonely Mountain from “The Hobbit”) to what is later Mordor.
But what is even more important: Adar explicitly contradicts Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) when she denies him and his orcs the right to exist and labels them as creatures of Morgoth and slaves of Sauron: “We are creations of the One, the Master of the Secret Fire, just like you. Worthy of the breath of life and also of a home.”
With this, Adar makes it clear: he and the orcs were created by Eru Ilúvatar, the almighty creator god of Tolkien’s world, who also created the Valar, Maiar, Elves and Men and commands the Unquenchable Flame (also known as the Secret Fire). In keeping with this, the X-Ray function on Prime Video also refers again to the fact that Morgoth “cannot create real, new things”, but can only pervert what already exists.
So this scene also contributes to drawing the orcs as more than just interchangeable and abysmally evil foot soldiers and henchmen of the dark forces, which seems to be a major concern for those responsible for “The Rings of Power”.
Amazon
Adar was able to escape from his bonds and flee the conflagration.
There will be more of Adar and the orcs in episode 7 or 8 of the “Lord of the Rings” series, because a short shot at the end of episode 6 shows that the orc father was able to loosen his chains and is probably safe somewhere has brought.
Should Sauron make a strongly allused appearance in the remaining two episodes, Adar could even turn against him, after all Sauron has numerous of his orc children on his conscience…
