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In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are many different types of creatures. Hobbits, elves, dwarves, ents, humans, and giant spiders all have female members mentioned somewhere in the story.

But, as far as I can remember, wizards, orcs (or goblins), trolls, balrogs, dragons and wargs have no females mentioned in the trilogy. I would imagine that these would all (except wizards, since there are only five of them) need some sort of female to reproduce. Are female orcs mentioned anywhere in the canonical Tolkien literature? What about trolls, balrogs dragons, wargs, or others that I might be forgetting?

Peter Olson
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    I am pretty sure this isn't cannon but this question has been pondered before – DQdlM Nov 09 '11 at 16:03
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    I can't remember where, but I seem to recall something about dwarf-women not traveling very much and looking a lot like men – it might have been in the LOTR appendices. – MadTux Mar 10 '13 at 07:19
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    Especially Mordor - that place is a big time sausage fest. – coburne Sep 24 '14 at 14:51
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    @MadTux The appendices do indeed say that dwarf-women are not well travelled, which is why they are rarely seen. As a matter of fact, there is only one female Dwarf named in the entirely of Tolkien's works - Dís, the sister of Thorin and the mother of Fili and Kili. – maguirenumber6 May 06 '16 at 15:31

3 Answers3

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Wizards (the Istari) and Balrogs weren't exactly separate races or species; they're maiar: demigod-like spirits that might take the form of men or women, but don't actually have sexes in the traditional sense. But there were maiar who took the feminine form: Melian in The Silmarillion was a female maia (and had children - she was Elrond's great-great-grandmother).

Whether orcs and trolls were able to procreate (and thus, whether orc-women and troll-women exist) is an open question: it's established in The Silmarillion that Melkor couldn't create life ex nihilo: only Eru, who had the Flame Imperishable, could. So the only way to "breed" new creations was for Melkor to corrupt already living things.

In The Silmarillion,

For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the Beginning: so say the wise.

And in The Two Towers, Treebeard says,

Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.

But contrary to the passage above about Orcs having life of their own, in The Silmarillion it's stated,

[...]that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes.

So if this is the case, orcs and trolls didn't have sexes in the traditional sense: Melkor just warped whatever Elves and Ents he had in stock.

However, Tolkien himself went back and forth on this point, stating of the trolls so-called Letter 153:

As for other points. I think I agree about the 'creation by evil'. But you are more free with the word 'creation' than I am.* Treebeard does not say that the Dark Lord 'created' Trolls and Orcs. He says he 'made' them in counterfeit of certain creatures pre-existing.

And of creating life ex nihilo:

Suffering and experience (and possibly the Ring itself) gave Frodo more insight; and you will read in Ch. I of Book VI the words to Sam. 'The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make real new things of its own.

But in the same letter about orcs:

It is not true actually of the Orcs – who are fundamentally a race of 'rational incarnate' creatures, though horribly corrupted, if no more so than many Men to be met today.

So while the published works like The Silmarillion appear to establish orcs and trolls as corruptions of other living things (and thus, not truly beings in their own right), Tolkien was leaning more towards that being true of trolls but not of orcs.

And what's interesting is that Tolkien himself believed that orcs had female counterparts. In an unpublished letter to Mrs. Mumby, Tolkien stated:

There must have been orc-women. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known.

Dragons were also created by Melkor, but it's not clear to what extent they bred on their own (contradicting Melkor's stated power) or if they were all "bred" by Melkor himself: Glaurung is called the "Father of of the Dragons" and he had a brood, but it's not mentioned if it was simply an honorific (like the "Father of Disco" might be) or if he bred to create the other dragons.

There's nothing to suggest Wargs didn't breed, and if they did, there were females. There's nothing in The Hobbit to suggest all Wargs present were male.

Outside of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Humans, and Spiders that you mentioned, there's also the Valar, which had male and female aspects: the named Valier were Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Estë, Vairë, Vána, and Nessa.

There were also a great many beasts created by Melkor and by Eru: most things created by Melkor did not breed (and subsequently didn't have sexes), whereas most things created by Eru did (and thus, had both sexes).

But notably amongst Melkor's creations there were female creatures (or at least creatures referred to as female):

  • the Great Spiders that you mentioned, where you had Ungoliant and Shelob, although it's not clear if Ungoliant was something created by Melkor, a Maia corrupted by Melkor, or something else entirely.
  • there were also vampires, amongst whom, in the The Quest for the Silmaril, Thuringwethil is named the "woman of the secret shadow."

But like most things, Tolkien was loathe to get too worked up in the details and contradictions of his story, and whether X could breed but Y could not, and whether X had females or Y could not. In the same Letter 153, he says of the biological "difficulties" and peculiarities present in the Legendarium:

But I should actually answer: I do not care. This is a biological dictum in my imaginary world. It is only (as yet) an incompletely imagined world, a rudimentary 'secondary'; but if it pleased the Creator to give it (in a corrected form) Reality on any plane, then you would just have to enter it and begin studying its different biology, that is all.

And while this answer relies on Letter 153 and the unpublished letter to Mrs. Mumby, it should be noted that Tolkien didn't send letters for a reason: according to Christopher Tolkien (who compiled his letters), he left a note at the top of Letter 153 that said "Not Sent" and added "It seemed to be taking myself too importantly."

DavidW
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  • Re orcs and trolls: then did Melkor only corrupt male Elves and Ents? What do you mean by "didn't really have sexes"? Presumably, wouldn't they have the same sex as they did before in elf or ent form. – Peter Olson Nov 09 '11 at 05:15
  • @PeterOlson Melkor's creations were twisted, corrupted shells of life: they were more like automatons than true living things. They didn't breed and barely functioned without the influence of Melkor or the Maiar like Sauron or Sauruman: classifying them as one sex or the other doesn't work. There's nothing to suggest that Melkor only corrupted male Ents and Elves: in fact, there has been widespread speculation that Melkor's host of trolls is what happened to the Ent-wives. –  Nov 09 '11 at 05:29
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    ... Dude. Ents. Trees. Why would they even need genders? – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Nov 09 '11 at 08:37
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    @PeterOlson just because no mentions is made of orcs or trolls being male or female doesn't mean all of them are one or the other. Though in the time Tolkien wrote his epic, all combat troops in his experience were male so he'd not expect female orcs and trolls in battle or other military capacity, which is pretty much the only place we encounter them up close. – jwenting Nov 09 '11 at 08:41
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    @MarkTrapp I think you're going beyond what's canonical in asserting that orcs and trolls are simply corrupted elves and ents. Various characters speculate that this is the case, but it is not established anywhere. It is simply unknown whether it's true. And, in any case, it's clear that orcs do breed: Saruman created half-orcs by "blending" orcs and men, which implies reproduction. – Daniel Roseman Nov 09 '11 at 10:26
  • @DanielRoseman The published works do establish Trolls and Orcs being corruptions of Ents and Elves, respectively; but I do concede that Tolkien's letters indicate he was not particularly happy with that origin story. I've updated my answer to go into detail about what Tolkien said in his letters in addition to what's stated in The Silmarillion. –  Nov 09 '11 at 11:05
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    @Mark Trapp I believe Ungoliant was a Maia. – TGnat Nov 09 '11 at 15:01
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    @MarkTrapp do you have a reference to show that Melkor's corruptions could not reproduce? I would have assumed that he simply could not create a new kind of being out of thin air, not that he had to "make" each individual member, since reproduction is not life ex nihilo. In other words, is it established that every Orc in history was once an elf, or could that be true of only the first Orcs? – Travis Christian Nov 09 '11 at 17:22
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    @Shadur: If you think that trees don't have sexes then just let someone plant a ginkgo of the wrong sex in front of your house, so you will never forget how funny an idea that was. – sbi Nov 09 '11 at 19:53
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    I'm not a native English, so I might be wrong here, but how could Melkor "breed the hideous race of the Orcs" without having the male and female needed for breeding? – sbi Nov 09 '11 at 20:05
  • @TravisChristian It's not clear. In The Silmarillion it says both : that he could not make life from non-life, but also that orcs were able to multiply in a manner that only Ilúvatar could achieve. Tolkien himself believed later in life the Orcs were a separate, sentient race just like men and elves (i.e. not warped elves) and thus were able to breed by themselves. –  Nov 09 '11 at 20:19
  • @Sbi There's precedent in modern husbandry to create sterile hybrids like the mule. You can breed mules, but mules can't breed themselves. –  Nov 09 '11 at 20:22
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    @MarkTrapp: Yeah, I know that, but this usage of breeding to me seemed to hint at a longer process, where generation by generation elves slowly turned into orcs. But, as I said, I'm a non-native, so it's likely me who is reading too much into this. – sbi Nov 09 '11 at 21:26
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    @sbi the process isn't described. I've always assumed Melkor created the orc and troll species and they later multiplied without further intervention (they certainly are mentioned to be doing so in the LotR, which plays out long after Melkor was destroyed), which indicates some means of reproduction, but a-sexual reproduction is possible (they could for example be hermaphrodites). – jwenting Nov 10 '11 at 06:56
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    @Shadur have you even seen the films? Treebeard clearly states there were entwives, before they all dissapeared. – OddCore Jan 02 '12 at 10:02
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    And Entwives were mentioned in the books as well, there's even a long lament about it. – jwenting Jun 07 '13 at 10:03
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    @Shadur - Many plants are dioecious (i.e., male plants and female plants that are distinct from one another). I can assure you that when I tried to grow my own... Ummm... Let's just say a special kind of tobacco-like plants... I was always on the lookout for males, because females make the best "tobacco", but if there are males around, the females get pregnant and focus on producing seeds instead of "tobacco". And if you've ever eaten fruit, you have eaten the ovaries of a female plant, or at least the ovaries of the female part of a plant. – Wad Cheber Jun 01 '15 at 00:24
  • @Shadur - TL;DR: Many plants/trees are broken down into male plants and female plants. – Wad Cheber Jun 01 '15 at 00:25
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    @user366 they are not contradictory statements. They are in fact in direct agreement. Melkor can't create his own sentient beings, but he can corrupt existing beings, and those corrupted beings can continue to breed. – OrangeDog Apr 12 '21 at 13:52
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    "Bolg, son of Azog" heavily implies some sort of procreation going on among orcs. – chepner Feb 09 '22 at 22:58
  • @OrangeDog - I agree, as an analogy, today we can genetically engineer new traits into existing organisms, but only fairly minor variations (bunnies that glow in the dark etc.), we don't have the knowledge to create radically different organisms like dragons. Someone who was morally opposed to genetic engineering might say that we were only able to "corrupt" existing organisms that we found in nature, but that wouldn't conflict with the idea that our altered creations would still be capable of breeding. Nothing in any of Tolkien's quotes suggests "corruption" ruled out breeding. – Hypnosifl May 06 '22 at 17:26
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Ainur were of course spirits but they did have certain predisposition towards genders when taking material forms:

But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby."
Ainulindalë, The Silmarillion

This reference implies inherent division on males and females but not in our understanding, it's a difference in temperament, personality (some Ainur have personalities of a female some of male which they manifest in accustomed forms, which could be switched to opposite gender but without changing true nature).

About orcs it was clearly stated there are orc-women (and children :) same with other creatures that are capable of "breeding".

DavidW
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fantasywind
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  • Where did it say that there were orc-women? – A. B. May 07 '22 at 01:00
  • @A.B. not sure about an explicit quote on orc women, but it is made clear in one place the orcs reproduce sexually (as opposed to asexually, or by being grown in weird pits à la Jackson's Uruk Hai). – David Roberts May 08 '22 at 10:27
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Can be female:

  • Elves
  • Humans
  • Hobbits
  • Dwarves
  • Orcses
  • Goblins
  • Uruk-hai
  • Trolls
  • Ents
  • Púkel-men
  • Wargs
  • Normal animals
  • Nazgûl
  • Watchers in the Water
  • Great Eagles
  • Skinchangers
  • Great Spiders

Sexless but can take female form:

  • Ainu (Valar, Maiar, Dragons, Demons, Wizards, Balrogs, Barrow-wights, Goldberry, Ungoliant)

Unique male only:

  • Tom Bombadil
  • Eru
DavidW
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WOPR
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    the status of Tom Bombadil is unknown, it is suggested he may be an Ainu in either the LotR or another of Tolkien's writings. Eru afaik is never described as male, female, or indeed having a sexual nature of any kind, so I'd describe Eru as "unknown". – jwenting Nov 10 '11 at 06:58
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    Well Goldberry thought Bombadil was male. – WOPR Nov 10 '11 at 07:51
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    yes, he was certainly a male aspect :) The nature of Goldberry of course is also nowhere disclosed. – jwenting Nov 10 '11 at 10:25
  • Wargs are ainu too, in wolf bodies, aren't they? – b_jonas Jun 07 '13 at 13:00
  • @b_jonas: Wargs aren't Ainu; not even Carcharoth was a Maiar but bred by Morgoth. – leftaroundabout Aug 10 '14 at 20:45
  • Since when are the Barrow-wights Ainur? Goldberry is a river spirit, no? Not an Ainu. How can you claim Eru is male? – DavidW May 06 '22 at 16:19
  • @DavidW There don't seem to be any nature spirits in Middle Earth's cosmology other than the Ainur, as far as is ever mentioned, so we're left to guess that Goldberry is an Ainu, presumably one of Ulmo's - or maybe a hybrid like Luthien, since the only "explanation" ever given of what she is is the words "River-woman's daughter". Mind you, the whole Tom Bombadil thing seems to be a case of "let's put the Green Man in, cosmology or no cosmology", so Goldberry may still be a water nymph whether it makes sense or not! – A. B. May 07 '22 at 00:51
  • This answer seems somewhat out of thin air. Where on earth does it get the idea that there are known to have been female Watchers in the Water? – A. B. May 07 '22 at 00:59
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    @A.B. "Behold, when the children awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also and it will summon spirits from afar," (The Silmarillion) There are classes of beings other than the Ainur. – DavidW May 12 '22 at 17:15
  • @DavidW Interesting. Also found this while looking that quote up. https://middle-earth.xenite.org/what-is-tom-bombadil/ – A. B. May 21 '22 at 16:46