Uruk-hai

The Uruk-hai were a breed of great soldier-Orcs, larger, stronger, and more fearsome than the common orcs of Middle-earth. The word Uruk was the Black Speech term for these mightiest of orcs, and they first appeared out of Mordor in the latter half of the Third Age, in the days when the power of Sauron grew strong again. Unlike lesser orcs, the Uruk-hai were tall, black-skinned, and powerfully built, and -- most fearsome of all -- they could endure the light of the sun, which weakened and dismayed their lesser kin.

They were disciplined and proud in their savage way, scornful of the smaller orcs they served alongside, and they made formidable shock troops, marching swiftly and far and fighting with a brutal cohesion uncommon among orc-kind.

Origins

The making of the Uruk-hai is shrouded in the dark arts of Sauron, who is said to have bred them in mockery and corruption of the free peoples. In the War of the Ring, the wizard Saruman, who had turned to evil and delved into such matters in his pits beneath Isengard, raised his own breed -- the fighting Uruk-hai of the White Hand, whom he marked with his sigil. It was rumored that he crossed orcs with Men to produce his servants, the half-orcs and goblin-men, though the truth of their making was kept hidden.

History

Saruman's Uruk-hai were the spearhead of his war. A company of them, sent to seize the One Ring, waylaid the Fellowship of the Ring at Amon Hen, slaying Boromir and carrying off the hobbits Merry and Pippin -- though they were destroyed by the Rohirrim before reaching Isengard. The great host of Saruman's Uruk-hai marched against Rohan and assailed the fortress of the Hornburg at the Battle of Helm's Deep, where they were broken at last by the defenders, the coming of Gandalf, and the wrath of the Ents and the wild trees.

Significance

The Uruk-hai represent the perfection of orc-kind as weapons of war, the deadliest soldiers that the dark powers could forge. Their creation by Saruman -- twisting living things into instruments of conquest -- mirrors his own corruption, and their crushing defeat at Helm's Deep marks the beginning of the unraveling of his power.