Where do orcs go when they die?

They go on the menu.

Congratulations, Robert, on your well-deserved nomination for a Tolkien Society award!

"Tolkien thought about this a lot" could be an opener for every video

I've often wondered why Tolkien never stated, even in his letters, that Men ended up joining God in heaven, as with his faith we would naturally conclude. But now hearing that letter, that he would never be so presumptuous as to guess God's plan, even within his own legendarium, is astounding to me. I'm utterly satisfied with not knowing now, because it's not just a mystery of "the writer never got around to telling us" but "the writer put so much thought into it that he couldn't possibly be arrogant enough to answer it".

I like to imagine them being healed in the halls of mandos. They had no say in what was done to them and very little in what they did.

The question I've always pondered isn't where Tolkien thinks that orcs go after they die, but where do orcs think they go after they die. Any clues there? The snatches of orc dialogue we get in LOTR indicates that orcs are obedient to Sauron and live in fear of him, but they aren't particularly happy about it. Do they look at Morgoth as a god who created them and has prepared an afterlife for them? Any clues from the canon?

One of the best things about LOTR is that Tolkien is trying to figure bits of it out too. He doesn’t know how it all fits together exactly. That’s what makes it feel so deep and real. It’s like how Gandalf has a VIBE of what’s important and what to do next, but he’s feeling his way forward, not making and executing predetermined plans…

I already knew Tolkien was a man to be respected, admired, and emulated (especially as a writer), but I never realized how much so until you got to that last portion. He could absolutely have speculated and theorized and no one would have questioned him, but instead chose to remember that he's still just a man, no matter how vast and immersive (almost real) the world he created was.

I think they wind up in New Jersey...near the Meadowlands.

I think the most important part of this video is pointing out the humility of Tolkien. It's an object lesson about fantasy, don't put so much into it so you lose the sense of fantasy. Good video!

Thank you for covering this topic as it should be covered. So many people get stuck in the "orcs are evil, why aren't they more nuanced?" without really digging into the lore.I think Tolkien's humility to give us ideas but not to make hard decisions is very ob point for his ideas.

Since Tolkien determined Orcs do have souls and only Eru can make a soul, we can narrow it down to options 2 and 4: either they were corrupted Elves or corrupted Men. Maybe they were a bit of both. So I think some of them were locked up by Mandos, and some of them left the confines of the world like all Men do.

You won't see them again til 2nd Lithe Edit @10:30 I already greatly respected Tolkien intellectually but I admire his attitude on addressing certain questions of the soul. His humility both shows the respect he has for what he considers to be sacred, but also works on the narrative level. Tolkien is not the god of his world. He is the storyteller, he is the loremaster and the sage who is judicious with his wisdom. But he still leaves some things in the hands of the divine.

I tend towards the view that orcs are corrupted elves and when they die they go to the Halls of Mandos to be healed in spirit and redeemed.

As a fellow Roman Catholic, and a student of British literature, I place Tolkien and Chesterton in a league completely of their own in terms of crafting literature and theology.

Safe to say the stone idea remained, but changed from Orcs to Trolls. Trolls were another mockery of holy creation, this time being the Ents. Perhaps their lack of intelligence and agency (in the wild, they only survive; they don't build), denotes the absence of soul, which Morgoth lacked the power to produce.

On the barbeque. Next question!

Thank you, mate for mentioning what so many people seem to forget, or ignore; Humans do indeed go to the Halls of Mandos, to halls apart, where they stay for a while, before venturing "onwards."

Not that I think it pertains to where Orcs really go after death, but I can imagine Orc Valhalla is one big Cirith Ungol brawl, filled with fatal executions and respawnings.

I generally like all of your videos, but this one is a particularly interesting question to consider. Very cool.