When marveling upon Middle Earth’s great fortresses and cities,
one can easily wonder how all these strongholds and their material cultures come into being.
Tolkien was a philologist, not an economist, but when reading between the pages of his works,
a semblance of economic life is present in its various cultures. Indeed, Tolkien devoted a
considerable amount of thought to the withertos and whyfors of everyday life in his world,
a phenomenon just waiting to be explored. In our previous videos on the societies and
cultures of middle earth, we covered the day to day lives of Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and
men. In this special episode, we will venture beyond the pale of good, and explore how,
simply or not, one survives in the land of Mordor. The Dark Lord Sauron was the greatest subversive
Maia and most trusted lieutenant to Morgoth. Thus, when Morgoth fell, Sauron found himself in control
of his erstwhile master’s great host of thralls: the Orcs. Morgoth held the Orcs in dire thraldom;
for in their corruption they had lost almost all possibility of resisting the domination of his
will. When Morgoth was at last removed from Arda, the Orcs that survived in the West were scattered,
leaderless and almost witless, and were for a long time without control or purpose. This servitude
to a central will that reduced the Orcs almost to an ant-like life was seen even more plainly
in the Second and Third Ages under the tyranny of Sauron, Morgoth's chief lieutenant. Sauron indeed
achieved even greater control over his Orcs than Morgoth had done. He was, of course, operating on
a smaller scale, and he had no enemies so great and so fell as were the Noldor in their might
in the Elder Days. But he had also inherited from those days difficulties, such as the diversity of
the Orcs in breed and language, and the feuds among them; the Orcs recovering from their
helplessness had set up petty realms of their own . Morgoth created the Orcs, but it was Sauron who
inherited them. Yet, despite appearances, he did not have full control over them.
During the Third Age, Sauron re-established his dominion in Mordor, whereupon he started
to breed armies and build war machines with the purpose of conquering all of middle-earth.
Yet despite his infernal realm being quite unlike the rest of the world in many ways, Mordor was not
unique in that it required food production, labor and trade in order to sustain a prolonged war.
Throughout Tolkiens’ various works, we receive various tidbits which relate to us the nature of
economic activity in Mordor, and that of Orcs in general. For example, in 2790 TA, Dwarf-King Thror
revisited the lost Dwarven city Moria, seeking to restore the abandoned realm of Khazad-dum,
but was attacked by the orc war-chief: Azog the Defiler. Azog killed and beheaded Thror,
proclaiming himself king over Moria. After this defeat, Thror’s companion, Nar, waited 3 days
to retrieve the King’s body, until Azog decided to use him as a messenger, resulting in this passage:
'Drop it! Be off! Here's your fee, beggar-beard.' A small bag struck him. It held a few coins
of little worth . While this mockery of wergild does not necessarily indicate a
fully structured Orc economy, it does show us Orc's understood the value of currency.
This also gives us some evidence as to why Orc’s plunder such items as gold,
perhaps it was used for trade. We also hear another instance when Pippin and
Merry are captured by Orcs and they are bickering over their orders. 'I am Ugluk. I command.
I return to Isengard by the shortest road.' 'Is Saruman the master or the Great Eye?'
said the evil voice. 'We should go back at once to Lugburz .' 'Maybe, maybe! Then you'll fly off with
our prisoners, and get all the pay and praise in Lugburz, and leave us to foot it as best we
can through the Horse-country . This indicates a reward system for Orcs from Sauron, though we have
no way of knowing if it's monetary. Perhaps the payment an Orc could receive was food or prestige.
One thing we do know is that not all Orcs were always enthralled to Sauron,
with the Orcs of Gundabad and the Misty Mountains ostensibly having no ties to the fallen Maiar.
Take for example Goblin town, which had its own semi independent ruler the Goblin King. We get
some instances of what Orcish independence was like from conversations between Shagrat and Gorbag
`We'll see. But anyway, if it does go well, there should be a lot more room. What d'you say? - if
we get a chance, you and me'll slip off and set up somewhere on our own with a few trusty lads,
somewhere where there's good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses.' 'Ah! ' said Shagrat.
`Like old times .' During times when Sauron was concealing himself, the Orcs became accustomed
to independence and formed petty realms of their own such as Gundabad and Moria,
the latter existing in the husk of a Dwarven city. Taking this into account it would seem
that in order to maintain his dominion over Orc’s, Sauron had to provide something aside from fear to
keep them in thraldom, that thing may have been the most basic need of sentient beings: food.
Like Elves, Dwarves and Men, Orcs need sustenance, and Tolkien’s works provide us with plenty of
references to the dietary habits of Orcs. As Ugluk mentioned to Snaga “How do you folk like being
called swine by the muck-rakers of a dirty little wizard? It's orc-flesh they eat, I'll warrant.'
'I know,' growled Ugluk. 'The cursed horse-boys have got wind of us. But that's all your fault,
Snaga. You and the other scouts ought to have your ears cut off. But we are the fighters. We'll feast
on horseflesh yet, or something better.' But for us you'd all have run away. We are the fighting
Uruk-hai! We slew the great warrior. We took the prisoners. We are the servants of Saruman
the Wise, the White Hand: the Hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat’. Well, just about any reader
of Tolkien knows the most popular item on the menu for Orc’s is meat and just about any kind at that.
Yet, just as there is a common misconception that all elves are vegetarians,
so too is there a misconception that all Orcs are exclusively carnivores. When Pippin and
Merry are captured by the Orcs they see more than flesh being devoured. “An Orc stooped over him,
and flung him some bread and a strip of raw dried flesh. He ate the stale grey bread hungrily,”.
The presence of the grey bread would also indicate somewhere there was an Orc bakery of sorts,
a rather odd image . But for there to be bread, it begs the question, where are they obtaining grain?
When Frodo and Sam gazed over the dark lands of Gorgoroth they “They wondered how the Lord of
this realm maintained and fed his slaves and his armies. Yet armies he had. As far as their eyes
could reach, along the skirts of the Morgai and away southward, there were camps, some of tents,
some ordered like small towns” . Gorgoroth was devoid of life, a literal wasteland where only
tangled brambles grew. Sam asked Frodo “Don't orcs eat, and don't they drink? Or do they just live
on foul air and poison?' Frodo replied “No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can
only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs,
it only ruined them and twisted them; and if they are to live at all, they have to live like
other living creatures. Foul waters and foul meats they'll take, if they can get no better,
but not poison. They've fed me, and so I'm better off than you. There must be food and
water somewhere in this place.' ” Of course, we know Orcs eat and drink, but if Gorgoroth
was full of Sauron’s armies and slaves without any sustainable agriculture, how was he feeding
them? Neither Sam nor Frodo knew anything of the great slave-worked fields away south in this
wide realm, beyond the fumes of the Mountain by the dark sad waters of Lake Núrnen” . Indeed,
Lake Nurnen provided lands fertile enough to require slaves to work it. Perhaps it was in
Nurn where grain was harvested to make bread. The lands of Nurn had to be exceedingly productive,
because they would become a large reward for those who underwent the horrors of slavery at the hands
of Sauron. During the end of the Return of the King it is said that after Aragorn was
crowned as King Elassar “embassies came from many lands and peoples, from the East and the South,
and from the borders of Mirkwood, and from Dunland in the west. And the King pardoned the Easterlings
that had given themselves up, and sent them away free, and he made peace with the peoples of Harad;
and the slaves of Mordor he released and gave to them all the lands about Lake Núrnen to be their
own. And there were brought before him many to receive his praise and reward for their valour;
and last the captain of the Guard brought to him Beregond to be judged . So from this we
can gather the fertility of Nurn was abundant, and with the need for slaves to be brought in,
Nurn must have been capable of sustaining most if not all of Saurons Mordor forces.
Speaking of slaves, we know that during the War of the Ring, Sauron’s armies attacked the
realms of men often, such as when the Wainriders assaulted Gondor slaying King Narmacill II in 1856
TA and enslaved the peoples of eastern and southern Rhovanion . In order for Mordor
to receive their bounty of goods and slaves from reaches as far as Rhovanion, a tributary ally with
a navy was crucial. This ally was of course the Corsairs of Umbar who enjoyed more independence
from Sauron than the Easterlings or Haradrim. The Corsairs assailed Gondor and its Fiefdoms for ages
to horrifying effect. During the Return of the King Aragorn attacked the Corsairs and rescued
many slaves. “And then to each of the great ships that remained Aragorn sent one of the Dúnedain,
and they comforted the captives that were aboard, and bade them put aside fear and be free.
That night we rested while others laboured. For there were many captives set free, and many slaves
released who had been folk of Gondor taken in raids; and soon also there was a great gathering
of men out of Lebennin and the Ethir, and Angbor of Lamedon came up with all the horsemen that he
could muster” . The Corsairs were a crucial component of Mordors military and logistical
network. With their formidable navy, Umbar allowed Sauron to extract countless slaves and booty back
to Mordor from the far reaches of middle-earth. Other than enslaving their enemies,
Mordor acquired a vast amount of slaves and goods from their tributary allies such as the Southrons
and the Easterlings . As told to us in the Return of the King “ the great roads that ran away east
and south to tributary lands, from which the soldiers of the Tower brought long waggon-trains
of goods and booty and fresh slaves. Here in the northward regions were the mines and forges,
and the musterings of long-planned war; and here the Dark Power, moving its armies like pieces on
the board, was gathering them together ”. The tributaries of Mordor paid homage to Mordor not
only in goods, but in the vast amounts of slaves who worked the fields of Nurn. We also see that in
Gorgoroth, there were mines and forges, making war machines and weapons which could have been
traded back to Mordors’ tributary allies. Perhaps Mordor supported its tributaries with weapons and
equipment much like how Gondor did so for Rohan. We also know from the historic relationship
between Men and Dwarves that the dominant economic activity of Men was that of agriculture,
so it is to be expected the tributary lands also provided some foodstuff to help Sauron feed hungry
Orc mouths. Thus, it seems as if slavery and tributary goods perhaps were enough to meet
Mordor’s needs. However, it did not stop Mordor from also attempting trade to make ends meet.
In the Two Towers, we hear many rumors about Rohan paying tribute to Mordor. 'Then you do not pay
tribute to Sauron?' said Gimli. 'We do not and we never have.' said Eomer with a flash of his eyes;
'though it comes to my ears that that lie has been told. Some years ago the Lord of the Black
Land wished to purchase horses of us at great price, but we refused him. for he puts beasts
to evil use. Then he sent plundering Orcs, and they carried off what they can, choosing always
the black horses: few of these are now left. For that reason our feud with the Orcs is bitter”.
Thus it seems Mordor at least attempted to trade, most likely by offering riches from their mines in
Gorgoroth, but it was ultimately to no avail. When push came to shove, Sauron opted to simply steal
the black horses, whether it was for cavalry or perhaps just for meat. We also know Mordor had a
particular need for riches outside its territory as seen with the raids of other Orc groups.
‘No one knows,’ said Gandalf. ‘None have dared to seek for the armouries and treasure chambers
down in the deep places since the dwarves fled. Unless it be plundering orcs.‘They came here
because of Mithril,’ said Gandalf. ‘It was for that that Moria was of old chiefly renowned,
and it was the foundation of the wealth and power of Durin: only in Moria was mithril
found save rarely and scantily.‘They give it in tribute to Sauron, who has long been gathering
and hoarding all that he can find. It is not known why: not for beauty, but for some secret purpose
in the making of weapons of war. ’ The Orcs plundered places like Moria for its weaponry,
treasures and most importantly for Mithril which Sauron coveted for some secret weapon? Being the
craftsman of the One Ring, whatever purpose he had for Mithril, it must have been terrible indeed.
Sauron’s Mordor was a slavery dominated economy. It seems Sauron maintained order within Mordor and
his loyal forces outside it using a system of reward, and by providing necessary sustenance
to his minions. We may never know the fine details of how Sauron administered his domain over groups
such as the Orcs, trolls and so forth, but we do know for a military to march it has to eat.
While it can be argued Sauron controlled Orcs through fear, fear alone did not keep them alive
to help him conquer middle-earth. Sauron like any ruler had to deal with the logistics of
empire building and Mordor was not easy by any means to support. Through his evil cunning he
was able to build a sophisticated system that used slavery, pillaging and tribute to make ends meet.
We are going to talk about the economy of Middle Earth in the coming weeks,
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