Orcs Are People

I'm just adding a link to the current Orctober challenge here, as several great pieces from orcish perspective have been posted to the challenge already and I expect there will be more! (Readers not familiar with the site: scroll down to find the posted stories below the challenge prompts.)

cuarthol encouraged me to share my newest fic here.

Against Expectation by chrissystriped
A fic I wrote for the Orctober prompt "buried alive". I write Orcs often as pessimistic -- or realistic, as they'd say. They don't expect good things to happen to them, so for this one the turn of events is a surprise.

Format: Fiction
Word Count: 309
Rating: General
Warnings: None
Summary: He is dead. His heart is still beating, but he is dead.

 

Not sure what the etiquette is on adding on to my own collection but:

Know Our Names by lemurious

Format: Fiction
Word Count: 700
Rating: General
Warnings: None
Summary:
The line between an Elf and an Orc, between a neighbor and an enemy, was not always clear in the North.
 

What a great collection with samplings from all over! I wasn't expecting to find essays in here but I am excited to read one or both of them, as well as some of the fics I have not yet read. 

I enjoyed your thoughts in the introduction too: "Whatever Tolkien’s final thoughts, his works depict Orcs with an undeniable humanity—they sing songs, chafe against Big Bosses, and even seek vengeance for deaths of family or comrades. Whether by intent or no, they were people beyond being mere pawns driven by a Dark Lord’s will."

Orcs, and Tolkien's complicated thoughts about who they were, are such fertile ground for the creation of transformative works. I hope the works in this collection inspire more. It certainly has me thinking...

And I'm back with another rec: All Living Things by Keiliss, which she says is more correctly called Eklach's Story, or An Orc's Tale, because that is what it is.

This story is about overcoming stereotypes (Eklach wasn't too sure about elves either). It contains non graphic injuries, unexpected babysitting, and a hopeful ending. Just another day really. 

Also on AO3.

I'd like to add what I consider to be an early, seminal work on orcs in Tolkien's milieu, namely the excellent Orc-brat series by thelauderdale.  Thelauderdale's stories originally appeared on Fanfiction.net in 2003, and are also available on AO3 (see aforementioned link).