The Black Uruks, or simply Uruks of Mordor, were an elite breed of Orc that made up part of Sauron's vast army.
History
Black Uruks were the first Orc-kind of Middle-earth named uruk, originating centuries before the Great Years when they made assaults upon Ithilien in 2475 of the Third Age.[1] (It was almost a millennium later that Saruman in Isengard bred the more familiar Orcs known as Uruk-hai.)
Boromir spotted Uruks of Mordor in Moria, soon before the skirmish in the Chamber of Mazarbul between the Fellowship of the Ring and the many Orc-kinds inhabiting Moria.[2]
Within Mordor, an unknown number of Uruks were stationed at the Tower of Cirith Ungol. After escaping from there, the Hobbits Frodo and Sam saw Uruks march from Durthang towards the Black Gate amidst the mass-movement of all of Sauron's remaining forces.[3]
Shagrat of Cirith Ungol
Portrayal in adaptations
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The army of Minas Morgul had Black Uruks in their ranks
In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Uruks of Mordor are frequently seen: the invented character Murgash is one of them, at the Siege of Gondor, and many others march through the Orc-camp encountered by Sam and Frodo in western Mordor. Most notably, Shagrat, in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, is portrayed as an Uruk.
Depiction
All Black Uruks depicted in the films are recognizable by their broader stature and long hair resembling that of the Isengard Uruk-hai. Gorbag was therefore depicted as a Black Uruk, being instead skinny, with the natural slouch of other common Orcs.
Ambiguation in films and games
In some adaptations, the label of "Black Uruk" is sometimes made synonymous with Black Orc (such as in EA's The Rise of the Witch-king) or even Morannon Orc - on the grounds that all three names denote a tougher breed of Mordor-indigenous Orc.
Translations
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Swart Uruks |
| Albanian | Urukë të zi |
| Arabic | الوركاءس الأسود |
| Armenian | Սև Ուրուկը |
| Azerbaijani | Qara Uruks |
| Basque | Uruks Beltzak |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | черно Уруки |
| Catalan | Uruks Negre |
| Croatian | Crni Uruks |
| Czech | Černí Skuruti |
| Danish | Sorte uruker |
| Dutch | Zwarte Uruks |
| Esperanto | Nigraj Uruks |
| Estonian | Mustad Uruks |
| Finnish | Musta Uruks |
| French | Uruks Noir |
| Galician | Uruks Negros |
| Georgian | შავი ურუქები |
| German | Schwarze Uruks |
| Hebrew | ארךס שחורים |
| Hungarian | Fekete Uruks |
| Icelandic | Svartur Uruks |
| Indonesian | Hitam Uruks |
| Italian | Uruks Neri |
| Japanese | 黒ウルクス |
| Kannada | ಕಪ್ಪು ಉರುಕ್ಸ್ |
| Kurdish | Urukên Reş (Kurmanji Kurdish) |
| Latvian | Melnie Uruks |
| Lithuanian | Juodi Uruks |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Црни Уруки |
| Malaysian | Hitam Uruks |
| Maltese | Uruks Iswed |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Хар уруки |
| Nepalese | कालो उरुक्स |
| Norwegian | Svarte Uruks |
| Polish | Czarne Uruks |
| Portuguese | Uruks Negros |
| Russian | Черный Урукс |
| Serbian | Црни Урукс (Cyrillic) Crni Uruks (Latin) |
| Sinhalese | කළු උරුක්ස් |
| Slovak | Čierne Uruks |
| Slovenian | Črni Uruks |
| Spanish | Uruks Negros |
| Swedish | Svarta-Uruks |
| Turkish | Kara Uruklar |
| Uzbek | Қора Урукс (Cyrillic) Qora Uruks (Latin) |
| Welsh | Uruks Du |
| Yiddish | שוואַרץ ורוקס |
References
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Ch. V: "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm", pg. 324 (50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition)
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter II: "The Land of Shadow"
