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"I have my orders. And it's more than my belly's worth, or yours, to break 'em. Any trespasser found by the guard is to be held at the tower. Prisoner is to be stripped. Full description of every article, garment, weapon, letter, ring, or trinket is to be sent to Lugbúrz at once, and to Lugbúrz only. And the prisoner is to be kept safe and intact, under pain of death for every member of the guard, until He sends or comes Himself. That's plain enough, and that's what I'm going to do."
The Two Towers, "The Choices of Master Samwise"

Shagrat was a large, long-armed Black Uruk, Captain of the Tower of Cirith Ungol. He commanded one of two orc patrols that found Frodo Baggins after he had been poisoned by Shelob.

Biography

In the year TA 3019, Shagrat and his company, along with Gorbag's company from Minas Morgul, discovered the unconscious Frodo Baggins following the hobbit's encounter with Shelob, and took him back to the Tower of Cirith Ungol for searching. Later his Black Uruk tower garrison fought over possession of Frodo's mithril mail shirt with Gorbag's company, and sent up the Stair of Cirith Ungol to investigate matters. Shagrat interpreted his orders literally: all captives to be searched, but left unharmed and they and their possessions taken to Barad-dûr. Gorbag coveted Frodo's mail shirt for himself, and soon a fight over the shirt began. Gorbag wounded Shagrat in the arm with a knife, but was eventually killed by Sam. Their respective followers began fighting also, and slaughtered each other over the next several hours.[1]

Later Sam, carrying the One Ring, infiltrated the Tower of Cirith Ungol and soon realized that the garrison was effectively wiped out. Shagrat, however, managed to get past him carrying Frodo's armor and other personal items, escaping and taking them to Lugbúrz (Barad-dûr) as ordered.

It is possible that Shagrat was killed by Sauron or the authorities at Barad-dûr for the events that occurred at the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Alternatively, he may have been rewarded for his loyalty by being allowed to march to the Black Gate alongside his fellow orcs and Uruks as one of their captains. If so, it is unknown whether he was killed in the battle or the subsequent destruction of Mordor following Sauron's downfall, or if he survived and fled.

Portrayal in Adaptations

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

"The scum tried to knife me. Kill him!!"
-Shagrat to the other Orcs in the third film

In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Shagrat is of the same appearance as Uruk-hai in prior films. Instead of him, it is Gorbag who in the cave explains Shelob's eating habits, while Shagrat takes the Mithril shirt, saying it is his (while Gorbag intended to take it to Sauron), and in the resulting fight, Shagrat escapes with it. (Later in the film the Mithril shirt appears again at the Black Gates, in the possession of the Mouth of Sauron.)

Given Shagrat's adaptational disloyalty, he would almost certainly have been executed by the authorities for going against Gorbag's authority, which was aligned with the Dark Tower's interests, and that these authorities brought the Mithril shirt to the Mouth of Sauron.

Video games

ABCDE

LEGO Shagrat

In the video game of The Return of the King, Shagrat appears in the level of Cirith Ungol. After Sam kills Gorbag, Shagrat steals mithril and runs out of Cirith Ungol.

In The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (GBA), he appears as a secret villain who can be unlocked after the player finishes the evil campaign in hard level.

In LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game, he is a playable character. In the main campaign, he fights Shelob, alongside Sam (this was done to make the level co-op friendly). Like all Uruks, he has super strength, which is used to pull heavy handles.

In popular culture

The vocalist for the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir is named after this uruk, although he writes it as "Shagrath"

Voice dubbing actors

Foreign Language Voice dubbing artist
German Kai Taschner

Translations around the world

Foreign Language Translated name
Amharic ሻጋራት
Arabic شاغات
Armenian Շագրատ
Belarusian Cyrillic Шаграт
Bengali সাগৰত
Bulgarian Cyrillic Шаграт
Chinese (Hong Kong) 夏格拉
Georgian შარატი
German Schagrat
Greek Σχαγρατ
Gujarati શગ્રેટ
Hindi ष्हग्रत
Japanese シャグラット
Kannada ಶಗ್ರಾಟ್
Korean 샤그 라트
Macedonian Cyrillic Шаграт
Marathi शग्राट
Mongolian Cyrillic Шаграт
Nepalese ष्हग्रत
Persian شاگرات
Polish Szagrat
Punjabi ਸ਼ਗਰਾਤ
Russian Шаграт
Serbian Схаграт (Cyrillic) Shagrat (Latin)
Sinhalese ශග්රට්
Tajik Cyrillic Шаграт
Tamil ஷகிராட்
Telugu శగ్రాత్
Ukrainian Cyrillic Шаграт
Yiddish תהאַגראַט

References

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