Isengarders

"Curse the Isengarders! Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búb-hosh skai."

—A Mordor-orc in the mixed company of Orcs taking Merry and Pippin from Amon Hen

The Isengarders was the collective term used to describe the various Orcs that emerged from experiments in Isengard, serving Sauron's agent, Saruman, in the late Third Age. The term was often used particularly for the Uruk-hai more than the other Isengarders.

History[]

A traitor to the White Council, Saruman began building an army at Isengard. Around the year 2990 of the Third Age, he drew some of the Northern Orcs of the Misty Mountains into his service, keeping them in pits of mud carved out beneath Isengard.^[1] It is said that Saruman may have used these Orcs for purposes of "special breeding"^[1] in many experiments. Some of these experiments were influenced by the methods^[2] of Morgoth and Sauron and involved cross-breeding Orcs with Men,^[3] creating many different breeds of Isengarders, such as the vile and cunning Half-orcs^[2] and the powerful Uruk-hai.^[4]

By the year 3000, having become "an ally, or servant of Sauron",^[1] Saruman sent some of the Isengarders (many being "great Uruks") to join the Mordor-orcs and Moria-orcs^[5] in raids upon the eastern villages of Rohan.^[6]

By the time he took Gandalf captive in Isengard, the number of Isengarders produced from Saruman's experiments had grown, now including Orc-like creatures he used as Wolf-riders.^[4] The Isengarders had defiled Nan Curunír, turning the valley into a "slave's flattery" of Mordor,^[7] filled with forges, furnaces, and other machines.^[4] The Orcs procured their wood from Fangorn Forest, earning the enmity of the Ents.^[3]

At the start of the War of the Ring, the Isengarders began displaying the White Hand on their banners, faces, helms, and shields.^[8] In the year 3019, a large army of Isengarders and Dunlendings engaged the Rohirrim forces in the First Battle of the Fords of Isen, dispatched with orders to kill Théoden's heir; an Orc-man mortally-wounded Théodred, after which Saruman's minions retreated.^[9]

Saruman also sent a horde of Uruk-hai led by Uglúk to attack the Fellowship of the Ring at Amon Hen and attain the One Ring.^[8] Though the Isengarders captured two Hobbits and slew Boromir,^[10] their return journey was slowed by conflict with some Moria-orcs and the Mordor-orcs sent by Sauron himself.^[8] All of the Orcs were slain in an attack by Éomer and his company on the eaves of Fangorn Forest.^[11] Meanwhile, Isengarders and Dunlendings wreaked havoc in the Westfold of Rohan. Caught as traitor to both the Free Peoples of the World and his new master, Saruman tried to appease Sauron by sending his 10,000 strong army to crush the people of Rohan at Helm's Deep. The Orcs and the Wild Men were vanquished in the Battle of the Hornburg.^[12] The remaining Isengarders were destroyed alongside Saruman's other servants in the last march of the Ents.^[13]

In adaptations[]

In the film tie-in The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, the Northern Orcs recruited by Saruman are referred to as Saruman's Orcs. Instructed by his new master to build him a second army, it is said that Saruman replicated Sauron's methods of breeding Uruk-hai by crossing Orcs with Goblin-men.^[14] The Toybiz toy-line uses the term Isengard Orc.

In the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Saruman's Orcs are called to Isengard to begin the final preparations for war. Carrying out "orders from Mordor", they cut down the tree gardens around the Tower of Orthanc to reveal a network of caverns filled with forges, furnaces, and other machines. Inside the pits, Saruman's Orcs made up arms for their masters' forces and dug out the Uruk-hai from their birth-pods.

In the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Saruman instructs an Orc overseer to hasten with the completion of his army; he sanctions the burning of Fangorn wood to fuel his war machine. At his master's behest, the White Wizard begins sending raiding parties of his Orcs and Dunlendings to terrorize the Westfold of Rohan. Saruman's Orcs are destroyed during the Ents' attack on Isengard, being either crushed to death or drowned after the breaking of the dam.

In other versions[]

In the index of The Lord of the Rings which was not made by J.R.R. Tolkien, the term "Isengarders" is listed as being an alternative name of the Uruk-hai despite Tolkien's use of the term including the Orcs and Half-orcs of Isengard as well.^[15]

References[]