Far from the Orc I love

[Kalimac]

NO, this topic isn't as scary as the header! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. What I'm wondering about - and I do apologize if this has come up before - is where are all the Orc women? It would be easy to think that they don't even exist, except for that passage in the Silmarillion "For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the children of Iluvatar" so presumably there were female Orcs somewhere (there's also that reference to Gollum killing "a small goblin-imp" in "The Hobbit" but that's more easily explained away as being non-canon). So presumably there are Orc-women (and children) SOMEWHERE, but where in LOTR could they be? Unless they're like female dwarves and blend in so much with the men that nobody could tell the difference, but still, there don't seem have been any Orc home villages or anything, and obviously the women wouldn't be hanging around guarding Cirith Ungol or anything like that - at least, you'll be looking a while before you find any Orc referred as anything except "he". It's understandable that they wouldn't be referred to much - it's hard to picture Shagrat or Grishnakh pining while on guard duty, wistfully humming "Black is the color of my true love's hair" while remembering happier times, but still...where were they?