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Another one for Lord of the Rings here.

Another LOTR books vote. Early 70's.

LOTR here too, late 70's.

I think Tolkien came up with orcs. They did not exist before he wrote them. That's why it's quite reasonable that most of us have first heard of them through Tolkien's works. Well, the word itself might be quite old, but the orcs as we know them are creation of JRRT.

I think I knew there were these "orcs" before I actually read the Hobbit or LotR, but I am not sure where I heard it the first time. It must've been somewhere around 1980 or so.

Btw, as a child, my favourite Tolkien-based book was the Tolkien Bestiary! LotR had quite complicated plot for my liking and it was so goddamned long. The Hobbit was more fun, too. A while later I was introduced to D&D and it was like the Bestiary with stats! Mind was blown.

Jani wrote:I think Tolkien came up with orcs. They did not exist before he wrote them. That's why it's quite reasonable that most of us have first heard of them through Tolkien's works. Well, the word itself might be quite old, but the orcs as we know them are creation of JRRT.

I think I knew there were these "orcs" before I actually read the Hobbit or LotR, but I am not sure where I heard it the first time. It must've been somewhere around 1980 or so.

Btw, as a child, my favourite Tolkien-based book was the Tolkien Bestiary! LotR had quite complicated plot for my liking and it was so goddamned long. The Hobbit was more fun, too. A while later I was introduced to D&D and it was like the Bestiary with stats! Mind was blown.

Tolkien deserves the credit for the modern conception. The word apparently existed, but the concept of orcs as a species of humanoids (typically with an emphasis on muscle with ugly faces) is all Tolkien.

I actually find it interesting that so many people still recognize the originator of the idea as their first encounter. If you were to ask where most people first heard of power armor, Starship Troopers would not likely appear all that often I think.

This in around 1985, I really wish they'd done the second, just to see what they would have done with some of the characters missing from this half.

Not 100% sure, but I wanna say lord of the rings was the first time I heard it

I think either the Hobbit or actually Games Workshop Orcs and Goblins I got into Warhammer about the same time as I read the hobbit so its kinda a toss up.

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:This in around 1985, I really wish they'd done the second, just to see what they would have done with some of the characters missing from this half.

There is a kind of a sequel to that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_King_(1980_film)
I have not seen this one, actually just yesterday I found out about it. Same guys had produced earlier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1977_film)

Btw, Bakshi's LotR movie is from 1978. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1978_film)

lotr

Probably the Lord of the Rings movie (2001).

Either from the Ralph Bakshi LOTR film, The Golden Axe series of games or the Lone Wolf adventure books.

Technically the Hobbit, but as my dad used to read that to me in bed when I was young, I think it's fair to say that the Fighting Fantasy books were what made me appreciate/understand what they actually were.

Heroquest for me as that was my jumping off point into fantasy

When I was 8 my mom tried to get me to read LotR (I read the Hobbit instead), she described the Orcs like intelligent zombies who are fast.

Knox wrote:When I was 8 my mom tried to get me to read LotR (I read the Hobbit instead), she described the Orcs like intelligent zombies who are fast.

haha

filbert wrote:Hmm, maybe Tolkein I expect. Either that or the 'Fighting Fantasy' books that I remember reading as a youngster.

That was mine

For me it was probably the old D&D cartoon from the 80's, and I remember them as being big green pig people

I would have to say from playing Warcraft back around 1998(I was just a wee little 10 year old kid). Then my next exposure was when I first heard of 40K in 99-2000. Then Baldurs Gate, LOTR, and D&D.

From reading LOTR.

Also I'd just like to add DOWN DOWN TO GOBLIN TOWN

Playing PnP DnD.

LOTR when I was 6.....yes I was a fast reader and keen too. I read about 3/4 of the appendicies as well...

1982.
School - I was 14.
Some friends played D&D (or AD&D or something).

People talking about the LotR films that I wasn't allowed to go and see because I wasn't old enough and had parents who were seemingly in the minority when it came to abiding by age ratings.

My father read The Hobbit to my brother and I. I was 4 I think.

Andrew1975 wrote:


I actually had some plastic orcs that came with as cardboard castle when I was 5, I just called them pigmen because they were not identified on the box.

Wasnt Venger the Dungeon Master's son?

My first encounter with "orcs" was LotR, but the idea of them was perpetuated by WFB and Warcraft.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:My father read The Hobbit to my brother and I. I was 4 I think.

This. I was a little older, maybe. Although mine may have read it to us earlier than I can actually remember. Apparently he took me along to Star Wars or Empire as well, and I was an infant.

Mannahnin wrote:

MeanGreenStompa wrote:My father read The Hobbit to my brother and I. I was 4 I think.

This. I was a little older, maybe.

Same here. My mum did all the voices. That, plus Heroquest.

Albatross wrote:

Mannahnin wrote:

MeanGreenStompa wrote:My father read The Hobbit to my brother and I. I was 4 I think.

This. I was a little older, maybe.

Same here. My mum did all the voices. That, plus Heroquest.

He also had a box set of records of the BBC radio version of the Lord of the Rings which we listened to as kids, that was amazing but unfortunately was stolen (lent to a cousin of mine who sold it for drugs...). When I was 7, he gave me his old Lord of the Rings books which I read and reread many times, I always remembered how I disliked the covers and considered them too plain but I like them now. The covers were by Tolkien himself.

I have that set, though in much worse condition as my dad re-read it many times in his youth.