<Tr> <Th> Base of operations </Th> <Td> Isengard, Mordor </Td> </Tr> <P> The Uruk - hai are fictional characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle - earth . They are introduced in The Lord of the Rings as an advanced breed of orcs that serve Sauron and Saruman . The first uruks appeared out of Mordor in attacks on Gondor in T.A. 2475 . </P> <P> The name "Uruk - hai" has the element Uruk, which is a Black Speech word related to Orc, related to the word "Urko" in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya . The element hai means "folk", so "Uruk - hai" is "Orc - folk". A similar term is "Olog - hai" ("troll - folk"), used for a breed of especially strong and vicious trolls capable of surviving sunlight . </P> <P> Christopher Tolkien describes "Uruks" as an anglicization of "Uruk - hai" and his father used the two terms interchangeably a number of times . While "Uruk - hai" means simply "Orc - folk", the term was reserved for the soldier orcs of Mordor and Isengard . The larger orcs called the smaller breeds snaga ("slave"). </P>

Lord of the rings orcs in the mud