<P> It is said in The Silmarillion: </P> <P> "But of those unhappy ones who were ensnared by Melkor little is known of a certainty . For who of the living has descended into the pits of Utumno, or has explored the darkness of the counsels of Melkor? Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressëa, that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes ." </P> <P> This text refers to the Quendi who ran and hid at the sight of Oromë when he came to lead them from Cuiviénen westward . These "corrupted elves" were the first orcs . There are various races of orcs (though with later races of orcs came different physical and non-physical characteristics like increasing tolerance to sunlight) all identical in their hate for everything that Ilúvatar and the Valar had constructed (including themselves) to resemble the hate that lay within Melkor . </P> <P> According to the oldest "theory" proposed by J.R.R. Tolkien (found in The Fall of Gondolin, from The Book of Lost Tales, circa 1917--the first tale of Middle - earth to be written in full), Orcs were made of slime through the sorcery of Morgoth: "bred from the heats and slimes of the earth". </P>

Where do the orcs in lord of the rings come from