Tolkien's moral dilemma

A more serious problem arose for Tolkien, especially with apparently wholly evil beings, especially Orcs, but it applies also to others such as Wargs and Trolls. Since in Catholic theology evil cannot make, only mock, Orcs cannot have an equal and opposite morality to that of Men; but since they can reason about their lives and have a moral sense (though they are unable to keep to it), they cannot be described as wholly evil.[2][10][T 14]

Medieval image of cosmology of higher and lower beings Scholars have noted that Middle-earth assumes a fixed hierarchy of beings, like the medieval great chain of being.[4] (Ramon Llull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305, pictured) All of this implies, as various scholars have commented, a hierarchy of races comparable with the medieval great chain of being, representing a range of moral complexity from Men – unquestionably sapient and subject to moral judgement – down to mere beasts, which are free of morality. In between, however, are several peoples, which at least sometimes have the power of speech, but that Tolkien implies are wholly evil and without morality, raising questions about what that could mean.

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Scholars have noted that Tolkien's Orcs are depicted as wholly evil, meaning that they could be slaughtered without regret. All the same, Tolkien made them human-like both in being able to speak, and in having a similar concept of good and evil, a moral sense of fairness, even if they are totally unable to apply their morals to themselves. This presented Tolkien, as a devout Catholic, with a theological problem: since "evil cannot make, only mock", the at least somewhat morally-aware Orcs could not have been created by evil as a genuinely new and separate species. Tolkien considered an alternative, that they were corrupted from one of Middle-earth's free peoples, such as Elves, which would imply that they were fully moral and possibly even had immortal souls, but found that option equally unpalatable.[1][16][17] Tolkien realized that some of the decisions he had made in his 1937 children's book The Hobbit, showing his goblins (Orcs)[18] as even slightly civilised, and giving his animals the power of speech, clearly implied sapience; this conflicted with the more measured theology behind his legendarium.