An orc in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls “goblin”.
Especially in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. They are a corrupted race of elves, either bred that way by the Dark Lord Morgoth, or turned savage in that manner, according to the Silmarillion.
Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size. They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed. Most are small and avoid daylight.
By the Third Age, a new breed of orc had emerged, the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful, and no longer afraid of daylight. Orcs eat meat, including the flesh of Men, and may indulge in cannibalism: in The Two Towers, Grishnákh, an orc from Mordor, claims that the Isengard orcs eat orc-flesh. Whether that is true or spoken in malice is uncertain: an orc flings Peregrin Took stale bread and a “strip of raw dried flesh… the flesh of he dared not guess what creature”.
An intriguing video filmed from a passenger train in Colorado shows a curious bipedal creature that some believe to be Bigfoot lurking on a mountain. The remarkable footage came to light this week by way of Shannon Parker, who explained to a local media outlet that the sighting took place on Sunday as she and her husband, Stetson, were riding on the Narrow Gauge Railroad which connects the communities of Durango and Silverton. As the trip was winding down, the couple looked out the window of the train and were stunned to see what appeared to be a creature walking along a mountainside on two feet before squatting down in some brush.
Fortunately, the couple were not the only passengers to see the possible Sasquatch as a man sitting next to them also observed the peculiar creature and managed to film it with his cell phone. According to Shannon, she later showed the footage and some pictures from the sighting to workers on the train and they had no explanation for what the oddity on the mountainside could have been. “When we spoke to the conductor on the train he told us he hasn’t ever seen anything like it before,” she recalled to Newsweek, “and he himself has experienced unexplainable things while snowshoeing in those mountains.”
Since being posted online, the footage has spread like wildfire with many marveling at how clear it is in comparison to the average purported Bigfoot video. That said, response to the sighting has been largely mixed with some suggesting that the creature in the scene is a genuine Sasquatch, while more skeptical observers have posited that perhaps it was some kind of prank either orchestrated by the train company or a mischievous individual hoping to pull a fast one on the passengers.
Who is the mystery figure in the doorway ? Image Credit: Westminster Abbey
A clip showing a dark hooded figure in Westminster Abbey has been generating some lively debate on social media.As millions of people from all around the world tuned in to view the historic crowning of King Charles III yesterday, some spotted someone altogether unexpected skulking in the background during one particular shot of the interior of Westminster Abbey.
The figure, who could be seen hurrying across a doorway from right to left, was wearing what looked like all-black garments and was carrying something reminiscent of a scythe.
Before long, ‘Grim Reaper at Westminster Abbey’ was trending on social media.
Of course, in all likelihood, the figure in question was probably just a robed participant of the proceedings who happened to be hidden in shadow as they walked across the doorway.
Even so, their unexpected appearance, accompanied by a particularly coincidental piece of music courtesy of the orchestra, made the sighting somewhat amusing to say the least.
Two Godzilla movies had been made before the Brits got monster fever and unleashed the Beast Gorgo!
Gorgo is a 1961 science fiction giant monster film directed by Eugène Lourié, an international co-production of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ireland. The story is about a ship’s captain and his pearl diving crew who, with other fishermen on an island and an orphaned boy, discover and capture a gigantic amphibious sea creature and take it to London for public exhibition. This results in the creature’s much larger mother invading London in search of her offspring, causing catastrophic destruction across the city.
The film was originally intended to be set in Japan as an homage to Godzilla; the setting was then changed to France, and then finally to the British Isles. According to Bill Warren’s film book Keep Watching the Skies, southern Australia was also considered for a locale, but the producers supposedly decided that audiences “wouldn’t care” if a monster attacked Australia; its alleged lack of worldwide recognisable landmarks for Gorgo to destroy was also cited as a consideration.
The location where Gorgo first appears, the fictional Nara Island, is an anagram of the Aran Islands, off Ireland’s west coast. The exterior scenes set in Ireland were filmed at Bulloch Harbour and Coliemore Harbour, both near the County Dublin town of Dalkey. Other scenes were filmed at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
Scenes where Gorgo is driven through the streets of London were shot on a Sunday morning, when there was little other traffic. The film studio wanted Gorgo to fight the military, despite director Eugène Lourié’s objections.
Gorgo’s special effects were achieved by suitmation and miniaturisation, a technique pioneered in the Godzilla films. The younger Gorgo was smaller than most giant monsters, so the sets around him were built to a larger scale, leading to an enhanced sense of realism. The creatures were also shot with then-pricey slow-motion cameras to create a sense of scale. The effects were complex and are well respected by special effects artists and fans. The film is also sometimes praised for its innovative ending, in which, unusually for such films, the monsters survive and prevail.
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