Yellow-fanged guard

Orcs
Yellow-fanged guard
Biographical Information
Affiliation	Mordor-orcs or Orcs of the Misty Mountains
Language	Orkish (Black Speech) Westron
Death	27 February T.A. 3019 Western Emyn Muil
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Weaponry	Black knife with a long jagged blade

The yellow-fanged guard was an orc in the company of orcs that kidnapped Merry and Pippin. He had yellow fangs and a black knife with a long sharp steel blade, jugged like a saw-edge.

History

Two or more orc were guarding the captured hobbits. These orcs spoke with each other in their own tongue, but used Common Speech when talking to Pippin. The yellow-fanged guard threatened Pippin with this knife. He also cursed the Isengarders and their leader Uglúk both in Common Speech and in a debased form of Black Speech.^, His curse is one of the two known phrases in Black Speech.

Soon a quarrel arose among the orcs about their future route and the fate of the prisoners. The yellow-fanged guard joined the fray and was cut down by broad-bladed swords of the followers of Uglúk. His body fell on top of Pippin, who managed to cut the ropes tying his arms using the knife that the orc still held in his dead hand. Four more orcs were slain by Uglúk and other Isengarders during that quarrel.

Origin

It is unclear whether the yellow-fanged guard was a Mordor Orc or an Orc of the Misty Mountains. J.R.R. Tolkien himself in the Appendix F identified him as "the Mordor-orc" and as a soldier of the Dark Tower whose captain was Grishnákh. On the other hand, Aragorn called some or all of the five orcs slain in that quarrel "Northern Orcs from far away". However, considering that the Fellowship previously encountered black Uruks of Mordor in Moria, both of these statements may be true in the same time.