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appendix f 1487
and in the Misty Mountains, had long used the Westron as their
native language, though in such a fashion as to make it hardly
less unlovely than Orkish. In this jargon tark, ‘man of Gondor’,
was a debased form of tarkil, a Quenya word used in Westron
for one of Númenórean descent; see p. 1185.
It is said that the Black Speech was devised by Sauron in the
Dark Years, and that he had desired to make it the language of
all those that served him, but he failed in that purpose. From the
Black Speech, however, were derived many of the words that
were in the Third Age wide-spread among the Orcs, such as
ghâsh ‘fire’, but after the first overthrow of Sauron this language
in its ancient form was forgotten by all but the Nazgûl. When
Sauron arose again, it became once more the language of Baraddûr
and of the captains of Mordor. The inscription on the Ring
was in the ancient Black Speech, while the curse of the Mordororc
on p. 579 was in the more debased form used by the soldiers
of the Dark Tower, of whom Grishnákh was the captain. Sharkû
in that tongue means old man.
Trolls. Troll has been used to translate the Sindarin Torog. In
their beginning far back in the twilight of the Elder Days, these
were creatures of dull and lumpish nature and had no more
language than beasts. But Sauron had made use of them, teaching
them what little they could learn and increasing their wits
with wickedness. Trolls therefore took such language as they
could master from the Orcs; and in the Westlands the Stonetrolls
spoke a debased form of the Common Speech.
But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen
appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of
Mordor. Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech. That
Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was
not known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs;
but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike
even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size
and power. Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their
master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and cunning, but harder
than stone. Unlike the older race of the Twilight they could
endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over