Grishnákh

The Orc from Lugbúrz

Grishnákh came from Mordor, from the Dark Tower itself as he liked to remind the others, and he commanded a small company of Mordor-orcs sent over the Anduin to watch the river and the Emyn Muil in the last days of February T.A. 3019. He was short and crook-legged, very broad, with arms that hung nearly to the ground and a harsh, whispering voice, and he was cleverer than the Uruks he fell in with. His company joined the band of Uglúk and the Orcs of Moria in the attack on the Fellowship at Parth Galen on 26 February, in which Boromir was killed and Merry and Pippin were carried off.

The quarrel over the hobbits

From the first the three companies wanted different things. Uglúk had orders from Saruman to bring the hobbits alive to Isengard. The Northerners wanted to kill them and go home. Grishnákh wanted them taken east to Lugbúrz, and made no secret of his opinion that Saruman was a fool who would be dealt with in time. When Uglúk killed two of the Northerners to settle the argument, Grishnákh took his own Orcs and slipped away eastward, only to return the next day with forty or more reinforcements to rejoin the march across Rohan. What errand he had run is not stated, but he afterwards showed that he knew more than an Orc should: a Nazgûl had been over the river, and he knew something about a ring.

The search for the Ring

On the night of 29 February the Riders of Éomer closed a ring of horsemen around the Orcs at the edge of Fangorn and waited for dawn. In the dark Grishnákh crept to where the hobbits lay bound. He searched them, patting and fumbling, and Pippin, guessing what he wanted, made a swallowing noise in his throat and asked whether he was looking for something precious. Grishnákh was startled into showing his hand: he wanted whatever the hobbits carried, and he wanted it for himself, not for Uglúk and not for Lugbúrz. He offered to untie them if they gave it up, and when they bargained he lost patience, seized one under each arm and ran for the darkness beyond the horse-lines, meaning to take both hobbits and their secret away with him alone.

A Rider saw him. A spear went through him from the side and he fell shrieking, and a horse's hooves finished it. The Riders did not find the two small figures lying in the grass beside the body, and when they had gone back to their lines Pippin cut their bonds with the dagger he had taken from Grishnákh's belt and the hobbits crept into the forest, where they met Treebeard.

Legacy

Grishnákh was the nearest thing to a Ring-hunter that the hobbits met between the Ford of Bruinen and Cirith Ungol, and the only Orc in the story who acted on a suspicion of what the Ring was. His greed saved Merry and Pippin, since he carried them out of the camp minutes before the Riders destroyed it, and so began the chain of events that brought the Ents to Isengard.

Killed by a Rider of Rohan's spear on the night of 29 February T.A. 3019 at the eaves of Fangorn, while carrying off Merry and Pippin.