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tolkiens legendarium - Do orcs drink water?


At least in the film version of Return of the King, Frodo and Sam run out of water while trekking across Mordor, apparently having been unable to refill their water pouches in the tower or at any other point past there.


We know that the orcs eat regular food, but are they ever shown drinking anything besides orc draught?



Answer




Yes.


Sam asks the same question, of whether orcs eat and drink or just live on foul air and poison, and Frodo gives him the following answer:



"No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don't think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them; and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures. Foul waters and foul meats they'll take, if they can get no better, but not poison. They've fed me, and so I'm better off than you. There must be food and water somewhere in this place."


-- The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter I: The Tower of Cirith Ungol



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