Orc (Blake)
Encyclopedia
Orc is a proper name for one of the characters in the complex mythology
of William Blake
. Unlike the medieval sea beast
, or Tolkien's humanoid monster
, his Orc is a positive figure, the embodiment of creative passion and energy, and stands opposed to Urizen
, the embodiment of tradition
.
In Blake's illuminated book America, a Prophecy, Orc is described by his mythic opponent 'Albion's Angel' as the 'Lover of Wild Rebellion, and transgressor of God's Law'. He symbolizes the spirit of rebellion and freedom, which provoked the French Revolution
.
word for Hell
, and Orc is presented as a rebellious, Lucifer
ian character. He was created to serve as Blake's analysis of the revolutions in the United States
and France
.
Orc is a force of revolution, revival, and of passion who is the polar opposite to Urizen, the cruel and tyrannous god. Orc is the force of new life in the cycle and Urizen represents the older version of Orc that dies at the end of the cycle. As such, Orc and Urizen appear in their evolution from one to the other in the "Seven Eyes of God", or the seven historical cycles of Blake's myth. Each cycle is divided into three phases, which begins with Orc's birth and then describes Orc's binding, which is connected to the time in a human's life where they are at their imaginative greatness. This is followed by the creation of abstract religion and a view of the universe as mechanical. This is then followed by rationalism, which led to Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, and other empirical based scientists. The second phase is where Urizen takes over the fallen world, which is represented by the Enlightenment in the seventh cycle. This leads to materialism, the death of the soul, and warfare. This phase ends with prophets declaring that Orc will appear. The third phase describes a Orc's crucifixion and a return of human life to nature.
The character Orc is connected to the Biblical serpent, the image of being hanged on a dead tree, and to the sun. Of the latter, Orc's hair is like the sun and connects Orc to other stories, including that of Samson or of the death of the god Balder. Likewise, the tree image is similar to Odin's being speared and hanged upon a gallows-tree as a sacrifice. Since Odin is the a hanged god and a tyrannt, the image further connects the image of Orc with that of Urizen. Another image connected to Orc is that of the spear, a phallic symbol connected to the imagination. Orc uses the spear to attack Urizen, and the image also connects Orc to both Jesus and Odin as sacrifices to themselves. Like Jesus, Orc is also born around the winter solstice, a time when the sun is unable to warm the cold earth.
Orc is also connected to the inner workings of the human self. After Blake renounced the Orc men, the revolutionary leaders who he thought were like Orc, he distrusted all hero worship. Likewise, Blake believed that the imagination, represented by Orc, was purely mental and could not have the same form as a physical thing. Instead, it was part of the divine energy in man. As such, Orc is an internal life cycle that ends with a rebirth of the self. In general, Orc represented the freedom of the self in a Promethean manner, which connects Orc to Milton's version of Satan. In Blake's version, the true Satan was God, who created the physical reality, and the Satan/Orc figure represents the human desire which is transformed into accepting of law and reason. As such, Blake dismisses Milton's epic as lacking a hero and keeps Orc from being seen as a heroic figure.
In The Book of Urizen, the African civilization ends along with the third cycle, describing Adam and Eve, ending. Orc, symbolized as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, is cursed. This is followed in The Book of Ahania of a new cycle beginning in Asia, which parallels Exodus. Within the Israeli civilization, an Orc and an Urizen figure battles against each other with Orc representing a pillar of fire that guides the Israelites during the night while Urizen is a pillar of cloud that seeks to mislead them. Urizen is able to win over the Israelites by giving them the ten commandments and moral laws. These commandments are attacked by Orc in America a Prophecy.
Later in Vala, Orc describes the divided aspects of the soul, which, in Blake's mythological system, God has a twofold essence that is capable of good and evil. This idea parallels Blake's personal belief that there was a division within himself. In this later work, Orc is born during the winter solstice and Urizen begins to search for him. Urizen, during this time, becomes witness to the life cycles that Orc is part. When Urizen finally reaches Orc, the view of the Orc cycle is described in a deistic manner, which is opposite to how Blake believed is true. Urizen believes that Orc is connected to chaos and seeks only predictability in life. He sought to do so by creating laws, and mankind would be enslaved under the laws as uniformed individuals. Urizen crucifies Orc, in the form of a serpent, and war spreads over the land.
In The Four Zoas this is over-ridden: there the parents produce the four sons Rintrah
, Palambron, Bromion
and Theotormon. This is a double-dialectical analysis, rather than an inconsistency as such.
On the other hand Orc is connected to Luvah
in The Four Zoas VIII.
William Blake's mythology
The prophetic books of the English poet and artist William Blake contain a rich invented mythology , in which Blake worked to encode his revolutionary spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. This desire to recreate the cosmos is the heart of his work and his psychology...
of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
. Unlike the medieval sea beast
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
, or Tolkien's humanoid monster
Orc (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman...
, his Orc is a positive figure, the embodiment of creative passion and energy, and stands opposed to Urizen
Urizen
In the complex mythology of William Blake, Urizen is the embodiment of conventional reason and law. He is usually depicted as a bearded old man; he sometimes bears architect's tools, to create and constrain the universe; or nets, with which he ensnares people in webs of law and conventional culture...
, the embodiment of tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
.
In Blake's illuminated book America, a Prophecy, Orc is described by his mythic opponent 'Albion's Angel' as the 'Lover of Wild Rebellion, and transgressor of God's Law'. He symbolizes the spirit of rebellion and freedom, which provoked the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Background
The name Orc is possibly an anagram of the word cor (heart) in that he was stated in Blake's myth to be born of Enitharmon's heart or orca (whale) because he sometimes takes the form of a whale. Orcus is also the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word for Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, and Orc is presented as a rebellious, Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
ian character. He was created to serve as Blake's analysis of the revolutions in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Character
In Blake's myth, Orc is seen as the first child of Los with Enitharmon and sometimes either replaced in that position by another or not mentioned as a child at all. In the Four Zoas, the children of Los represent a just form of wrath, pity, frustrated desire and logic, which serve as an analysis of Orc's being. Orc's creation was based on the split between Los and Enitharmon, and he transformed from a worm into the form of a serpent. Based on Orc's relationship with Enitharmon, there is a split between him and Los. Los uses the Chains of Jealousy to bind Orc upon a mountain, and Orc becomes part of the rock. While bound, his imagination is able to exist in a cave located in Urizen's kingdom, which wakes up Urizen. When Urizen seeks out Orc, Orc is freed as he changes into a serpent. The form is corrupted and he is turned into a satanic image. Orc spends his time rebelling against Urizen, and it is only when Urizen stops fighting Orc that Orc is able to become Luvah.Orc is a force of revolution, revival, and of passion who is the polar opposite to Urizen, the cruel and tyrannous god. Orc is the force of new life in the cycle and Urizen represents the older version of Orc that dies at the end of the cycle. As such, Orc and Urizen appear in their evolution from one to the other in the "Seven Eyes of God", or the seven historical cycles of Blake's myth. Each cycle is divided into three phases, which begins with Orc's birth and then describes Orc's binding, which is connected to the time in a human's life where they are at their imaginative greatness. This is followed by the creation of abstract religion and a view of the universe as mechanical. This is then followed by rationalism, which led to Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, and other empirical based scientists. The second phase is where Urizen takes over the fallen world, which is represented by the Enlightenment in the seventh cycle. This leads to materialism, the death of the soul, and warfare. This phase ends with prophets declaring that Orc will appear. The third phase describes a Orc's crucifixion and a return of human life to nature.
The character Orc is connected to the Biblical serpent, the image of being hanged on a dead tree, and to the sun. Of the latter, Orc's hair is like the sun and connects Orc to other stories, including that of Samson or of the death of the god Balder. Likewise, the tree image is similar to Odin's being speared and hanged upon a gallows-tree as a sacrifice. Since Odin is the a hanged god and a tyrannt, the image further connects the image of Orc with that of Urizen. Another image connected to Orc is that of the spear, a phallic symbol connected to the imagination. Orc uses the spear to attack Urizen, and the image also connects Orc to both Jesus and Odin as sacrifices to themselves. Like Jesus, Orc is also born around the winter solstice, a time when the sun is unable to warm the cold earth.
Orc is also connected to the inner workings of the human self. After Blake renounced the Orc men, the revolutionary leaders who he thought were like Orc, he distrusted all hero worship. Likewise, Blake believed that the imagination, represented by Orc, was purely mental and could not have the same form as a physical thing. Instead, it was part of the divine energy in man. As such, Orc is an internal life cycle that ends with a rebirth of the self. In general, Orc represented the freedom of the self in a Promethean manner, which connects Orc to Milton's version of Satan. In Blake's version, the true Satan was God, who created the physical reality, and the Satan/Orc figure represents the human desire which is transformed into accepting of law and reason. As such, Blake dismisses Milton's epic as lacking a hero and keeps Orc from being seen as a heroic figure.
Appearances
In America a Prophecy (1793), Orc is described as a threat to the British colonies in America and to society. The angel of Albion sees Orc as an antichrist figure, and Orc views the prince of Albion as a dragon. During the work, Orc has an apocalyptic vision where the empire is destroyed and the oppressors of the world are stopped. Following the vision, Orc is able to get the Americans to rise up in revolution and they begin to attack their oppressors through a mental revolution. In Europe a Prophecy (1794), Orc is connected to the revolution in France but it is Los who calls the people to revolution. In The Song of Los, Orc provokes thought within the second half, "Asia", which unsettles the kings of earth, and Orc is described as raging across Europe. In these continental works, Los and Orc are seen as describing an apocalypse that would result in freedom.In The Book of Urizen, the African civilization ends along with the third cycle, describing Adam and Eve, ending. Orc, symbolized as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, is cursed. This is followed in The Book of Ahania of a new cycle beginning in Asia, which parallels Exodus. Within the Israeli civilization, an Orc and an Urizen figure battles against each other with Orc representing a pillar of fire that guides the Israelites during the night while Urizen is a pillar of cloud that seeks to mislead them. Urizen is able to win over the Israelites by giving them the ten commandments and moral laws. These commandments are attacked by Orc in America a Prophecy.
Later in Vala, Orc describes the divided aspects of the soul, which, in Blake's mythological system, God has a twofold essence that is capable of good and evil. This idea parallels Blake's personal belief that there was a division within himself. In this later work, Orc is born during the winter solstice and Urizen begins to search for him. Urizen, during this time, becomes witness to the life cycles that Orc is part. When Urizen finally reaches Orc, the view of the Orc cycle is described in a deistic manner, which is opposite to how Blake believed is true. Urizen believes that Orc is connected to chaos and seeks only predictability in life. He sought to do so by creating laws, and mankind would be enslaved under the laws as uniformed individuals. Urizen crucifies Orc, in the form of a serpent, and war spreads over the land.
In The Four Zoas this is over-ridden: there the parents produce the four sons Rintrah
Rintrah
Rintrah is a character in William Blake's mythology, representing the just wrath of the prophet. Rintrah first appears in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burdened air" shows him personifying revolutionary wrath...
, Palambron, Bromion
Bromion
Bromion is a character in the mythology of William Blake. According to S. Foster Damon he represents Reason, from the side of the poet's mind.-Incidence:* Visions of the Daughters of Albion, in which he plays a major role...
and Theotormon. This is a double-dialectical analysis, rather than an inconsistency as such.
On the other hand Orc is connected to Luvah
Luvah
In the mythological writings of William Blake, Luvah is one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. He represents love, passion, and rebellious energy. His Emanation is Vala; his fallen form is Orc. Throughout Blake's mythological system, he is...
in The Four Zoas VIII.