IIRC, "orc" is just the hobbit word for "goblin", so in the books there's no real difference between a goblin and an orc. Orcs as depicted in the LOTR movies an

IIRC, "orc" is just the hobbit word for "goblin", so in the books there's no real difference between a goblin and an orc. Orcs as depicted in the LOTR movies and other modern fantasy works would be called "hobgoblins" by Tolkien, as they were goblin but the larger kind. Also, while reading The Hobbit, I've always felt like goblins aren't the little pitiful creatures we imagine today, but are a bit taller and muscular, like smaller modern orcs with more human proportions. It's not based on any description Tolkien, it's just how I imagine those creatures through the way they are told. Last but not least, in the Hobbit his dwarfs (as it's how it should be written, according to the author) were a bit more "cartoonish" than the idea we have of them today: they wore colored hoods (much like garden gnomes), one had a blue beard, it's not said that they wear armor (and it's logical to think they didn't)... All in all, even though he greatly and directly influenced today's fantasy, it's not exactly his concepts of orcs and dwarfs, at least, that dominate fantasy, but rather the interpretation that some later artists had of his concepts. I'm not a Tolkien expert, though, so if anyone knows better, I'd love to be corrected.