Tolkien preferred "ork" in his later writings. There is some discussion of the spelling in his guide to translating names: > It should be spelt ork (so the Dut

Tolkien preferred "ork" in his later writings. There is some discussion of the spelling in his guide to translating names: > It should be spelt ork (so the Dutch translation) in a Germanic language, but I had used the spelling orc in so many places that I have hesitated to change it in the English text, though the adjective is necessarily spelt orkish.