Uglúk

Saruman's captain

Uglúk was the largest and most commanding of the Uruk-hai that Saruman bred in the pits of Isengard, a black-skinned soldier-Orc nearly the height of a Man, straight-legged, who bore the White Hand on his shield and the S-rune on his helm. He was proud of what he was. To him the Orcs of the mountains were rabble and the Orcs of Mordor were braggarts, and his own company were the fighting Uruk-hai, who had killed a great warrior, taken the prisoners, and could march by daylight while the others cowered. His orders from Saruman were exact: bring back the halflings alive, unsearched and unharmed, as fast as possible.

Parth Galen

On 26 February T.A. 3019 Uglúk's company, together with Orcs of Moria and the Mordor-orcs of Grishnákh, fell on the Fellowship below Amon Hen. They shot Boromir full of arrows as he defended the two young hobbits, and carried Merry and Pippin off westward at a run. Almost at once the band began to come apart. The Northerners wanted to kill the prisoners and go home to the mountains; Grishnákh wanted to take them east to Lugbúrz; Uglúk wanted Isengard. When two of the Northerners tried him he beheaded them both on the spot, and the argument was over for the moment.

The march across Rohan

For three days Uglúk drove the band across the plains of Rohan, and the march is the best account in the histories of what the Uruk-hai were. When the sun came up and the mountain-Orcs faltered, Uglúk's Isengarders took the hobbits on their backs and ran on. When Pippin's wounds slowed him, Uglúk had him doctored with a burning orc-draught and a foul ointment that healed the cut on his head overnight. When the Northerners tried to bolt for the mountains he cursed them and drove them back into line. He knew that the Riders of Rohan were behind him, saw the scouts on the horizon, and understood exactly how much time he had. He very nearly made it: on the evening of 29 February the Orcs reached the eaves of Fangorn, a few miles from Isengard's borders, with Éomer's éored closing around them.

Death at Fangorn

The Riders surrounded the camp in the night and struck at dawn. The Orcs made a last rush for the forest and Uglúk led it, and the histories record that he was the last of them to fall: Éomer dismounted and fought him on foot with swords, and killed him. Not one of the Orcs survived. The Rohirrim burned the bodies and set Uglúk's head on a stake, and rode away without ever learning that the two hobbits had crawled into the wood.

Legacy

Uglúk's failure was Saruman's. Had the Uruk-hai brought their prisoners to Orthanc the wizard would have had the hobbits to question, and the Ents might never have been roused. Instead his best soldiers died to a man on the edge of Fangorn, the hobbits met Treebeard, and within a week Isengard was a lake.

Slain by Éomer in single combat at the eaves of Fangorn at dawn on 30 February T.A. 3019, the last of his company to fall.