Doctor Frog’s Pontification Pad

As recorded by Magnus Shalebridge, dwarf, and edited for clarity by Perendeil, elf.

I am called Gul. That is not my name. As far as my understanding of names extends, I do not have one. The ones who captured me, dwarves, have names, and elves have names. This is strange to me. I am an orc and I do not have a name.

I am called Gul. I had a thousand thousand brethren, also called Gul. We labored in the nap of the earth for years, until called into striations for the name of Morgoth. Then we were Gul Pont, which means Dark Water. There was nothing about us that was specific to the nature of Dark Water. There was a banner with the sigul of Dark Water upon it, and those of us who were Gul Pont were to form lines around it. Of Gul Pont, there were four, Gul Ponti, running dark water, Gul Pontor, meaning glowing dark water, Gul Pongo, meaning still dark water, and Gul Prang, meaning burning dark water. Of those, I was of Gul Pontor, and we were all Gul, Gul Pont, Gul Pontor.

Here I am called Gul, because there is only one of me. This is what the dwarves call me, or Gul of Angband, or ‘the orc.’ They speak it as though it were my name, but they do not speak it the way the speak each other’s names.