| “ | I don't take orders from orc maggots! Saruman will have his prize! We will deliver them. | „ |
| ~ Ugluk to Grishnakh. |
Ugluk is the leader of Saruman's Uruk-hai scouts in The Lord of the Rings books (and the movies after Lurtz is killed by Aragorn). He is an ill-tempered and vicious Uruk-hai leader who looks down on the Orcs accompanying him and his fellow Uruk-hai, and in fact outright kills Orcs who become insubordinate. The movie version takes it further by then cannibalizing the Orc the just beheaded along with his fellow Uruk-hai (also uttering the now famous line "Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!").
Ugluk's fate in the books is ambiguous, but in the movies, when the Riders of Rohan led by Eomer attack him and his band, they kill all of the Uruk-hai (Eomer later confirms they left none alive). Though Ugluk's death is not shown onscreen, his severed head is later found mounted on a pike, proving that he was indeed killed.
He is playable in the Gameboy Advance version of the video game Lord of the Rings: The Third Age if the player is playing the evil campaign.
Personality
While somewhat ruthless and potentially a man-eater like most of Orcs in Tolkien´s Legendarium, Ugluk had traits that are genuienly respectable like standing up for his clan of fellow Uruk-Hai. Ugluk even somewhat respected his enemies should they be courageous and bold. While Ugluk´s orders from Saruman was to deliver the Hobbits alive and unspoiled and him keeping them safe were because of Saruman´s orders it still did not change the fact that Ugluk helped Merry to heal with medicine (albeit forcefully making Merry drink the grog).
