The Dunedain Rangers

The Dunedain rangers are treated much the same in historical records as they were in life – that is, they’re working pretty much non-stop to keep everybody safe and happy, and receive almost no recognition for it. The Shire is, unbeknownst to the hobbits, protected round-the-clock by rangers. Every time there’s an increase in orc populations, or the rivers flood, or there’s an especially bad winter, or the wolves migrate south – the rangers are there, fighting battles, herding refugees, delivering supplies, and chasing off the wolves.

In the Fellowship movie, when Boromir makes that comment about Gondor fighting Mordor “while your lands are kept safe”, and Aragorn does that epic eye-roll? That’s not just because Boromir’s being pompous, but because Aragorn’s father (Arathorn II) was stabbed through the eye by an orc. And his grandfather (Arador) was killed by hill trolls. And his great-grandfather (Argonui) died of cold or disease during the Fell Winter. And his great-great grandfather (Arathorn I) was killed by wolves. And his great-great-great grandfather (Arassuil) delivered emergency supplies to The Shire during the Long Winter (though Gandalf got all the credit for that.)

Basically the Dunedain were once lords – nobility of the great kingdom of Arnor. Their kingdom fell, was taken away from them by civil war and the Witch King. They could have moved south to Gondor, and still lived like lords. Or they could have become simpler people, and lived out happy peaceful lives like the men of Bree. Instead they chose to hang on to all the responsibility of lordship – protecting the people living in Eriador, fighting every evil that passes through – without any of the perks. No castles, (no cities left, even, they’re all deserted.) Just a dwindling group of bad-ass, increasingly shifty-looking men, wandering the wild and fighting the good fight. And that’s pretty awesome.

SOURCES: LOTR, LOTR Appendices

((Somewhere in the middle of this post I lost track of what I was supposed to be talking about. If you have a more specific question about the Dunedain rangers, please let me know and I’ll try to be more direct next time, lol.))

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