[Keeper of Dol Guldur]

Actually, Bard didn't come off with an Aragorn vibe to me. They hyped Aragorn as grim in Bree, but he turned out to be a very normal person, for however great he is. Bard had a very dismal outlook on everything, he was a pessimist. Also, his semi-romanian type descent seems evident, from his jet black hair (I thought it made mention of ringlets, but looking back I see it was just how I imagined it.), and his area of the world. But there of course is a connection between old world Germanic tribes like those that settled in Romania, and ancient Wales. Anyway, yes, I did forget to make mention of Bain. Bain slipped my mind, as he didn't fight in any recorded battles or anything along those lines. But as for the Raven connection, yes, Bran (legend)and Brand (Middle Earth) may have had some link between them that connected with Ravens, maybe he was named after them by his father, because they were friends to those people, and he was indeed wise, from what we know (besides being grim and valiant)so therein lies that connection. Of course, as for the connection to Manwe, I think that is purely fact, that all good birds are connected to Manwe. I don't see too much relevance in this fact linking Manwe to the Bardings. I'll try to get back with much more information regarding all of it.