[lindil]

Lailath, Not so much better horsemen I would say but just as the Grey and high-Elves [witness Legolas' way with Arod] had a higher 'level of being' than Men or Dunedain, so to do the Dunedain have a command over themselves and thus [potentially] animals than do the Rohirrim.

If any race of Men in M-E had a knack or training with some level of Osanwe it was the Dunedain of the North [ and less likely but still possible the nobility of Gondor], the Rangers of the North werre in close contact with the Elves of Rivendell and the Wandering Companies, and thus could have maintained and even increased any such skills they would had from the days of their Kingdom. this ability may well have been in play with their horses, and I would surmise have grown to be a genetic trait after succeding generations of communication. The Rohirrim probably had a lesser ability [but still superior to that of other mortals] with a very low level of Osanwe with their horses.so the Duneadin were 'better' or higher [in the M-E parlance] than the rohirrim, or indeed any Men now in M-E.

Anardil posted several points:

Sorry for digging up an old topic here, but there are many details about the Rangers of the North that I have long wondered about.

Do not apologize! It saves others the labor of finding old threads and linking them [ and Estelyn of closing them [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] or of others reposting/amswering the same information twice. So I can only encourage others - Open old threads! it is far more impressive and heart-warming to see that someone did some research here at the Downs [ or elsewhere] before putting up 'Is Glorfindel of Rivendell and Glorfindel of Gondolin the same Elf?' for the three hundreth time. Researching old threads is also I think, far more likely to get you a maximally comprehensive answer [at least from some [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]]

1. Where did the Rangers live? We are told that they were "a secret and wandering people", which seems to imply that many of them would never live long in a single place. Of course, they must have had at least one or two permanent secret bases, otherwise where would they keep their women and raise their children? This thread mentions a "secret fastness" somewhere in the angle between the Hoarwell and Loudwater. Does anyone know more about this?

As I posted way up above [and Saulotus confirmed] David Salo reported [ or found] a small note amidst the ASrchives at Marquette U. of JRRT's saying that the Dunedain had a Hidden Fastness a the confluence of the Mitheithel [hoarwell] and Bruinen [loudwater] Rivers. Right at the tip, probably so they only had to defend themselves actively to the North, but may have had secret escape routes involving the River. There were probably no other communal dwellings of any significant size in Fornost or Annuminas for 2 reasons, the 300 mile quote in the FotR:

"In those days no other Men had settled dwellings so far west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire. But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin....They roamed at will southwards, and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and rarely seen."

, and secrecy, the Dunedain would not be wise to stick their families in places that were well known to Sauron and Co. This is also probably one of the factors as to why they did not just all move into or next door to Rivendell [as it was they were 1oo miles or so straight downstream from Imladris].So news from their could have been exceedingly quick depending on whether boats were usuable for all or part of the river course.

There is no more info re: the Hidden Fastness that I know of, sadly enough. We are extremely lucky to know what we do!

Indeed the Arnorian information gap is probably the largest for any community of such central importance in all of Middle-Earth.

2. It is clear that many of the inhabitants of Eriador were familiar with the Rangers (e.g. the Bree-land folk), but how many of them knew who they really were? Did Sauron know?

Other than the Bree-Folk Eriador hardly had any inhabitants! There was the Shire, Bree various Elven settlements [ some not in Eriador proper - that had virtually nothing to do with the Hobbit/Mannish dwellings] A small group of Dwarves in the BLue mountains [again not really Eriador] and some Trolls.

There are also meagre mentions of secret fisher folk and wanderers in the Wild, but all told Eriador was possibly the least populated region of M-E we know of, excepting [ but maybe not!] the Forodwaith.
re: Sauron, we read [UT/LotR Appendices] that the witch-King had fought [ and all but destroyed] the Arnorian descendants thee, so yes Sauron knew something, but the Rangers delibratly kept as low a profile as possible, [and killed Servants of the Enemy when possible.]

3. It appears that the chief task and purpose of the Rangers was to guard and defend the land of Eriador against orcs, wolves and other enemies. In particular, they maintained a quasi-permanent guard on both the Shire and the Bree-land. Their last chieftain, Aragorn, seems to have spent most of his time travelling abroad and serving the rulers of Rohan and Gondor. Did he appoint a deputy to coordinate the defense of Eriador in his absence? Halbarad perhaps?

We do not know but clearly the Raqngers were as heirarchical as any in M-E, so we can suppose that Halbarad [as a 'kinsman'of Aragorn] is certainly a suitable candidate as he speaks for the group when encountering Theoden and co.. But in a community as small as I suppose the Rangers of the North to have been, probably everyone was rather closely or loosely related.

4. Clearly the Rangers had strong ties to the Elves of Rivendell, and to Elrond in particular. Indeed, we are told that "Arahael [son of Aranarth] was fostered in Rivendell, and so were all the sons of the chieftains after him". It seems however that an extra special job was done with Aragorn.

Well, he was adopted by Elrond, probably the first mortal so adopted since Thingol's ill-fated harboring of Turin. Also Elrond had prophesied that Aragorn had a High-Destiny as one of 2 possibilites for his future. So yes, Aragorn was probably given even more care in his upbringing than other cheiftans of the Dunedain raised there.

Were Aragorn's skills (esp. healing) general knowledge among the Rangers, or did he learn them specifically from the Elves?

We do not know what came from where, but surely a little sympathetic contact with High-Elves goes along way. And no man [ in his day] had more contact with Elves than Aragorn. Being Arwen's bethrothed also undoubtedly increased some of his sensitivities. Ironically enough, the dream sequence in TTT is based on the very real statments concerning Arwen 'watching over him in thought'.

I have not plumbed HoME 6-9 very deeply, but would be very interested in idea's JRRT may have had regarding rangers and Arnor that did not make it into the LotR.

However almost all of what we know is in UT and the LotR appendices.

As for the link given a few posts back to MM's sarticle on Ranger's, I heartily recommned all of Essays regarding the Dunedain and Elves. They specifically seems to be his stronger points.

[ January 27, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]