[Archaic Elf]

Originally Posted by shadowfax

The fact that the rangers were keeping watch does not mean they were on sentry duties. It could also mean that they were keeping a watchful eye while going about other things. They may have lived in scattered homesteads and would have been aware of anything that moved in their vicinity and would have taken action as required.

I sort of think of the rangers as a police force. They may have been like sentries living in small communities (like Turin and his band of outlaws) in the woods. They had to be capable of hunting and living off the land for an extended period of time. Maybe they did this for short periods before returning to society for a season (where they had regular jobs), and then once again taking another shift in the wild later on. Maybe the people in and around Eriador paid taxes to help fund the rangers?

Originally Posted by PrinceOfTheHalflings

As to how many Rangers there were in Eriador ... it's unlikely that there could have only been 30 (or 31 if you add Aragorn). Presumably there were other Rangers who were still guarding the women and the children of Aragorn's kinfolk in the North. We know that the watch over the Shire and Bree was affected due to the absence of Rangers, but it's unlikely that the Rangers' settlements would have been left unguarded. There would have been little point in overseeing a victory over Sauron and then returning home to find all the women and children had been carried off and/or slaughtered by orcs (or other dark forces).

I don't know how many of the Dunedain escaped the sinking of Numenor, but I think it's safe to say that they would have married with other humans they met in Eriador. With that being said, there were probably at least a hundred rangers with thousands of people living in the region leading up to the events in the Lord of the Rings. The rangers would probably behave as peace keepers and security guards, and they would be scattered around the entire region. So it would have been a little difficult to gather more than thirty to meet up with Aragorn, and it would have been very unwise to not leave behind a force to defend their homelands. I guess thirty is a reasonable number to meet up with Aragorn if an equal or greater number is left behind. Did they know that they could expect to find Aragorn alive at that point or just how much their aid was needed by him?

Originally Posted by Rumil

Also the Rangers must have suffered some casualties in the fight against the Nazgul at Sarn Ford, so reducing the number of available warriors.

A good question (and an unanswerable question at that) would be how many rangers fell in their battle with the Nazgul at the border of the Shire? This is one action sequence that would have been cool to see in the Fellowship of the Ring. I imagine the rangers suffered some significant loss in the battle.