Rangers of the North
(redirection from Rangers)

Called by Gandalf, "the last remnant in the North of the great people, the Men of the West."

The remainder of the Dúnedain after the fall of Arthedain. The heirs of Isildur were their chieftains and they were grim people. They guarded Eriador from Orcs and other evil creatures and gave special protection to the Shire, but they had no high reputation among the inhabitants.

Often just called Rangers or by people from the Shire also Watchers at SarnFord or just Watchers

Comments and annotations

According to Tolkien's notes kept at Marquette University, by the end of the Third Age Aragorn's people chiefly dwelt in the Angle, between the Rivers Mitheithel and Bruinen. For this reason, Michael Martinez suggests (in his Suite101 article "Of Thegns and Kings and Rangers and Things") that the term "Rangers" should not be applied to the Dúnedain of the North as a whole, but only to "a small corps of special officers or soldiers charged with patrolling Eriador, specifically with policing the highways".

In the Bree saying--"There's no accounting for East and West"--"East" refers to the Rangers, and suggests the chief direction from which many of them enter the village.

MattStott