The Rangers’ Numbers and the Secret House

Matt DeForrest

Active Member
After reading some of the responses here in the forums, I wanted To go back and check something about the implied population of the north. Perhaps I missed something somewhere, but I wanted to call attention to Aragorn’s phrasing here:

“But my home, such as I have, is in the North. For here the heirs of Valandil have ever dwelt in long line unbroken from father unto son for many generations. Our days have darkened, and we have dwindled; but ever the Sword has passed to a new keeper. And this I will say to you, Boromir, ere I end. Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are found in many places, not in Mordor only.”

And, from “The Passing of the Grey Company”:

“All is well,’ said Aragorn, turning back. ‘Here are some of my own kin from the far land where I dwelt. But why they come, and how many they be, Halbarad shall tell us.”

Combining these two passages, we get an unusual hint about the Rangers: They are a house — Aragorn’s house — rather than a merry band of like-minded hunters of evil. Because of that, we can understand, perhaps, their desire for secrecy a little better. By staying in the shadows, they are protecting their extended family rather than, say, the entire nobility of Arnor or Gondor. Further, it is a house that the Enemy (and his minions, like the Witch asking) would probably like to see hunted to extinction.

This doesn’t mean there can’t be settlements or populations supporting them. It does mean that the line (and its claims) have to be hidden. The extended group can have steadings and populations that support them — even if the men occasionally go out on secret missions (errantry is too vague a term for it) to patrol and hunt.

That adds a layer of significance to Bilbo’s poem, actually. Not only was the One Ring hidden and thought to have passed out of all knowledge or rolled into the sea, Aragorn’s house was likely thought to be extinct in many places of Middle Earth. As such, the poem captures the moment of balance: when the potential of catastrophe and eucatastrophe are revealed.

It also adds a little weight to the moment when Aragorn names his house — publicly for the first time in his life — at the end.
 
There must be a settled living area somewhere in Eriador, for his mother Gilraen left Rivendell sometime after Aragorn reached maturity, to be with her people again. That's where she died. I always imagined that Aragorn might have been visiting her grave after he left Gandalf in the spring.
 
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