Ranger For Hire: Have Horse, Will Travel

of men, but were now fallen on darkened days...." What was this "hidden fastness in the wilds of Eriador"? The corresponding passage in the published tale is much shorter, for as with all parts of the appendices Tolkien was forced to shorten the material for publication. In the tale Gilraen eventually left Imladris (many years after Aragorn) and returned to her people in Eriador, but she lived alone, and Aragorn visited her in the year 3007 (he was then 76 years old, and she was only 100). A "fastness" is a secure place, a stronghold. In essence, Dirhael and his family lived in some sort of fortified dwelling. Was it a town, or perhaps only a simple estate, like those of the Gwathuirim of Brethil and perhaps Eryn Vorn? Such estates resembled Beorn's home, being one or several building surrounded by a high hedge. But a hedge is not much of a fortification. A stockade or fortified town seems much more likely, and the shores of the Bruinen river could easily support such a town. If the Dunedain settled in the Angle sometime after Aranarth settled at Imladris they would have been close to the Elves. Indeed, when the Company of the Ring set out from Imladris, they crossed the Ford of Bruinen and turned south, leaving the Road behind them. The first leg of their journey passed through lands Aragorn "knew...even in the dark". He had grown up in Imladris, so it's reasonable to infer that he had wandered through the hills near Elrond's house. But if the Dunedain lived somewhere in the vicinity, Aragorn and the Rangers would have spent many years passing through the area on their ways to and from the Dunedain's secret homes. Does a town or group of villages somewhere near Imladris contradict Tolkien's description of the Dunedain as a "secret wandering folk"? I don't believe so. The Rangers certainly wandered all over Eriador. They visited the ruins of Fornost Erain, according to Gandalf, guarded the Shire and Bree, and rode with the sons of Elrond against Orcs and Trolls in the eastern lands. Whether some of the Dunedain lived south of the Shire or not, they seem to have spent a great deal of time travelling through the lands. Several Rangers had visited Weathertop only a day or two before Aragorn and the Hobbits reached there (and after Gandalf's fight with the Nazgul). Aragorn himself spent a great deal of time travelling

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