Ranger For Hire: Have Horse, Will Travel

four years assessing his options. Tharbad, the ancient river port, probably survived the war intact, although it may have been besieged. Bree may also have been bypassed by the worst part of the onslought. But the Shire had suffered greatly and the Dunedain had been driven from the North Downs, where they had lived for thousands of years. Aranarth's people were now too few for him to re-establish his realm. A few people seem to have survived in Cardolan outside of Tharbad, but Tolkien mentions no towns. They were probably living in isolated farms and hamlets smaller than Bree eventually became. Perhaps no more than a few dozen people would be found anywhere. The Dunedain could not return to Fornost. The city had been destroyed by the Witch-king and inhabited by his creatures. It would require many years and men to cleanse the city, but Aranarth did not have the manpower. Aranarth settled in Imladris and in 1979 he took the title of Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North. At this time the clan-chiefs in the Shire elected a Thain to take the place of the king and lead their defense against outside threats. The Bree-land seems to have settled down to minding its own affairs as well, though there is no mention of any individual of authority like the Shire's Thain or the Chieftain of the Dunedain. Where could Aranarth's people have settled? Tharbad presents itself as a possibility, but the Dunedain though now few in number may nonetheless have presented a great burden to the town's economy. It is conceivable that the Dunedain at first scattered across Eriador, some settling in Bree, some settling in Tharbad. Some may have remained close to Lindon and others probably accompanied Aranarth to Imladris. Tolkien says only that they became a "secert and wandering folk". The problem presented by this description is that if the Dunedain were to remain secret they could not spend much time wandering near the settled lands. Assuming the Dunedian became true nomads they would have to live in camps, maintaining livestock (sheep, cattle, or horses, at least), and would require a large amount of land in which to wander. Open lands lay to the east of the Weather Hills, but only evil creatures had dwelt in that region since the Hobbits departed around 1300. The ancestral lands of the Dunedain, the Hills of Evendim north of the Shire and the North Downs, were

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