Ranger For Hire: Have Horse, Will Travel

were fostered in Imladris. Elrond had been given the last heirlooms of Arnor by Aranarth (the Ring of Barahir, the Sceptre of Annuminas, the Star of Elendil, and the shards of Narsil) for sake-keeping, and many of the Chieftains of the Dunedain seem to have perished in the region. Aragorn I was slain by wolves in 2327, who apparently had not been seen in Eriador for long years before then. They must have crossed the mountains from Wilderland. Arassuil, Chieftain from 2719-84, led the Dunedain in a war against the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. The Orcs began raiding Eriador, and some ventured as far west as the Shire. The sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, rode with the Dunedain against the Orcs. Arador was slain by trolls in the Ettenmoors north of Imladris in 2930, and his son Arathorn II was slain three years later while hunting Orcs with the sons of Elrond. Although the Dunedain don't have to have dwelt near Imladris, it seems significant that Aragorn was able to call upon them to help scout the lands in the two months after the Council of Elrond. And later when Halbarad brought a company of 30 Rangers south to Rohan he told Aragorn that he had done so because messages reached Elrond saying the Dunedain should ride to Aragorn in Rohan. Elladan and Elrohir rode with Halbarad's company, so perhaps they conveyed the message to him, and could have found him somewhere in Eriador. But it seems more likely the Rangers Halbarad gathered were already close to Imladris. If, as Legolas suggested, the summons came from Galadriel, only a few weeks had passed since Aragorn's departure from Lorien: February 16 to March 6 (when the Dunedain found him) is just under three weeks. That seems barely enough time for a messenger to reach Imladris and for Halbarad to gather what men he could and ride south to Rohan. In the original version of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), Tolkien wrote: "In the latter days of the last age [> Ere the Elder Days were ended], before the War of the Ring, there was a man named Dirhael [> Dirhoel], and his wife was Evorwen [> Ivorwen] daughter of Gilbarad, and they dwelt in a hidden fastness in the wilds of Eriador; for they were of the ancient people of the Dunedian, that of old were kings of

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