Rangers of the North



Rangers of the North, simply known as the Rangers, were the northern wandering people of Eriador, the last remnant of the Dúnedain of Arnor, who had once peopled the North Kingdom of Arnor. They protected the lands they wandered although their secretiveness made other peoples consider them dangerous and distrustful in Bree and the Shire, where they were known as "Watchers". They were grim in appearance and were usually dressed in grey or dark green, with a cloak-clasp shaped like a six-pointed star.

The term "Rangers of the North" was used most often by those who lived in the southern lands of Rohan and Gondor, perhaps to distinguish this people from their distant cousins, the Rangers of the South. Like the Rangers of the North, these were also Dúnedain, but belonged to the South-kingdom of Gondor, and their ancestors had been divided from the Northern Dúnedain for some three thousand years.

Description
The Dúnedain of Arnor dwindled after the breaking of Arnor into three kingdoms and the wars with Angmar. Cardolan and Rhudaur soon fell and only the petty-kingdom of Arthedain maintained the noble line of Isildur. Finally, that too was destroyed in the Battle of Fornost and Arvedui, the last King of Arthedain was lost in the sea.

Arvedui's son and heir, Aranarth claimed the title of the Chieftain, who would rule the remnants of his people. Elrond had in his keeping the heirlooms of the house of Isildur: the shards of Narsil, the Star of Elendil, the Sceptre of Annúminas and later the Ring of Barahir, ransomed from the Lossoth.

Each of Aranarth's heirs (who, like him, could trace his descent back to Isildur himself) would be secretly born and raised in Rivendell. The Rangers became a secretive wandering and nomadic people around Eriador, far from Sauron's spies, little known or remembered, and their deeds were seldom recorded.