I've always spelled it as NumenorIAn or NumenorEAn. And I always forget which one is right, so I always switch back and forth between the two.

Anyways, I think I would be Gondorian, because I don't strike myself as Rohirrim, and yet I don't seem Numenorean, either. So....I'd say that I would be Gondorian, but I'd like to be Numenorean.

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Rohirrim, Ranger, Gondorian, or Numenorean.

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Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

I would rather be either of the rohirrim or an ithilien Ranger. I think that the Numenorians are a bit too Super human for my liking and Ive always liked th elight cavalry style of Rohan. Also th eold English culture appeals to me. The Ithilien rangers got the most testing during 3rd age and what rangers survived will have bben as rock hard n skillful as any rangers from the North.

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

Interesting. I love the fact that the Rohirrim is horse country. The Kentucky of Middle-Earth.

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Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

Haha. That is so funny, and yet, so true.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

Not necessarily, EBM. The Rangers of the North spent almost every day of their lives in the wilderness, hunting or being hunted by evil creatures of various sorts. The Ithilien Rangers went on specific missions--they didn't fight every day and they didn't hunt every day. What they did, it seems, was work with Gondor's main army most of the time, unless there was a specific mission that required men with good foresting skill. The Rangers of the North were on their own all the time.

Soo....the Rangers of Arnor would've still been better and more skilled, on average, than the Rangers of Ithilien.

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I will challenge that arguemnt with what u will think apredictable and simple argumnet. That is numbers. For example, since the defeat of the witch king at Fornost, the Dunedain of the Noth will have had a reduced level of foes correct?Most of them are concentrated around arnor/ eriador , where the number of orcs is significantly less. Now,I doubt the Rangers will just have been used as a skirmishing force for Goindors main force and will have been more to the nature of aborder guards force, but made for the woods. Now, How many Mordor Orcs/ Troll/ assorted Evil things will have been wandering throughout Ithilien at teh time of th ewar of th ering? A few tens of thousands. If u have more enemies, Ur bound to have more combat Experience and therefore, ur force will be more skilld and veteran.So to say, based on the idea that Gondors rangers are lazy boys that only help the main army is unfair and highly improbable. Also, Do you put men with woodcraft skill ina force that is made of men in bright silver armour? NO, otherwise th eItilien Rangers will have worn armour as well. There is no point deploying a force that uses camouflage and hidden arrows with a force taht is its complete antithesis.

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

Good point.

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Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

I've always loved Ithilien...

Oh, sorry.

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Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

It's ok.

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Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

Why thank u Lady Raine, I do appreciate your applause
What Does anyone else think of Hurin?

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

Hurin's from the Sil, right? A brave guy who wouldn't betray a secret and he ended up having Melko curse his family.

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Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step Joni Erickson Tada

I gotta say this, Hurin did put up with alot of stick n that. to have al his family die before him, and hes powerless to stop it is torture I would imagine.

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

The fact that the Witch-king was defeated only changed their job. Before, the Dunedain were not Rangers, they were soldiers. They were warriors of Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur. Those three kingdoms were destroyed before Angmar was. Then they became Rangers, and they still live alone, wandering in the wilderness and protecting the innocent from harm. Everything from Barrow wights to excessively large wolves--from Trolls to Orcs. They never had any breaks except maybe for short stays in Rivendell.

The Rangers of Ithilien, however, were not an actual, official fighting force. They were simply skilled men from Gondor's main army who knew the lands of Ithilien well enough to be led by Faramir or Boromir occasionally in forays across the river. That was only an occasional thing. Sauron would have had a much better guard in Ithilien if it was a constant, predictable event. The fact that he didn't shows that either he was stupid (which we know he's not) or that there werent constant raids across the river. So....my point still stands, that the Rangers of the North, on average, would be tougher and be better soldiers, trackers, etc., than the Rangers of Ithilien.

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Werent an official Fighting force? I highly doubt this or they wouldnt have been half as effective as they were. Militiamen, even with suprise will not have been able to scatter a force fo haradrim. Also, a steward fo Gondor I believe one of th eTurins, decreed them a formal military organisation during the Third Age. Also, It is likely they did patrol. However Sauron, having command of an emourmous army will have been unlikely to fritter away strength on small bands of soldiers and that will have been the tactical thought, as he will have been focusing more on th ebigger plan to destroy gondor. Also, In arnor there were a reduced level of evil things. Orcs were not as common in Arnor as they would have been and all evil men had been destroyed in Arnor.Threfore they wil have had less practise and aslo, Gondors force of rangers wil have had its worst soldiers pared from it during fighting. So to dismiss the Ithilien rangers as nothing compared t their northern kin is to say somewhat irrational. as well as untrue in a manner of speaking.

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"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has struck? "

I didn't mean "not an official fighting force" as in they were militia, but that the Rangers themselves were not a separate group in Gondor's military. They were simply men chosen from the ranks of normal soldiers who knew Ithilien well, and were wood-wise and skilled warriors. I also did not say that they are nothing compared to their northern kin--please don't put words in my mouth like that. What I said was that the Dunedain of Arnor were tougher, better soldiers, on average.

Also, who's to say that all of the evil men were gone from Arnor? That's very presumptuous of you.

Okay, I have to get off the comp for now, but I'll post more later. I plan on decimating your post.

EDIT: I'm back.

Now, when you say Sauron would be unlikely to react to the raids, you're forgetting the chapters in TTT where Faramir talks about it--he said that soon the entire area would be swarming with orcs and servants of Sauron, searching for the Rangers to destroy them. Obviously, he did care, so that argument of yours is now null.

I went through the timeline in the back of RotK, and it didn't mention anything about the Rangers being declared an official fighting force. I looked them up on the Encyclopaedia of Arda, and again, there was nothing that declared them an official fighting force. It simply called them a force of men chosen from the ranks of Gondor's army for raids across the River into Ithilien, etc. It did not label them as their own branch, and those guys who do EoA have looked over like all of Tolkien's writings, so they should know.

So I still have my argument--on average, due to constant practice (they're on the job all the time), the Dunedain of Arnor would be tougher, more skilled, and better than the Rangers of Ithilien.

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