Q: Where Did Aragorn Come From?
ANSWER: Aragorn is the Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North, last heir of the Line of Isildur, and the only rightful claimant to the Throne of Elendil as High King of Arnor and Gondor. He was born among the Dunedain of the North. When people ask questions such as “where does Aragorn come from?”, they are almost certainly curious about where Aragorn’s people lived and where he was raised.
As many people are quick to point out, Aragorn’s mother Gilraen took him to live in Rivendell soon after he was born. The Dunedain of the North had learned that Sauron’s agents were seeking the Heir of Isildur and feared that Aragorn’s life was in danger. Elrond took Aragorn as a foster-son (following the example of King Thingol of Doriath, who fostered Turin son of Hurin) and raised him under the name of Estel (“hope” in the Sindarin language).
But though readers of The Lord of the Rings know where Rivendell lies with respect to other locations in Middle-earth, they wonder where the Rangers and their people (the Dunedain of the North) lived. The location of the “Ranger communities” was once a matter for much speculation among online fans of Tolkien and Middle-earth. However, in January 2000 Tolkien researcher and linguist David Salo shared the following comment:
There is a short but hardly legible note which Tolkien wrote for insertion into the story of Aragorn and Arwen (and which was not in the event used); it includes information about the location of the Dunedain. Because of the difficulty of the note, the information is not entirely clear, but it suggests that the Dunedain lived in woodlands between the Mitheithel and Bruinen. Source: microfilms at Marquette University, Series 3, Box 9, Folder 3.
This research confirmed speculative but logical arguments that had been presented by several people which pointed to the woodlands of the Angle as the most probable location for the Dunedain of Eriador at the time of the War of the Ring.
Tolkien did provide a hint about the location of the Rangers/Dunedain in the chapter “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony” in The Fellowship of the Ring. When describing the Bree-land and its peoples, he wrote:
In those days no other Men had settled dwellings so far west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire. But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and birds. They roamed at will southwards, and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and rarely seen. When they appeared they brought news from afar, and told strange forgotten tales which were eagerly listened to; but the Bree-folk did not make friends of them.
Tolkien’s maps have often been criticized for looking amateurish but they nonetheless were meticulously created with an attention to detail. There are few logical discrepancies between the published stories and the maps (Tolkien most notably pointed out some inconsistencies) so the maps in the books must be taken as authoritative references for the landscapes.
A league may have any of several defined values but it is generally believed that Tolkien’s leagues are equivalent to about 3 English miles. Using a simple ruler to measure the maps in The Lord of the Rings, one finds that the Angle is placed about 300 miles east of the Shire. Hence, the note David Salo discovered in the Marquette archives is consistent with the only other available information.
It should also be noted that in the chapter “The Ring Goes South” Aragorn is able to call upon the Rangers to help scout out the lands. An unspecified number of Rangers assist in the two months of explorations of nearby lands. Hence, it doesn’t seem to take long for Aragorn to send word to the Rangers, for them to spread out to scour the lands near Rivendell, and to report back. That seems consistent with the logical argument that they must have been living close to Rivendell.
There are also references to the Rangers’ activities in the Trollshaws, the forest to the north of Rivendell and the Angle, as well as the Ettenmoors, the homelands of the trolls even farther north. It seems very evident that the Rangers played an active role in protecting Rivendell in addition to Bree and the Shire. They patrolled the great east-west road that was used by Elves, Dwarves, and Men. And they also kept watch over the places where evil creatures might infiltrate Eriador and threaten its remaining peoples. But their homes were almost certainly all in the Angle by the time of the War of the Ring.
However, one last question is sometimes raised by people who are curious about the Rangers: Did they ever live at Tharbad? Tharbad seems to have been the last city of the Dunedain in Eriador, and it was only deserted in Third Age year 2912, which was about 19 years before Aragorn was born. Where did its people go? That is a good question but unfortunately we don’t have enough information to provide anything other than wildly speculative answers.
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