Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Much like Udwin in his recent thread about Elvish clothing, my spouse has expressed a tentative interest in the world of Middle-earth (more to spend time with me and my craziness, I suspect) and is considering putting together a basic kit to wander the forest with me. Granted, this is a fantasy world and she can do whatever she pleases but it seems all my chaotic ramblings has rubbed off and now she's thinking about doing it "properly." She at first thought of an Elvish kit but when I explained that a basic human like myself wouldn't really have married an elf, she elected not to go that route. I didn't persuade her, I swear!

So that lead me to wonder: just who would have the common Dunedain married? We know that by the Third Age and the Waning of the Dunedain that intermingling with "lesser men" had shortened their lifespan and nobility. For simplicity's sake, she could just be a Dunedain woman but she'd like to explore her options first. I'm not up to snuff on my "lesser men" knowledge so I'm not sure which cultures would have been closest to the Dunedain in the North at that time and rubbed shoulders enough to intermarry.

So that lead me to wonder: just who would have the common Dunedain married? We know that by the Third Age and the Waning of the Dunedain that intermingling with "lesser men" had shortened their lifespan and nobility. For simplicity's sake, she could just be a Dunedain woman but she'd like to explore her options first. I'm not up to snuff on my "lesser men" knowledge so I'm not sure which cultures would have been closest to the Dunedain in the North at that time and rubbed shoulders enough to intermarry.

Unfortunately, I think Bree is probably your best bet, though we are told "the Bree-folk did not make friends of [Rangers]" : (
However...in the 1960 Hobbit, in the trolls' cave they find clothes from the "wood-men and shepherds who had still lived here and there in the wild lands near-by", which, if we assume the Dunedain are in the Angle, would seem to be non-Dunedain, non-Breelanders eking out a living in the western Trollshaws.

I think it depends on where you are.

If you're talking northern Dunedain of the Angle, then probably you're in a Dunedain settlement and probably you've married another remnant of the Dunedain people.
The Dunedain of late Third Age Eriador strike me as a people very much aware that they're a dwindled remnant of what once was, and I suspect most given the opportunity would marry within their own people so as not to fade away entirely.
If that wasn't an option.. then a man of the Dunedain might find a wife among the Breefolk - or perhaps a daughter of one of the shepherds that (I think?) Aragorn mentioned along the Great East Road.

edit: what we see of Eriador really reminds of the far-out regions of the Alaska bush. There's scattered settlements, you can go weeks without seeing another soul - but everyone knows "oh, so-and-so lives way out past that hill over there, about a day down the river after you pass the big sandbar." It's far too empty to have anything like a "small town" vibe, but folk still have a sense for who's where, and who to seek out in times of trouble.


Gondor's another matter entirely: Minas Tirith is a comparatively cosmopolitan place, with (if I recall correctly) maritime contacts all along Belfalas and DolAmroth, and is surrounded by farmed country. There's a great many more people there, mostly I think a long-ago mixture of Dunedain and native stock of that region.


edit - eek!
re-reading, looks like Udwin beat me to everything important. Figures.

This whole thing is fascinating to me! It also makes me wonder what a Dúnedain wedding/marriage might actually entail (similar to my previous musings on burial rites: http://www.middleearthrangers.org/forum ... 91&p=41580). I wonder what sorts of rituals or traditions they might have observed as part of the process, and if the married parties had specific expectations in the community (some useful, others perhaps outmoded vestiges of Numenorean customs, and so forth).

Thank you for the replies all! I really appreciate it! I kinda figured that it would be a more vague answer as the good Professor didn't seem to fill in much of the Dunedain's culture. My wife is just looking to stomp around the woods with her crazy husband so I guess we'll see where to go from here. A Breeish woman seems the best bet. She did mention Elves again so who knows?

I think pairings between men & elves happened more than just the big three. You have the story of Imrazôr and Mithrellas, and the Elf taking on the doom of men is not the foregone conclusion that the stories of Luthien and Arwen might suggest.

You're just going to have to deal with the fact that she's gonna outlive you.

We know that the men of Dol Amroth have elven blood in them, and i don't remember, but i do think tolkien tells us that they did not marry each other before producing heirs. One might also guess the same of some dunedain, but i do not think there were marriages similar to the "big names", only spring romances or summer loves. Marrying the non-Dunedain mannish population seems like it would be more likely.''

We see some support that there were a non-ranger population of Humans in the wild of Eriador. I think that is true even later in the third age, part of the ruffians we see saruman employ were probably similar in lifestyle to the "rangers", living nomadically hunting and sheparding, traveling with families and herds.

As far as men are concerned, there were few options outside the few Dunedain of Numenorian blood. You had the hillmen of Rhuadur, who were likely intermingled some with the Dunedain of Rhuadur before they took hold of the lands and swore fealty to Carn Dum. It was only a few hundred years before they had fully succumbed to the will of the Witch King. To the south, you had the Dunlandings who did not care too much for the Dunedain as they were the descendents of the Numenoreans who decimated their ancesteral forested lands in the 2nd age. I think the 'ruffians' that Saruman employs are Dunlandings, and maybe even some who are seen at the Prancing Pony are some who have had some orcish attributes infused in them as part of Saruman's work to breed the ultimate Uruk Hai warrior.

This leads me back to the Dunedain of the North tending to keep their bloodlines more pure, and so keeping to themselves as the lines of the men who survived the downfall of Arthedain wed each other and continued the legacy of the Northern Dunedain.