Middle Earth Ranger Forum

We know from the literature that Rangers understood the language of beasts and birds:

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.

But what does this mean? What did professor Tolkien intend here?


Obviously in ancient and medieval literature, with which Tolkien was more than familiar, the "Language of the Birds" meant something rather specific, although not as real and practical as I'd like.
From Wikipedia:

In mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, green language, adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.

On the other hand, there is indeed a knowledge of signs that may be read from birds and other creatures, that a woodsman may use tactically in the wilderness to know many things, including the approach of an enemy force.

For instance, there's a scene in the movie Jeremiah Johnson, where Johnson and Del Gue are around the campfire, when they see a storm of birds erupt from a nearby wood. They take up arms immediately, knowing that strangers are approaching. Fortunately it is a friendly group of Flatheads.

Jon Young's What the Robin Knows:

I took a short course on the subject a year and a half ago. It was out in the field and first part was allowing the birds and other animals to become familiar with us. It took about 10 minutes of sitting quietly until normal bird song reappeared. It shut down quickly when a Turkey Vulture passed overhead and then reappeared quickly when they realized it wasn't a threat. The rest was on the different calls the birds made. It's been a while so I don't remember some of the particulars. If I heard the calls I'd be able to identify them but not off the top of my head.

I think the key word in that quote may be "believed" - the Breelanders are not objective observers. My personal interpretation is that what might seem like unnatural abilities to the farmers and merchants of Bree might be the skills of extremely gifted woodsmen/women, but I don't really have anything more than how I read the quoted text to back that up.

Though, to be fair, given the story of Bard and the thrush, it's certainly not unheard of for certain men in Middle Earth to *literally* understand the language of birds.

Taurinor wrote:I think the key word in that quote may be "believed" - the Breelanders are not objective observers. My personal interpretation is that what might seem like unnatural abilities to the farmers and merchants of Bree might be the skills of extremely gifted woodsmen/women, but I don't really have anything more than how I read the quoted text to back that up.

I would tend to agree, but there are exceptions.

We do have characters and lineages, like Bard, that can speak to certain animals. And there are speaking animals that have relationships with specific people, like the Great Eagles and the crows of Erebor (Bilbo could understand him, but he really only talked because Thorin was there). (These sound the same, but I think are two subtly different things.)


My synthesis would be that some Dunedain had special lore, or a specific relationship, that was witnessed. Incidents like that were the nugget of a legend that grew to encompass all Rangers. Ranger's skills were great enough that the casual observer would credibly believe it. (Even so I really hate the Humperdink scene in PJ's TTT, and don't think that is how the tracking would go.)

I hope I am understanding your question. If you spend enough time in the woods, you become familiar with all the other animals that live there. You may not fully understand what they are saying all the time, but you will learn the difference between simple communication, joyful expression, & alarm sounds & movement. It is important to learn these & pay attention.
Keith.

It's been quite a while since my toes were in that world, but the phrase also has meaning in Celtic neo-Bardic circles. To wit -
https://www.amazon.com/Language-Birds-F ... 0012AXG2Q/

The album is harp and story - a bit of song here and there. I'm sure it's reconstructed, but as close these days to traditional bardic performance that's still accessible to a modern audience as one is like to find.
Highly recommended to a Tolkien geek to hear at least once.


As to the original point, I'm slightly inclined to go with Taurinor's explanation, as least so far as the Rangers go.
Elves perhaps another story, and the Istari most definitely have more mystical gifts, being so deeply rooted in the creation of Arda.

Yes, Le Loup and others, one interpretation is that Rangers could understand the songs and behavior of wild creatures to their benefit. That's one possible interpretation. It's safe, believable and reproducible.

On the other hand, it also implies a very mystical ability, something that is actually a staple of ancient and medieval lore:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds

Of course, Aragorn had plenty of chances to call upon the help of his animal brethren a la Tarzan. If he did, I must have missed it.

Peter Remling wrote:I took a short course on the subject a year and a half ago. It was out in the field and first part was allowing the birds and other animals to become familiar with us. It took about 10 minutes of sitting quietly until normal bird song reappeared. It shut down quickly when a Turkey Vulture passed overhead and then reappeared quickly when they realized it wasn't a threat. The rest was on the different calls the birds made. It's been a while so I don't remember some of the particulars. If I heard the calls I'd be able to identify them but not off the top of my head.

As I've spent about a year and a half on my property in the country, I've noticed that crows, ravens, and even a hawk will sit at a distance and watch me, but only when I'm alone there. If my wife and/or kids are around, I never see them.

I may have started this by taking all the mice I trapped and placing them on a kind of 'offering stone' in plain sight of nearby birds.

I tend to think that it is partly due to rumors spread about (and possibly by) the Rangers, and a bit of the Dunedain themselves, long lived as they are, and some gifted with foresight, who are we to say that they couldn't comment on the conversations of birds and beasts. Even the fox had a bit of thought in Fellowship:

Just over the top of the hill they came on the patch of fir-wood. Leaving the road they went into the deep resin-scented darkness of the trees, and gathered dead sticks and cones to make a fire. Soon they had a merry crackle of flame at the foot of a large fir-tree and they sat round it for a while, until they began to nod. Then, each in an angle of the great tree’s roots, they curled up in their cloaks and blankets, and were soon fast asleep. They set no watch; even Frodo feared no danger yet, for they were still in the heart of the Shire. A few creatures came and looked at them when the fire had died away. A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.

‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.

The Fellowship of the Ring Chapter 3 Three is Company

Ken

Kortoso wrote:We know from the literature that Rangers understood the language of beasts and birds:

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.

But what does this mean? What did professor Tolkien intend here?


Obviously in ancient and medieval literature, with which Tolkien was more than familiar, the "Language of the Birds" meant something rather specific, although not as real and practical as I'd like.
From Wikipedia:

In mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, green language, adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.

On the other hand, there is indeed a knowledge of signs that may be read from birds and other creatures, that a woodsman may use tactically in the wilderness to know many things, including the approach of an enemy force.

For instance, there's a scene in the movie Jeremiah Johnson, where Johnson and Del Gue are around the campfire, when they see a storm of birds erupt from a nearby wood. They take up arms immediately, knowing that strangers are approaching. Fortunately it is a friendly group of Flatheads.

Jon Young's What the Robin Knows:

I wrote this many years ago, but I have had many incidents with wild animals before & since. I thought I would share this one with you as it may be of interest to you & pertinent to your post.
Keith.

The Raven. © Keith H. Burgess.
The raven was perched in a low dead tree up ahead. My dog was running here there and everywhere following the multitude of scents that were all about. The paddock was empty of sheep now, but it was not the sheep scent that Noir followed, she was trained to ignore sheep. No these were the scents of roo, fox, perhaps dog and rabbit and hare.
The raven was still in the dead tree but appeared to be alert. Noir ran in that direction but she did not look up and see the raven but the raven was watching her. The trail I followed ran through bracken but as I approached the dead tree the trail widened as the bracken fell back to expose grass. Suddenly the raven took flight, but toward me instead of away from me. I kept walking but the raven flew straight at me and then turned and dived toward me again. But this was not an attack; it was more like a warning. It continued to flap in front of me appearing to do some sort of aerobatics directly in front of me and then suddenly something caught my eye, a large snake crossing my path just a little ahead. As soon as the snake had crossed my path and disappeared into the bracken on the other side the raven broke off its gyrations and returned to the tree. My dog came bounding over obviously on the scent of the snake and I called her to heel.
As I got to the tree I stopped not far away and said “thank you” to the raven and it took off calling loudly.

Now THAT is a wonderful tale, very pertinent, Keith! Thank you for sharing!

Ken

Wish there was a "like" button for these posts.

Mirimaran wrote:Now THAT is a wonderful tale, very pertinent, Keith! Thank you for sharing!

Ken

Kortoso wrote:Wish there was a "like" button for these posts.