Posted: November 09, 1999 at 10:52:12: by MR
: : I'm not saying my intertpretations are based on anything more than inference. However, in the context of Tolkien's use of the word war, I cannot find any parallel use referring to a series of small skirmishes. Which is why the word struck me so forcibly in the text. The War of the Dwarves and Orcs, fought on the other side of the mountains, was a sizeable conflict. I am not claiming that the war in Eriador was as large-scale as that, but it seems to me that the Dunedain may have fielded forces numbering in the many hundreds (given their martial superiority over orcs this may have been sufficient to counter raids consisting of several thousand orcs). This would tend to counteract the impression given by Halbarad's force of 30 horsemen that Dunedain numbers were tiny. After all Halbarad's force was essentially only a token squad hastily collected , and mostly acting as an an escort for Aragorn's royal standard.: Considering that the Dunedain of the North are from two kingdoms ( Cardolin and Arthedain, with a few fugitives of rhudaur) and we are led to believe that these were sizeable kingdoms, (the ruins of the two main cities of the North are still present on the map, suggesting sizeable settlements)it is unlikely that the Dunedain were a few people,as they are able to protect the whole of the wilderness as much as they do. The problem with this is that we are told by Butterbur that the rangers have all gone away, which is why Bree is in so much trouble. If this just applies to the 30 or so with Halbarad then the Dunedain are so few that with inbreeding they would have been wiped out, or at least have six fingers each. Therefore, the role of these missing Rangers has not been told ( I don't think so? Perhaps it has and I have missed it!) but it is reasonable to assume that there is several thousand at the least of the Dunedain were alive at the time. Perfectly expressing my thoughts on the subject. A people who keep probably at least a hundred of their menfolk permanently under arms and on extended patrolling has to number a total at least in the low thousands. As you say the Dunedain, who apparently did not intermarry with the Breelanders or other Eriadorian men must have never declined below 3 to 4 thousands in all their history in order to maintain a reasonably healthy gene pool.
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