HLGStrider
All Knowing Magic Cat
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2001
- Messages
- 7,750
"If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have played another part. Many evil things there are that your strong walls and bright swords do not stay. You know little of lands beyond your bounds. Peace and freedom do you say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us. What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dunedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?
'And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town to ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so. That has been the task of my kindred, while the years have lengthened and the gras has grown.'
Emphasis added by me, of course.
Anyway, I love that bit, so heroic. . .anyway again . . .
What exactly are the fears that would freeze Butterbur's heart? I was recently re-reading an old thread where Snaga suggested that this meant the Barrow-wights, and this makes some sense, but I really don't see them creeping out to take over hills and homes. Perhaps it is also trolls, who we know from experience exist not far from Bree . . . or what about the wolves that came in the freeze . . . or just human highway men? Is that in Ranger duty?
What sort of creatures is Aragorn refering too?
Later, in the Scouring of the Shire, Barliman mentions that things have gone ill without the Rangers to protect them. Is he just refering to Sarumen, or have other things been happening?
What about Aragorn's statement that the enemy has set traps for him before? Are those included in the dangers?
I'll make the poll multiple choice because I am sure they were guarding from several things, so you might want to vote for them all!
'And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town to ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so. That has been the task of my kindred, while the years have lengthened and the gras has grown.'
Emphasis added by me, of course.
Anyway, I love that bit, so heroic. . .anyway again . . .
What exactly are the fears that would freeze Butterbur's heart? I was recently re-reading an old thread where Snaga suggested that this meant the Barrow-wights, and this makes some sense, but I really don't see them creeping out to take over hills and homes. Perhaps it is also trolls, who we know from experience exist not far from Bree . . . or what about the wolves that came in the freeze . . . or just human highway men? Is that in Ranger duty?
What sort of creatures is Aragorn refering too?
Later, in the Scouring of the Shire, Barliman mentions that things have gone ill without the Rangers to protect them. Is he just refering to Sarumen, or have other things been happening?
What about Aragorn's statement that the enemy has set traps for him before? Are those included in the dangers?
I'll make the poll multiple choice because I am sure they were guarding from several things, so you might want to vote for them all!
