Did Tolkien create the D&D Ranger?

Gadget said:

I was with you until this quote, as Aragorn vs the Troll at the Black Gate was wholly an invention of the movies, it never happened in the books; it was a last minute addition in post production as originally Aragorn was going to be fighting Sauron and losing when the Ring was destroyed (evidently the film makers thought that would be a little too cliche, even for them). So I highly doubt the scene in a movie released in 2003 had any effect on the SR or AD&D Ranger.

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Indeed, in the book it's Pippin who single-handedly kills a hill troll chief with his blade of Westernesse. He then gets pinned under its bulk and passes out.

Gadget said:

I wonder if the Texas Rangers, particularly the 'Lone Ranger' archetype has affected the class over the years. This is something that was not influenced by Tolkien, yet is part of the 'mythic tradition', at least in the USA.

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I can see this being a significant influence. Rangers must be good in AD&D and the lone ranger is a paladin white hat archetype. Gygax had a big view of D&D as fantasy and medieval trappings in wild west frontier environment, similar to R.E. Howard and Conan.

Gadget said:

I was with you until this quote, as Aragorn vs the Troll at the Black Gate was wholly an invention of the movies, it never happened in the books; it was a last minute addition in post production as originally Aragorn was going to be fighting Sauron and losing when the Ring was destroyed (evidently the film makers thought that would be a little too cliche, even for them). So I highly doubt the scene in a movie released in 2003 had any effect on the SR or AD&D Ranger.

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My bad! I admit to not having read the book in its entirety for a number of years. Of course it was Pippin who killed the troll, one of Peter Jackson's many changes that seemed so unfair to the story. I'm embarrassed to have confused the events of the movie with those of the book. I suppose I was remembering the text of The Silmarillion, in which the fall of King Fingolfin is described, and imagining that it referred to this scene in Jackson's movie. I remember when the film was released very much enjoying the parallels between Aragorn's fight with the troll and that of Fingolfin and Morgoth, and I suppose that at that point I began to conflate one with the other, giving the film a kind of textual reality in my mind. Thanks for pointing it out. I stand corrected.

Tuzenbach said:

And by this I mean, was the "Medieval Ranger" archetype extant prior to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien?


Thanks!!!

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Only the 1e ranger. The ranger keeps moving away from Aragorn, and then moves back.

I'd rather it moved away. Aragorn was a single, complex character. Sure he was a ranger, but there was a lot more to him too. He's a ranger/paladin/warlord with the Lost King background, and that's before he starts RPing You don't need rangers to be his clones. That kind of strangeness is why rangers had to be good-aligned in some versions of D&D. (Well, Aragorn was, so obviously they must all be.)

Gygax and company clearly derived the Ranger from Aragorn with minor other influences. If the D&D version is not based in part on this character just make a whole new class with a different name, do not even call it a ranger.

I think many of the heroes of Harold Lamb's (1920s) adventure novels resemble rangers more than the armored knight.

There is also the more obvious William Morris (late 1800s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roots_of_the_Mountains

"According to Graham Seaman, "The Roots of the Mountains seems to be the story that inspired the subplot of the Dunedain, wanderers of a fading heroic past defending the frontiers of the Shire against the Orcs, and the loves of Aragorn, Eowyn, Faramir, and Arwen in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings."[3]

This work and its predecessor, The House of the Wolfings, are to some degree historical novels, with little or no magic. Morris went on to develop the new genre established in these works in such later fantasies as Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World's End and The Water of the Wondrous Isles.[4]"

In the early phases of The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits meet another hobbit in The Prancing Pony, and his name is Trotter. Obviously he built upon this and it morphed into them meeting a man named Strider.

The words Trotter, Strider, and Ranger are all linked and as Tolkien was wont to do, he constructed something, or 'fills in the gaps' from simply a basic word. I think at the initial phase this particular man was a Ranger because he was someone who wanders in the wild.

I personally contend that Tolkien borrowed this idea from the Eddas and Nordic Mythology (like all the dwarves and Gandalf in the Hobbit). Odin travels about and uses the name Gangleri, which means 'wandering stranger' or something like that, but is often translated as 'Strider'. I think Tolkien then built upon this structure for Aragorn. Once it is established that Strider is a Ranger, then he must come up with what a Ranger is, and we see that a Ranger is essentially one of the Dúnedain, whose skills and ability makes them natural defenders of good and fighters of evil, living out of doors, tracking, hunting, etc. And as the ancient line of kings is harbored among the Dúnedain, we now have a character who is a descendant of these kings and his name is Aragorn. I don't have evidence, but my hunch is that I think Tolkien derived all of that from the word/name Gangleri.

Morrus said:

The question you asked was whether the D&D ranger was created by Tolkien. The D&D ranger was also clearly influenced by Robin Hood. The 2E PHB specifically mentions Robin Hood, amongst other archetypes. Jack the Giant Killer was another example mentioned.

I've no particular opinion on what influenced Tolkien to create Aragorn.

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Sorry, Morrus. I should have been more specific. What I meant to say was the 1E D&D Ranger!!!