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Did Tolkien create the D&D Ranger?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6600885" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I agree that Robin Hood ended up being a big influence on the D&D ranger. I don't agree that Robin Hood was a big influence over the Tolkien ranger. For that matter, I think 'Hank the Ranger' from the D&D cartoon has a huge influence over the later trajectory of the ranger in D&D.</p><p></p><p>And despite the obvious intention of the 1e designers, I don't think that the D&D ranger ended up being very much like the Tolkien ranger. </p><p></p><p>To understand Tolkien, you'd have to figure out the etymology. I've never encountered essay on the evolution of the ranger as a concept in the Tolkien legerdemain, but the word itself is high medieval English from the 14th century meaning 'ones that ranges', and was applied to game wardens. The modern equivalent would be a 'park ranger' or a 'forest ranger'. </p><p></p><p>One big difference that has to be taken into account, is that in the modern association, a forest is a center of goodness, health, and life. In the medieval conception, a forest was a fearsome wilderness associated with darkness, death, and sickness - wild spaces were associated with evil and expressly with Satan. In the modern conception of a 'ranger' we are thinking of someone whose job is to protect the forest from people. As a game warden, there was much of that as well (particularly, preserving the economic value of wild game for the exclusive use of the nobility), but equally this is a person whose job is to protect the people from the forest and the wild beasts (and men!) that might breed there. </p><p></p><p>Sam Gamgee, as the chorus and archetype of the common man, voices that view of things when Tolkien has Sam in his suspicion of 'Strider' note that he's never heard of anything good come from the wild.</p><p></p><p>I suspect that its this idea that informs Tolkien's thinking when he 'translates' his thoughts into the English word 'ranger'. The idea of ranger carries with it the idea of a magistrate or law-bringer - a policeman of the forest if you will. They were the agents or representatives of the crown in 'empty' wild places where the civilized orderly world envisioned by the medieval broke down. So here we have a king whose whole kingdom has been reduced to being an empty and wild space, lacking in subjects and a breeding ground for wild and evil things that recognize no lawful lord. A king reduced to the role of ranger, protecting subjects that don't recognize him, from evils they don't understand.</p><p></p><p>Of course, Tolkien's own views weren't actually medieval, so there is a lot of nuance in how Tolkien actually treats the wilderness, which is in the books both the medieval domain of evil and the modern unspoiled natural world depending on where you are standing and how you view it. In some places, as in the Old Forest and especially in Fangorn - it's really both at once.</p><p></p><p>Other than the fact that tracking is associated with Rangers in D&D, the Paladin class better fits the Rangers and particularly Aragon than the actual Ranger does. The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, thus may the true king be known.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6600885, member: 4937"] I agree that Robin Hood ended up being a big influence on the D&D ranger. I don't agree that Robin Hood was a big influence over the Tolkien ranger. For that matter, I think 'Hank the Ranger' from the D&D cartoon has a huge influence over the later trajectory of the ranger in D&D. And despite the obvious intention of the 1e designers, I don't think that the D&D ranger ended up being very much like the Tolkien ranger. To understand Tolkien, you'd have to figure out the etymology. I've never encountered essay on the evolution of the ranger as a concept in the Tolkien legerdemain, but the word itself is high medieval English from the 14th century meaning 'ones that ranges', and was applied to game wardens. The modern equivalent would be a 'park ranger' or a 'forest ranger'. One big difference that has to be taken into account, is that in the modern association, a forest is a center of goodness, health, and life. In the medieval conception, a forest was a fearsome wilderness associated with darkness, death, and sickness - wild spaces were associated with evil and expressly with Satan. In the modern conception of a 'ranger' we are thinking of someone whose job is to protect the forest from people. As a game warden, there was much of that as well (particularly, preserving the economic value of wild game for the exclusive use of the nobility), but equally this is a person whose job is to protect the people from the forest and the wild beasts (and men!) that might breed there. Sam Gamgee, as the chorus and archetype of the common man, voices that view of things when Tolkien has Sam in his suspicion of 'Strider' note that he's never heard of anything good come from the wild. I suspect that its this idea that informs Tolkien's thinking when he 'translates' his thoughts into the English word 'ranger'. The idea of ranger carries with it the idea of a magistrate or law-bringer - a policeman of the forest if you will. They were the agents or representatives of the crown in 'empty' wild places where the civilized orderly world envisioned by the medieval broke down. So here we have a king whose whole kingdom has been reduced to being an empty and wild space, lacking in subjects and a breeding ground for wild and evil things that recognize no lawful lord. A king reduced to the role of ranger, protecting subjects that don't recognize him, from evils they don't understand. Of course, Tolkien's own views weren't actually medieval, so there is a lot of nuance in how Tolkien actually treats the wilderness, which is in the books both the medieval domain of evil and the modern unspoiled natural world depending on where you are standing and how you view it. In some places, as in the Old Forest and especially in Fangorn - it's really both at once. Other than the fact that tracking is associated with Rangers in D&D, the Paladin class better fits the Rangers and particularly Aragon than the actual Ranger does. The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, thus may the true king be known. [/QUOTE]
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