Middle Earth Ranger Forum

The topic of Ranger outposts or safe houses came up briefly on Andy's site and I would like to revisit it.

My idea of the Ranger outpost would be a typical large log framed cabin in the woods say a maximum of 40 miles away from the nearest village/town and still a goodly distance from the border. There would be several out building comprising of a barn/stable, a hen house, a sty and a tool shed with a work table. Livestock would be made up of chickens, pigs and a dairy cow or two. A stream or lake would be within several hundred yards.

The animals would be cared for by 1 of the rangers who is not rotated into the wilds or in times of severe need of rangers elsewhere, boys from the villages or elder rangers unable to fight would care for the stock.

Inside the main building would be a fireplace with a large hearth against the back wall with a table and chairs in the center of the room. Cots or beds would be against one wall and the other side wall would be lined with shelves filled with barrels and sacks of provisions. Flour, baking powder, corn meal, dried peas, beans and vegtables would fill the shelved sacks, while in the barrels would be water, ale, mead, wine, cooking oil, honey, travel bread and several hundred pounds of salt.

On one side of the fireplace would be shelves and a counter for food preperation, the other would be similarly countered for hygene purposes. The door would be quite thick and be able to be barred. The widows would be small and the logs treated with resin to lessen the risk of a fire attack.

A ranger being rotated into this area would bring up supplies on a horse or mule along with his battle kit (longsword/longaxe, war arrows and armor) which would stay inside the cabin while he was on patrol. His smaller hand weapons would travel the deeper forested areas with him (typically a long knife, handaxe, spear or bow and arrows).

The workshed would be for small repairs to kit or cabin. For larger repairs or blacksmithing the ranger would have to make the trek to town.

A small herb garden might be kept up for spices and medicinal aids.

Funny, My mental image has always been more of a fortified border tower or the hidden pool fort of the ithilen Rangers. A good defense with stores that doesn't need constant tending. But the more I think about it, I think that image may have come from a Narnia book.

jackadmin wrote:But the more I think about it, I think that image may have come from a Narnia book.

The unmanned border tower in The Last Battle, right? Well, even if they didn't have anything like that set up, I imagine there could be ruined watchtowers or ruined buildings from Arnor of old that could be partially repaired and made to serve. Maybe one of these waystations could be a cave, another a ruin, with this cabin setup serving where those were not available.

I like most of your ideas, Pete. It's ideal for keeping the larger weapons and armor for times when they need to ride to war openly, it's self-sustaining, defensible by a few... I was going to ask about a palisade or stockade, but if we're talking about being defended by one to three Rangers it makes more sense to have the cabin itself be the barrier.

One suggestion, though--I wondered if you wouldn't want the barn/stable to be part of the same building as the cabin, instead of being an outbuilding. I think having the animals in the same building and only separated by a door is better because A) it allows for protection of the animals in time of siege and B) for heat conservation in the winter. Horses and livestock do give off body heat, and the Saxons used to stable them in their houses so as to conserve heat. It'd be a little smelly, true...

Good Idea, once the dung is dried it could be used for fuel too.

Peter Remling wrote:Good Idea, once the dung is dried it could be used for fuel too.

while I agree it's a good idea it's just a little too smelly for me folks. Nothin like the smell of dung in the mornin'.

mcapanelli wrote:

Peter Remling wrote:Good Idea, once the dung is dried it could be used for fuel too.

while I agree it's a good idea it's just a little too smelly for me folks. Nothin like the smell of dung in the mornin'.

The best part of wakin' up...

I think the way stations would be much more hidden, think the cave used by the dwarves in the Children of Hurin, or the base in Ithilien. Old Arnorian ruins would likely be ok as fell creatures would likely regard then with fear of the "magic" of the Dunedain.
I think secrecy is the key, the best defence being to be hidden and not found. A cabin or such, even if fortified would be to easy to find and would then a need a fair number of rangers to defend it, something that is in short supply. If wood it would be too easy to burn.

Somewhere, there was an escape route, which could be used if discovered.

Best
JW

There was a good example of a waystation used by Faramir and the Ithilien Rangers in the film "The Two Towers", where they were holed up interrogating Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. There was food, fire, water, and weapons.

I suppose Amon Sul could have been considered a cache point at the least. Aragorn didn't pull out all of those blades for the hobbits from his own pack.

Hereward the Wake wrote:I think the way stations would be much more hidden, think the cave used by the dwarves in the Children of Hurin, or the base in Ithilien. Old Arnorian ruins would likely be ok as fell creatures would likely regard then with fear of the "magic" of the Dunedain.
I think secrecy is the key, the best defence being to be hidden and not found. A cabin or such, even if fortified would be to easy to find and would then a need a fair number of rangers to defend it, something that is in short supply. If wood it would be too easy to burn.

Somewhere, there was an escape route, which could be used if discovered.

Best
JW

A cabin can be harder to find than one would think, if its smoke doesn't give it away or if it's not on a main trail or river. But I think Pete was thinking behind the border, in areas that only see action if the front lines are broken through--like a resupply depot. Secrecy, while still a factor, wouldn't be as imperative.

Really they'd be limited by what is available in the region they're in, of course. Caves are wonderful when you can get them, as are ruins, but in the middle of the forest sometimes all you have is wood, and in the plains all you have is sod and clay. You can still make something fairly unobtrusive with those materials. A small sod cabin can look so very like the side of a hill that one only sees it if one is looking for it.

Yes thats Henneth Annun "Window of the sunset" That is the major base in Itilien, hidden in caves behind a water fall, again very hidden in natural features.

Yes there is a small cache of firewood on Amon Sul, in a small dell on the side of the hill, which is supposed ot have been left their by rangers.

Don't forget the blades were there in the movie because mR jackson had gotten rid of Tom Bombadil, and without Tom you can't have the hobbits getting caught in the barrow downs, where they get the Dunedai blades, beacuse Tom cant rescue them.

Panday wrote:There was a good example of a waystation used by Faramir and the Ithilien Rangers in the film "The Two Towers", where they were holed up interrogating Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. There was food, fire, water, and weapons.

I suppose Amon Sul could have been considered a cache point at the least. Aragorn didn't pull out all of those blades for the hobbits from his own pack.

Chris Russo wrote: A cabin can be harder to find than one would think, if its smoke doesn't give it away or if it's not on a main trail or river. But I think Pete was thinking behind the border, in areas that only see action if the front lines are broken through--like a resupply depot. Secrecy, while still a factor, wouldn't be as imperative.

Really they'd be limited by what is available in the region they're in, of course. Caves are wonderful when you can get them, as are ruins, but in the middle of the forest sometimes all you have is wood, and in the plains all you have is sod and clay. You can still make something fairly unobtrusive with those materials. A small sod cabin can look so very like the side of a hill that one only sees it if one is looking for it.

If its behind the Bourder then I would say its a different matter, then we are back intothte discussion of how and where did the rangers actually live, with their families etc.

I agree that one can make a shelter that can not be found easyly, and even some thing like a log cabin can be hard to find, but building one in the wilds/enemy territory would not be something I would do

Can I post images here that are staright from my PC?
I sent Andy some pictures of something that looked like what we would be discussing, that I came across in Denmark.
It was a wooden frame around a fire pit, with a lean to roof, which was covered in earthh and sod, so when viewd from the outside, it just looked like part of the rolling forest floor.
you cna really see it inthe photos how good it is, can I post them?

Best
JW

I don't see why not--I'd love to see them. You'd probably have to host them elsewhere, though, and just link them in.

Yeah, in enemy territory it's another matter entirely, you probably wouldn't build anything at all if you could help it, and just take note of good temporary camping spots.

Assuming things go as planned My friend Brad and I will be building something very similiar to your initial suggestion, Peter.

Only difference is we'll be running a pre 17th century arts crafts and sciences informal trade school out of it...but if it works out we'll have 500 acres by january 2009. Anyone want to come test their topography and scouting skills and help scan the property while testing their ranger skills, let me know. COurse this is in Washington, USA for anyone interested;)

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