Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Just bore a hole in the bottom. Add layers of sand, pebbles, and charcoal. Pour water in the top, it gets filtered on the way down. If you boil the water first and then run it through you can drink it straight out. You could use various modern filter components if you wanted; no one would see them until you had to change them out.

Eledhwen

I was actually thinking about disguising one of those "Life Straws", haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LifeStraw

I must just mention, that I have heard that there is a type of parasite that lives in bamboo canes. Probably pay to check this out.
Keith.

I wish there was a way to TAG a topic thread hehe.. And no I don't mean sticky it where it's sticky for everyone... just for me!! lol

Lots of good info in this one!

Just a quick tip for footwear. I carry a couple of leather soles in the bottom of my knapsack besides a spare pair of moccasins tied to my blanket roll. If I wear a hole in the sole, I can just slip the leather sole inside & keep going until I make camp.
Keith.

There very well could be. Mine was seriously treated before I used it; soaked in alcohol, dried, baked, dunked in food-safe polyurethane. Hasn't caused me any problems. Then again, I nearly killed it while making it. LOL

Eledhwen

Oh yay forgot about the bookmark topic option.

And I was wondering if you prepped the bamboo before you used it as a filter, Eledhwen. Made sense to me if you did.

Historically it was a ranger's job to NOT be seen and if the enemy had to be engaged....then guerrilla tactics were used to put the ranger at the greatest advantage, while the enemy at their greatest disadvantage.

If sent out to engage, it was hit and run raids, especially to counter act enemy rangers and to disrupt enemy supply trains.....mobility is key....as well as hittin' em where they ain't!

Back in the 13th century in England it was the Ranger's job to protect the forests, the game in those forests, & protect the people living in the forests.
In the New World, the Rangers job in the 16th,17th & early to mid 18th century was to range the surrounding areas of communities, on his own, looking for sign of the enemy. If he spotted the enemy or any sign, his job was to get back to the community as soon as possible & report his findings to the local militia. So he could be out for days or weeks. Considering the dangers involved in this work, I would think that a smart Ranger would be well equipped to handle most contingencies.
Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.a ... ?q=Rangers

That brings up a good point (which I'm sure has been mentioned around these forums already, but I wouldn't know where to look). That is, how old is the term "ranger"? Obviously we use it in the context in which Tolkien used it - which was high fantasy, and not based on any specific historical time period. This of course has led to a lot of speculation about why Tolkien called them that, and what, if any, historical archetype he was drawing on. But it makes me curious. Were there "rangers" in Europe during the Middle Ages? Of course, there were foresters, huntsmen, etc. But was the term "ranger" ever used to describe a specific job? Or were the American colonies really the first place to use that term in regards to woodsmen?

Quite old, but it has carried different meanings over the centuries. Our modern notion of what a Ranger is starts in the 17th & 18th centuries, that is, the lightly armed, fast moving scout practicing interdiction, warning folks, screening moving formations and spying. During the Middle Ages the term was used for bands of archers who 'ranged' across France plundering and pillaging at will..they were more harriers than what we think of as Rangers. Sometimes the term was used to refer to Foresters and hunters, but that was fairly rare and was used to describe their habit of ranging through the forests rather than in a military sense.

St. Huberts Rangers..the term Ranger is the latter medieval one I mentioned; we range through the forests.

Rangers as we know and recognize them today came about as a response to French and Native American raids on the colonies here. Robert Rogers is considered the founder of what we know as Rangers...he was for the colonies in the various wars with France, but served Britain during the Revolution. It is said the first Rangers were formed here in Massachusetts colony..which at that time included Maine and some of what is now New Hampshire and what would become Vermont (which was not a colony at that time, just a region).

There is overlap here and there, but as far as Tolkien is concerned, his Dunedain Rangers are more akin to the Colonial Rangers than to actual Medieval reavers and raiders who sometimes had that term applied to them. I strongly suspect his love of Colonial history played into his creation of the Rangers as we know them, but I cannot prove that. The similarities are there, however.

For what it is worth.

Eledhwen

This is as far as I am aware the first use of the term Ranger.
New Forest [cos. Haul* and Wilts], John
Dolyng, Ranger of, 6S5. (13th century) Authentication: http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls/r ... ge0924.pdf

Which is why I added the url to my blog posts on Rangers. The specific article I wrote is here: http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.a ... rsona.html
Regards, Keith.