In my novel, I want rangers- or something similar- to act as sheriffs over the rural parts of the country. Any ideas on where I can get additional info beyond typing in medieval rangers into google? Any books where rangers play a predominant role (fiction or possibly nf)? Would there be another king-sanctioned organization that would fulfill such a role? I want knights reserved for foreign affairs, much like our modern military.
Any info or anything related that may be interesting or just darn cool would be appreciated
Though not traditionally "forest rangers", the history of Texas Rangers is also pretty interesting.
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I think it depends on if you want to model yours after real rangers. If I recall correctly Tolken's were some type of Forest protecters-law enforcement outfit and operated like a para-military organization in today's terms. I forget whose laws they enforced, if any body's.
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I think it depends on if you want to model yours after real rangers. If I recall correctly Tolken's were some type of Forest protecters-law enforcement outfit and operated like a para-military organization in today's terms. I forget whose laws they enforced, if any body's.
Well, since Aragorn was their leader and he was also the true king of Minas Tirith, I suppose they enforced his laws.
I don't know that they did much forest-protecting as in today's forest rangers. But they definitely knew how to live off the land--whether it was forested or not.
Real world analogs are the Rifle Brigade of the British army circa 1800s. They were mainly used as scouts and sharpshooters. There are also the very famous Roger's Rangers of the French and Indian War. A little later, the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont were roaming around upsetting New Yorkers.
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It's the best occupation I can figure for a woods-savvy lawkeeper. I just don't want to invent what a medieval/fantasy ranger would entail if there is already some presidence in fantasy lit.
Thanks for the feedback.
Another good fictional example is the Lyonyan rangers in The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.
Really though, you can have your rangers do whatever you'd like, I mean, you're the one making them up 
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It's very popular among the 8-14 year old boys I know. Patrick Flanagan is the author, I believe. I've read the first and it's a good, quick read, pretty standard fantasy stuff but well told. I prefer less standard fantasy stuff so I moved on with other reading instead of reading deeper into the series, but I would recommend the series.
And I think they tried to carry out the old laws and rules, Old meaning when there was a kingdom over everything.
But Crystal I think the Texas Rangers and the Lone Ranger are computable-if I use the right word there. Different land-I mean desert-and different weapons but their purpose and organization may well be similar with what we are talking about.
As an earlier post mentioned, being fantasy I can craft the occupation how I want, which is nice. I just hadn't read any novels with rangers other than lotr and didn't want to find myself copying it based on my one-dimensional viewpoint. If there is any fantasy you don't want to be accused of copying, it is lotr. ;-)
The examples above show the huge variation in what that term can mean, both historically and in fiction.
Your initial question makes it sound as if you might be advised to look up information about foresters and verderers in medieval England. They were the ones who enforced the laws in the forests (i.e. the King's hunting grounds).
They also keep trouble makers out of the campgrounds. I heard about a couple of cases where campers drew guns on each other when one man found his wife (girlfriend?) camping out with another man that resulted with at least one person getting shot.
There was another time when some teenagers decided to hike off the marked trails around 2:00 am in the morning with only one flashlight between them. One girl fell off a 20 to 25 foot ledge. They had quite a time finding a way to get her out with multiple broken bones.
So yes, even today's forest rangers face challenges once in awhile that can be very dangerous.
Likewise Salvatore develops a MC Ranger in the series; The Demon Wars Saga. Also great reading.
Interesting discussion and it makes me want to do a novel about rangers in a Fantasy land.
Just thought of something won't that warrior group on Babylon Five called rangers?
That's not Fantasy but same idea I think.
It is probable that irregular or in some cases elite forces skilled in living off the land and in wilderness combat have always existed on the margins of empires. Large bodies of professional soldiers specializing in coordinated battlefield tactics and supported by complex supply chains were the exception rather than the rule.
I'd guess that in a most places where you had landed aristocrats forming a militia (as it did in feudal Europe and ancient Ireland) you'd have some men, particularly younger sons, forming companies that "live off the land", although in most cases that'd amount to banditry. The history of Normans in France has many examples of such companies forming and plundering the countryside, starting with events leading up to the formation of Normandy in the tenth century and the aftermath of Plantagenet campaigns in the fourteenth.
The golden age of piracy on the Spanish Main was a maritime version of this phenomenon. After the War of Spanish Succession, privateers who'd been operating under of letters of marque simply continued business as usual, often forging new letters or obtaining them from friendly government for a price. Jean Lafitte was in this tradition. He was a smuggler and a businessman who underwrote a privateer in the war of 1812, and found it so profitable that he continued to operate under letters of marque obtained (bought) from Saint-Domingue and Cartagena (then a newly independent city-state).
So the "ranger" phenomenon is closely related to banditry and outlawry. Think Robin Hood in his Merry Men, who in the earliest incarnations are quite openly and approvingly depicted as thieves and murderers, but by the time of Sir Walter Scott have become King Richard's irregulars. The relative orderliness of the Celtic ranger phenomenon probably reflects their relatively more advanced civilization.
One side note. I'm of a generation that was taught that Americans won the Revolutionary War because we were smart enough to hide behind trees and rocks while the British stupidly marched along in the open in their bright red coats. That of course is a myth. The force landed by General and Admiral Howe in the New York/New Jersey campaign was an impressively modern one capable of landing large numbers of troops in coordinated maritime and land actions. Howe had units at his disposal which specialized in forest combat, led by men who like Washington had cut their teeth in the French and Indian war. They easily crushed the rebels. Victory slipped through their grasp when they ran out of forage, forcing them into conflicts with the populace as they were waging a "hearts and minds" campaign to win them over. In the absence of fuel, advantage shifted toward guerrilla or "ranger" tactics.
Washington's crossing the Delaware, his surprise attack on the Hessians, and his subsequent string of brilliant tactical retreats is an example of classic "ranger" tactics, emphasizing stealth, surprise and mobility.
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Let's look at how such a thing would come about. One plausible way is that the frontiersman form militias to protect their settlements, and that over time the core of that militia becomes an elite organization, either on its own or by sponsorship from the central civil or religious authorities. This is something like the situation with the Irish rangers.
Another is that the central authorities choose the most cooperative of the bandit bands operating in an area and invest it with authority. Or perhaps the rangers are formed after a war from elite troops specializing in commando tactics.
In Tolkien's world, rangers represent the remains of the aristocratic warrior class after the political administration of the kingdom collapses. Perhaps if we have a dying kingdom, the rangers are the warrior caste of the outlying regions, no longer able to maintain estates but retaining martial and legal traditions as they switch to a non-agricultural lifestyle.
I don't think this one would be an epic fantasy, even though that isn't set in stone.
I may do a series of short stories set in a Ranger camp. Two reoccurring characters would be the leader and a new recruit. They will probably left overs from an old empire. They may know martial arts and only carry the larger weapons- swords and bows- when they have to fight.