65e2b721   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: degrafi@freenet.de   
      
   Hi!   
      
   Am 04.08.2014 um 21:27 schrieb Bill O'Meally:   
   > The Grey Company consisted of thirty Rangers (or 28 plus the sons of   
   > Elrond). Did they need that many to ride south to meet Aragorn and bring   
   > Arwen's banner? In the scheme of things, their addition didn't seem to   
   > make much difference in the final outcome of the War of the Ring. Were   
   > they remiss in their duty to guard the Shire, allowing the ruffians to   
   > take over?   
      
   You may be right, but I think it was a question of honour and   
   "collective responsibility" for what the Nomenorians had done wrong in   
   the past. Those were on fact the remnants of the last Numenorians in the   
   north, and I think they could not have been hindered to take revenge on   
   Sauron as well as to mend what one of their kind (Isildur) had done wrong.   
   Anyway, they were not enough people to fence the Shire completely, and I   
   guess that they had more to do in the North than only guarding the Shire   
   (Trollshaws, old Angmar, Orcs from the Misty Mountains etc)   
   Pershaps one of them would have been left on guard of the Shire, but   
   outnumbered he could have done nothing but giving report.   
      
   Michael   
      
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