The northern people more commonly known simply as the Rangers, the last remnant of the Dúnedain who had once peopled the North-kingdom of Arnor. They were led by a line of Chieftains, each of whom could trace his descent back to Isildur himself. At the time of the War of the Ring, the Chieftain of the Dúnedain was Aragorn, but the people he led were scattered and diminished. When Halbarad Dúnadan led a troop of the Rangers into the south to Aragorn's aid in the War, he could muster no more than thirty for the ride.

The term 'Rangers of the North' was used most often by those who lived in the southern lands of Rohan and Gondor, perhaps to distinguish this people from their distant cousins, the Rangers of Ithilien. Like the Rangers of the North, these were also Dúnedain, but they belonged to the South-kingdom of Gondor, and their ancestors had been divided from the Northern Dúnedain for some three thousand years.