Does the book explain why Aragorn doesn't have a relationship with Faramir?

Legolas.

OK, seriously, I don't remember from the books, but I think the age difference would play into it. Aragorn's ~80 at the time of the books, and Faramir's ~ 20. Therefore they wouldn't necessarily have trained together or served together. I got the impression from Boromir and Aragorn's interaction at the Council of Elrond that Aragorn hadn't interacted much with the Gondor nobles in his ranger capacity.

ETA:

Faramir's people are just like the northern rangers, in that they like becoming shades of green and sleeping in thickets, but they're not a secret tribe of anything and the word "ranger" describes their function rather than their being.

Oh, two different meanings of "Ranger". Good to know.

I'm Meriadoc Brandybuck and his insatiable bloodlust. I'm good with that.

Does the book explain why Aragorn doesn't have a relationship with Faramir? They're both Rangers right? Or were they in different cub scout troops?

As Nutty explained, they're different troops of scouts, and the word "ranger" when applied to each group has somewhat different meanings.

But more importantly, it's not like anybody has phones, radios or walkie-talkies in Middle Earth, so nobody without a Palantir is big with the long-range communication, and Palantiri have issues of their own, which means that even if they were the same kinds of rangers, Aragorn and Faramir would only have known each other when Aragorn was in town, and the last time Aragorn was in Gondor (under an assumed name, no less), Faramir was a wee lad, if he was born at all.

so nobody without a Palantir is big with the long-range communication

And Movie!Galadriel, with her mind-phone.

(And yes, I do say "Can you hear me now?" when that scene starts. See above, re, twelve.)

I'm Bloody Merry, as well. Hee.

I'm Meriadoc Brandybuck and his insatiable bloodlust.

Same here.

One thing in the weapons and warfare book I forgot: that Sting (Frodo - and once Bilbo's sword) says "Sting is my name - I am the Spider's bane" on it.

Oh! I also forgot that Glamdring (Gandalf's sword) and Sting were found at the same time in the Troll's horde in The Hobbit.

I need to read The Hobbit again.

This Weapons book kicks ass and I don't want to give it to my brother tonight.

it's not like anybody has phones, radios or walkie-talkies in Middle Earth

Right. And as I recall, neither Boromir nor Faramir was anywhere close to being born yet when last Strider visited Gondor. Denethor was still a young man, and Theoden was still a child.

That's the funny part of the books that would just never work on screen. In the books, Boromir wanders for like 3 months in the wilderness, looking for Rivendell, and until he finds it, he's not really sure it isn't just a myth. People had just stopped traveling to different lands so much (perhaps due to all of the orcs), and communication and the spread of knowledge were in total disarray.

(Also the part where, palantirites excepted, nobody in Gondor had any idea that the line of Arnor still existed. Someone had to explain to Boromir at the council why "Aragorn son of Arathorn" wasn't just "Dave son of Joe" but actually meaningful to Minas Tirith.)

I'm Samwise Gamgee and his insomnia.

Try anything on Mr. Frodo, and I'll have you, longshanks!!!!!!

Hmm. My weapons book (regrettably, just for plain old normal earth), says that the claymore was only 4.5 to 5 feet long, and that the bigger ones found were probably ceremonial. I've read both versions though, from different sources, so the book could easily be wrong.

One thing about a lot of the longer swords was they had a Ricasso. That's where you leave the blade blunt for the first six or so inches above the hilt, or even cover it with leather, so that the weilder can grab on in front of the quillions for greater control. I remember being very happy that Wallace had one in Braveheart. It would have been a nice nod to Aragorn not being As big and strong as Elendil.

On a completely unrelated note, I feel a bizzare need to mention that everyone else's reliance on longswords and broadswords at the time was one of the things that made the Roman Legions so effective. They all carried the Gladius, which might be a sword, but might be a really pretentious dagger. The advantage in war is that all the 'barbarians' had to dress their lines very wide, leaving themselves room to swing without fouling the guy next to them, while the Romans stood shoulder to shoulder and stabbed at them. You could outnumber a Legion two to one or more, but when you came at them, they had more blades covering any given part of the line.

Now I get. I was possessed by Dark Powers who wanted the conversation nudged one more step towards 'Does size matter' jokes. Curses!

The quiz doesn't offer the option of being the One Ring and Its Unfortunate Tendency towards Armageddon. I feel cheated.