Bree

Bree is the chief village of Bree-land, a small inhabited region like an island in the empty lands round about, lying some forty miles east of the Shire. Besides Bree itself, the region includes Staddle on the other side of Bree-hill, Combe in a deep valley further east, and Archet on the edge of the Chetwood. The Men of Bree are brown-haired, broad, and rather short, cheerful and independent, belonging to nobody but themselves, and more friendly and familiar with Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other inhabitants than is usual with Big People. According to their own tales, they are the original inhabitants, descendants of the first Men that ever wandered into the West of the middle-world. Few survived the turmoils of the Elder Days, but when the Kings returned again over the Great Sea they found the Bree-men still there, and they were still there now, when the memory of the old Kings had faded into the grass.

The Village and Its Inhabitants

The village of Bree has some hundred stone houses of the Big Folk, mostly above the Road, nestling on the hillside with windows looking west. On that side, running in more than half a circle from the hill and back to it, there is a deep dike with a thick hedge on the inner side. Over this the Road crosses by a causeway, but where it pierces the hedge it is barred by a great gate. There is another gate in the southern corner where the Road runs out of the village. The gates are closed at nightfall, with small lodges for the gatekeepers just inside. Down on the Road, where it sweeps to the right to go round the foot of the hill, there is a large inn: The Prancing Pony. It was built long ago when the traffic on the roads was far greater, for Bree stood at an old meeting of ways; another ancient road, the Greenway, crosses the East Road just outside the dike at the western end of the village. In former days Men and other folk of various sorts travelled much on it, and 'Strange as News from Bree' was still a saying in the Eastfarthing. The Northern Lands have long been desolate, and the North Road is now seldom used, grass-grown, and called the Greenway by the Bree-folk.

The Prancing Pony and Its Keeper

The Inn of Bree is still there, and the innkeeper is an important person. His house is a meeting place for the idle, talkative, and inquisitive among the inhabitants, large and small, of the four villages, and a resort of Rangers and other wanderers, and for such travellers (mostly dwarves) as still journey on the East Road. The innkeeper is Barliman Butterbur, a short fat man with a bald head and a red face, who wears a white apron and bustles about carrying trays laden with full mugs. He is an honest man and well-off as things are reckoned in Bree, but he is run off his feet and his memory is like a lumber-room: thing wanted always buried. He is a friend of Gandalf, who trusts him to send messages, though Butterbur's forgetfulness nearly proves disastrous when he delays delivering Gandalf's letter to Frodo.

The Meeting with Strider

In the common-room of The Prancing Pony, Frodo, Pippin, and Sam join the company. Among the Bree-folk are many with botanical names like Rushlight, Goatleaf, Heathertoes, Appledore, Thistlewool, and Ferny, and hobbits with names like Banks, Brockhouse, Longholes, Sandheaver, and Tunnelly. There are several Underhills from Staddle who take Frodo to their hearts as a long-lost cousin. Frodo gives out that he is interested in history and geography and thinking of writing a book. A strange-looking weather-beaten man sits in the shadows near the wall, smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. He is tall, with a travel-stained cloak of dark green cloth, and a hood that overshadows his face. The landlord introduces him as Strider, one of the wandering folk called Rangers. Strider warns Frodo that his young friends are talking too much and that Black horsemen have passed through Bree. He reveals that he is Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and that he was looking for Frodo. Gandalf's letter, belatedly produced by Butterbur, confirms Strider's identity and urges Frodo to trust him.

The Night Raid and Departure

That night, Black Riders attack the inn, slashing the bolsters in the hobbits' beds. The ponies are stolen, but Strider arranges for a replacement pony from Bill Ferny, a swarthy sneering fellow with an evil name in the Bree-land. The hobbits leave Bree by the main road, with the whole village buzzing with excitement. Strider leads them off the road into the wild, beginning the long journey towards Rivendell. The gatekeeper, Harry Goatleaf, is suspicious and has been in league with the Riders, but Strider's presence and the hobbits' elven-cloaks help them evade pursuit. Bree remains a place of memory and a symbol of the homely world the hobbits have left behind, a place they hope to see again when things are merry once more.