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#1 |
Laconic Loreman
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The Ordinary People of Bree-land
I'm in the midst of a Lord of the Rings re-reading and finished Book I today. The movies sort of muddle a lot details, which makes more of a mess of things than I remembered.
One part that I did remember well, because I wasn't ever quite happy with the movie portrayal of it, is Bree. The town of Bree feels right. The Hobbits are no longer 'home and safe' in the Shire. Sam doesn't like the look of things and says they should try to find a hobbit family to stay for the night. The Prancing Pony however, is full of light and energy. There's Big Folk and Little Folk and dwarf travelers. Is this the only place in Middle-earth where people of different races co-exist and live in the same town/area? The homely feel of the inn puts our hobbits in a false sense of security. They get too comfortable and chatty as if they were at the Green Dragon and forget they're in the Prancing Pony. I don't quite know the purpose or if I have any question in this thread, more observations that I'd be interested to read comments on. This time reading I'm just struck by how ordinary Bree is. Its people (and their family names!) and its potential problems or threats. It's sort of a view of what a place can become that's outside of Sauron's influence. What I mean is when we get to Rohan, it's been corrupted by Saruman. Gondor's been wearied with nearly constant war, either with Sauron, or by people they previously conquered. The Elves have pretty much gone into cocoons. The Shire has mostly been ignored by Sauron and also been protected/kept untouched by the Dunedain that remain. Then there's Bree...sort of a look at a place in Middle-earth that isn't touched by Sauron (at least not yet), but not necessarily 'guarded' in the same way the Shire's been. Full of good and bad people. It's a refreshing look after the strangeness in 3 chapters in Bombadil's world. I'm either just realizing or remembering something I forgot but Bree is unlike any place in Middle-earth. And it has me wondering why, but also how is there this quite ordinary place in a fantasy world?
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#2 |
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,857
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Thinking about it, I feel like Bree actually represents not an anomaly, but the most common type of settlement in Middle-earth. Take away the Little Folk, and mix up the parochialism a little, and you could be in Westemnet, or Lebennin, or the Vale of Anduin, or even in Dunland or down in Harondor (where, unless there was a war on, you'd have a similar mixing of Gondorian and Haradrim).
The fact that the Fellowship only visits capital cities and unique enclaves is a quirk of narrative, not a representative sample of Middle-earth. It's to Tolkien's credit that he takes time to show us somewhere that isn't special - the kind of town where 90% of Middle-earth's population would live. hS |
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#3 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,307
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Fair point. The most typical Gondorian we ever meet is Ioreth- who could just as easily be a Bree-woman.
--------------------------- Bree, however, was guarded- "'Strider' I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruins, if he were not guarded ceaselessly."
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
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#4 | |||
Laconic Loreman
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What's fascinated me about Bree more this time is just how much I related to it now. It feels like a normal place I would encounter in the 'real world,' so to say. Most of that probably has to do with relating to Butterbur. Until recently, for several years I was in upper management for a restaurant and I definitely can remember my own name. I was the person the owners and my minions would say 'he'd forget his own head if it wasn't attached to his shoulders.' Not so much anymore, because I'm not in the same job. I do want to start using Butterbur's excuse "one thing drives out another." That sounds more professional than "shoot, I forgot!" ![]() Currently after reading the Shire chapters which relates to feeling 'like home,' but it's not necessarily real. It feels 'like home' but it's not. It's more idyllic or an imagination of 'home as it should be.' Then Bree, to me, is 'home as it is.' It feels normal and more real world, which I think was necessary after 3 chapters in Bombadil's strange and abnormal world. Quote:
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When I get to it in my reread, I'll have to try to remember what changes happened in Bree on the hobbits return journey. But it certainly doesn't undergo changes to the extent of the Shire. Also, the Nazgul showing up in Bree is to get information of the hobbits, there's apparently no interest for Sauron to occupy it?
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Last edited by Boromir88; 08-03-2020 at 12:13 PM. |
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#5 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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Sauron wouldn't be any more after Bree than after any other settlement not yet under his rule, I don't think. It has strategic importance as a "crossroads" town, but no inherent value beyond that. Sauron doesn't particularly care about occupying Bree in LOTR as it would come in its turn, after the stronger forces of Gondor, Rohan, Dale/Erebor, etc are subdued and he has free access to the poorly defended west.
However, it wasn't so much Sauron as Saruman who was after that corner of Middle-earth. Saruman had men stationed there, probably gathering all the news coming in from all four roads and passing them along via the likes of Bill Ferny and his southern friend. Was Saruman after Bree? Not really, but he made full use of it strategically, and he was after the full use it could give himm. He was going after the Shire, in a desire to exploit and later to simply spoil out of spite (was it the same with Fangorn Forest?). But his later and more devastating shenanigans in the Shire were driven by personal motive, not military or political plans.
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#6 |
Spirit of Mist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,352
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Just noticed this thread.
Bree is unique in several ways. It is very old, perhaps even dating to the earliest westward migrations of Men. It is a town on a major east-west thoroughfare (though by the time of LOTR visited primarily by traveling Dwarves) near a major north-south road again, little used by LOTR). It is an open town, only lightly guarded, and a known meeting place. Finally, it is inhabited by two races and is a place where races freely mix and exchange news. While one might speculate that there are similar towns elsewhere, the only place even remotely similar is Laketown-Dale and then only after Erebor was re-established or before the coming of Smaug. In many ways, Bree is very unique.
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