Butturbur's Worst Customers

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Originally posted by Inziladun
Notably, The Prancing Pony was still in business, unlike the inns in the Shire. Butturbur, and Bree in general, seem to have been more successful in resisting the ruffians.

But the ruffians were Saruman's method of just messing with the Shire, to get some revenge on Frodo et. al. He wouldn't have had much of an interest in Bree-beyond just causing more mayhem, but he wanted to destroy as much of the Shire as he could.

As for general threats, didn't The Fellowship take the (magical?) wolves who attacked them to be at first an "ordinary" wolfpack, implying that such attacks in The Wild were not unknown or unexpected? That and roving orc bands, perhaps riding on wolves, could be some of the dangers---sort of the way Medieval people (and Grimm's Fairy Tales) saw the forests and lands outside settled areas.