The Ordinary People of Bree-land

[Boromir88]

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?

[Huinesoron]

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

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Fair point. The most typical Gondorian we ever meet is Ioreth- who could just as easily be a Bree-woman.

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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."

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Fair point. The most typical Gondorian we ever meet is Ioreth- who could just as easily be a Bree-woman.

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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."

Ahh, thank you. I recalled Aragorn mentioning Bree was also guarded, but didn't think or remember it was to the same extent as the Shire. Aragorn using 'ceaselessly' suggests that it was.

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.

Originally Posted by Huey

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).

Perhaps you're right that Bree isn't an anomaly. It's the other places we visit that are the anomalies. Although, I think it's still quite a different place, unlike others in Middle-earth. As it's noted:

There was trouble away in the South, and it seemed that the Men who had come up the Greenway were on the move, looking for lands where they could find some peace. The Bree-folk were sympathetic, but plainly not very ready to take a large number of strangers into their little land. One of the travellers, a squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow, was foretelling that more and more people would be coming north in the near future. 'If room isn't found for them, they'll find it for themselves. They've a right to live, same as other folk,' he said loudly. The local inhabitants did not look pleased at the prospect.~At The Sign of the Prancing Pony

Some of these 'travellers' would appear to be from Gondor, trying to get away from the war gathering. Some maybe from Dunland? It's mentioned in Appendix B, TA 2943 Saruman begins placing agents in Bree and the Southfarthing. But his intentions are to spy on what Gandalf's doing, at least with Bree his intentions don't seem to be to occupy it.

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?

[Galadriel55]

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.

[Mithadan]

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.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I'm not entirely sure Saruman was "going after" the Shire, not before his fall. Certainly he found it profitable to prop up Lotho, rather like big nations today operate in the Third World, but I don't think "occupy and conquer" was much of a priority for an Ainu who was after the Great Ring and the whole ball of Middle-earth wax. And after his fall, Saruman's interest in the Shire was primarily ruination, an act of petty revenge.