Editing Bree (Middle-earth) (section)

== Fictional history ==

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 |quote  = 'Well, Master Underhill', said [[Aragorn|Strider]], 'if I were you, I should stop your young friends from talking too much. Drink, fire, and chance-meeting are pleasant enough, but, well – this isn't the Shire. There are queer folk about. Though I say it as shouldn't, you may think', he added with a wry smile, seeing Frodo's glance. 'And there have been even stranger travellers through Bree lately', he went on, watching Frodo's face.<ref name="At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" group=T/>
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Bree was the starting point for the [[Fallohide]] brothers and leaders, Marcho and Blanco, when they travelled west in the year 1601 of the [[Third Age]]. They led their [[Hobbit]]s across the river Baranduin and took the land there to found [[the Shire]].<ref name="Prologue" group=T/>

Two important events leading up to the [[War of the Ring]] take place at ''The Prancing Pony''. The first is "a chance-meeting" of the [[Wizards in Middle-earth|Wizard]] [[Gandalf]] and the exiled [[Dwarves in Middle-earth|Dwarf]] [[Thorin Oakenshield]]; this meeting leads to the destruction of [[Smaug]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980|loc="The Quest of Erebor"}}</ref> The second occurs during the journey of [[Frodo Baggins]] to [[Rivendell]], when he and his companions stay at ''The Prancing Pony'' for a night. After singing ''[[The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late]]'', Frodo accidentally slips the [[One Ring]] on his finger, and becomes invisible. The minor villain Bill Ferny and a squint-eyed "Southerner", a person from some land far to the south, see him vanish, and inform the Black Riders, who attack the inn. [[Aragorn]] saves him and leads the party away, after the innkeeper {{visible anchor|Barliman Butterbur}} delivers a letter from Gandalf which he had forgotten to deliver months earlier.<ref name="At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980|loc="The Hunt for the Ring"}}</ref>