Editing Bree (Middle-earth) (section)

== Fictional geography ==

=== Settlement ===

Bree is an ancient settlement of men in [[Eriador]], some {{convert|40|mi|km}} east of the Shire. After the collapse of the kingdom of [[Arnor (Middle-earth)|Arnor]], Bree continued to thrive without any central authority for many centuries. As Bree lies at the meeting of two large roadways, the Great East Road and the long disused Greenway or Great North Road,{{efn|The [[Great North Road (Great Britain)|Great North Road]] is the name of the main road, now the [[A1 road (Great Britain)|A1]], from England to Scotland.<ref>Webster, Norman W. (1974) ''The Great North Road''. Bath, Adams and Dart.</ref>}} it has for centuries been a centre of trade and a stopping place for travellers. When Arnor in the north waned, Bree's prosperity and size declined. [[Pipe-weed]] flourishes on the south-facing side of Bree-hill, and the Hobbits of Bree claim to have been the first to smoke it; travellers on the road including [[Dwarves in Middle-earth|Dwarves]], [[Rangers of the North|Rangers]], and [[Wizards in Middle-earth|Wizards]] took up the habit when they visited the village on their journeys.<ref name="Prologue" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} "Prologue", 1. "Concerning Hobbits"</ref> Directly west of Bree are the [[Barrow-downs]] and the [[Old Forest]]. Bree is the chief village of Bree-land, and the only place in Middle-earth where [[Man (Middle-earth)|men]] and hobbits live side by side. The hobbit community is older than that of the Shire, which was originally colonized from Bree. By the time of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Bree is the westernmost settlement of men in Middle-earth, and there is no other settlement of men within a hundred leagues of the Shire.<ref name="At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" group=T/> [[Tom Bombadil]] knows of Bree, saying in his metrical speech "four miles along the road / you'll come upon a village, / Bree under Bree-hill, / with doors looking westward."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=121}} 

Tolkien wrote of two different origins for the people of Bree. One was that Bree had been founded and populated by men of the [[Edain]] who did not reach [[Beleriand]] in the First Age, remaining east of the mountains in Eriador. The other was that they came from the same stock as the [[Dunlendings]].<ref name="At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix F}}</ref>

=== ''The Prancing Pony'' inn ===

<gallery class=center mode=nolines heights=275px widths=210px>
File:Bell Inn Moreton in Marsh back in time.jpg|Research by a branch of the Tolkien Society suggests that ''The Bell Inn'' in [[Moreton-in-Marsh]], with its name above the door, was a source of inspiration for ''The Prancing Pony''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/downloads/prancing%20ponyv9_press.pdf |title="The Prancing Pony by Barliman Butterbur" |access-date=26 September 2014 |publisher=ADCBooks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413083835/http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/downloads/prancing%20ponyv9_press.pdf |archive-date=13 April 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>|alt=Photograph of Cotswold pub
File:Frodo meeting Strider in The Prancing Pony inn at Bree.jpg|Frodo meeting Strider in ''The Prancing Pony''. [[Scraperboard]] drawing by [[Alexander Korotich]], 1981
</gallery>

''The Prancing Pony'' was Bree's inn. It served beer to locals, and provided accommodation and food to travellers. One of [[Eriador]]'s major cross-roads was just outside the village: the meeting of the Great East Road and the Greenway. The inn was at a road junction in the centre of the village, at the base of the Bree-hill. ''The Prancing Pony'' was frequented by Men, Hobbits and [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarves]]. [[Buckland (Middle-earth)|Bucklanders]] from [[the Shire]] occasionally travelled to the inn. The art of smoking pipe-weed was said to have begun in Bree, and from ''The Prancing Pony'' it spread among the races of Middle-earth. The inn was noted for its fine beer, once sampled by Gandalf.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 2, ch. 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"}}</ref> The building is described in ''The Lord of the Rings'':

{{quote|"Even from the outside the inn looked a pleasant house to familiar eyes. It had a front on the Road, and two wings running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of the hill, so that at the rear the second-floor windows were level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a courtyard between the two wings, and on the left under the arch there was a large doorway reached by a few broad steps. ... Above the arch there was a lamp, and beneath it swung a large [[Pub#Signs|signboard]]: a fat white [[pony]] reared up on its hind legs. Over the door was painted in white letters: THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR."<ref name="At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 1, ch. 9 "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"}}</ref>}}

The philologist J. Wust considers what script the writing over the door was in. He notes that the Hobbits had learnt to write from the [[Dúnedain|Dunedain]] of the Northern kingdom, and could read the ''Prancing Pony'' inscription but that [[Pippin Took|Pippin]] could not read the inscriptions on the houses in [[Gondor|Minas Tirith]], the city in the Southern land of Gondor. Wust suggests that in the North, a "full writing mode" was used for the [[Tengwar]] inscriptions, whereas in Gondor, the abbreviated ''tehta'' mode (with dots and marks above or below the consonants to indicate vowel sounds) was employed, presenting the text quite differently.<ref name="Wust 2015">{{cite conference |last=Wust |first=J. |title=The Sindarin Tengwar Modes |conference=Arda Philology: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien's Invented Languages, Omentielva Lempea, Helsinki, 8-11 August 2013 |date=2015 |issue=5 |pages=1–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swt4CgAAQBAJ&dq=Bree+Prancing+Pony&pg=PA7}}</ref>

[[File:The Prancing Pony inscription in two different Tengwar modes.jpg|thumb|centre|upright=3|"THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR" in two different [[Tengwar]] modes: the abbreviated ''tehta'' of Gondor (above); the full mode (below). If the full mode was what the Hobbits were used to, the text above the door of the inn would have been in that mode, and that would explain why they could not read ''tehta'' signs in Gondor.<ref name="Wust 2015"/>|alt=Inscription of English text written in two ways in one of Tolkien's scripts]]