Editing Bree (Middle-earth) (section)

== Concept and creation ==

=== Placenames ===

{{further|Tolkien and the Celtic}}

Tolkien stated that the name "Bree" means "hill"; he justified the name by arranging the village and the surrounding Bree-land around a large hill, named Bree-hill. The name of the village of [[Brill, Buckinghamshire|Brill]], in [[Buckinghamshire]], which Tolkien visited when he was at the [[University of Oxford]] and which inspired him to create Bree,<ref name="ChrisTolkien 1988" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988|loc=ch. 7, p. 131, note 6. "Bree ... [was] based on Brill ... a place which he knew well".}}</ref> is constructed exactly the same way: ''Brill'' is a modern contraction of ''Breʒ-hyll''. [[Pleonasm|Both syllables are words for the same thing]], "hill" – the first is [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] (Celtic) and the second [[Old English language|Old English]].{{sfn|Mills|1993|p=52, "Brill"}} The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] writes that the name ''Brill''{{'s}} construction, "hill-hill", is "therefore in a way nonsense, exactly parallel with [[Chetwode]] (or 'wood-wood') in Berkshire close by."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=124}} The first element "Chet" in "Chetwode" derives from the Brythonic ''ced'', meaning "wood".{{sfn|Mills|1993|p=76, "Chetwode"}} 

Shippey notes further that Tolkien stated<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Appendix F</ref> that he had selected Bree-land placenames – Archet, Bree, Chetwood, and Combe – because they "contained non-English elements", which would make them "sound 'queer', to imitate 'a style that we should perhaps vaguely feel to be “Celtic”'."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=130}} Shippey comments that this was part of Tolkien's "linguistic [[heresy]]", his theory that [[Sound and language in Middle-earth|the sound of words conveyed both meaning and beauty]].{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=130}} The philologist Christopher Robinson writes that Tolkien chose a name to "fit not only its designee, but also the phonological and morphological style of the nomenclature to which it belongs, as well as the linguistic scheme of his invented world."<ref name="Robinson 2013">{{cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Christopher L. |title=What Makes the Names of Middle-earth So Fitting? Elements of Style in the Namecraft of JRR Tolkien |journal=Names |volume=61 |issue=2 |year=2013 |pages=65–74|doi=10.1179/0027773812Z.00000000040|s2cid=190701701 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In Robinson's view, Tolkien intentionally selected "Celtic elements that have survived in the place names of England" – like ''bree'' and ''chet'' – to mark them as older than the Shire placenames which embody "a hint of the past" with their English and Old English elements. All of this indicates the "remarkable care and sophistication" with which Tolkien constructed the "feigned history and translation from [[Westron]] personal and placenames".<ref name="Robinson 2013"/>

<gallery class=center mode=nolines heights=325px widths=300px>
File:Brill village from Brill Common - geograph.org.uk - 538330.jpg|The name "Bree" was inspired by the name of the village of [[Brill, Buckinghamshire]]; it contains the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] ''Breʒ'' and the [[Old English]] ''hyll'', both meaning "hill".{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=124}}
File:Brill, Chetwode.svg|[[Brill, Buckinghamshire|Brill]], [[Chetwode]] etymologies from [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] ('Celtic') and [[Old English]]{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=124}}
File:Bree Map.svg|Placenames of Bree-land, with the villages of Bree, Combe, Staddle, and Archet in the Chetwood, that Tolkien meant to sound and feel Celtic.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=130}}
</gallery>

=== Personal names ===
{{anchor|Barliman Butterbur}}

{{further|Plants in Middle-earth}}

[[File:Petasites hybridus inflorescence - Keila.jpg|thumb|upright|Barliman Butterbur is named after the [[Petasites hybridus|butterbur]], "a fleshy plant with a heavy flower-head on a thick stalk", as Tolkien put it.<ref name="Names Butterbur" group=T/>|alt=Photograph of a flower-head]]

Men of Bree often [[Plants in Middle-earth|used plant names]] as surnames, as with the character Bill Ferny. Barliman Butterbur's surname is the name of the herbaceous perennial ''[[Petasites hybridus]]''. Tolkien described the butterbur as "a fleshy plant with a heavy flower-head on a thick stalk, and very large leaves." He evidently chose this name as appropriate to a fat man; he suggested that translators use the name of some plant with "butter" in the name if possible, but in any event "a fat thick plant".<ref name="Names Butterbur" group=T>{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |editor-last=Lobdell |editor-first=Jared |editor-link=Jared Lobdell |chapter=Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings |title=[[A Tolkien Compass]] |date=1975 |publisher=Open Court |page=[https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompass00lobd/page/162 162] |isbn=978-0875483030 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompass00lobd/page/162 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Judd |first1=Walter S. |author1-link=Walter Stephen Judd |last2=Judd |first2=Graham A. |title=Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CwpDwAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-027631-7 |pages=342–344}}</ref> The Tolkien scholar [[Ralph C. Wood]] writes that the forename "Barliman" too is descriptive, hinting at "the [[hops]] that he brews" for his inn,<ref name="Wood 2003">{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Ralph C. |author-link=Ralph C. Wood |title=The Gospel According to Tolkien |url=https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt00wood |url-access=registration |year=2003 |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox Press]] |isbn=978-0-664-23466-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt00wood/page/24 24]}}</ref> [[barley]] being the grain used to make beer.<ref name="Ogle 2006">{{cite book |last=Ogle |first=Maureen |year=2006 |title=Ambitious brew: the story of American beer |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ambitiousbrewsto00maur/page/70 70]–72 |url=https://archive.org/details/ambitiousbrewsto00maur |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-15-101012-7 |location=[[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] |publisher=[[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt]] }}</ref>