Editing Bree (Middle-earth) (section)

=== 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>