Editing Bree (Middle-earth) (section)

== Analysis ==

The Tolkien scholar [[Thomas Honegger]] writes that Bree functions "as a point of transition between the hobbit-homeland and the wide expanse of Eriador",<ref name="Honegger 2004">{{cite book |last=Honegger |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Honegger |editor1-last=Buchs |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Honegger |editor2-first=Thomas |title=News from the Shire and Beyond – Studies on Tolkien |date=2004 |publisher=Walking Tree Publishers |location=Zurich and Berne |pages=59–81 |edition=2nd |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/66170878/Honegger_2004_Bag_End.pdf |chapter=From Bag End to Lórien: The Creation of a Literary World }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> with its mixed population of hobbits and Men. It is clearly separate from the Shire, but [[Architecture in Middle-earth|its architecture]] retains "some degree of Shire homeliness and comfort."<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> The inn is "mannish" but it welcomes Hobbits with rooms "built into the hill, thus imitating traditional hobbit-architecture."<ref name="Honegger 2004"/> This made it one of [[Frodo's five Homely Houses]].{{sfn|Shippey|2001|p=65}} Bo Walther, in ''[[Tolkien Studies]]'', writes that Bree, with ''The Prancing Pony'' inn, is "creepy but also familiar", a place where the Hobbits can begin to face their fear of the unknown, "cheered up by the recognizable bouquet of beer and the sight of jovial hobbit faces."<ref name="Walther 2020">{{cite journal |last=Walther |first=Bo Kampmann |title=Lights behind Thick Curtains: Images of Fear and Familiarity in Tolkien |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=17 |issue=1 |year=2020 |doi=10.1353/tks.2020.0005 |pages=117–136 |s2cid=226646654 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/64598790/walther_tolkien_studies_2020.pdf}}</ref>

The scholar of humanities [[Brian Rosebury]] quotes at length from the Hobbits' approach to Bree and their arrival at ''The Prancing Pony'', "to bring out the leisurely pace, and the patient attention to sensory impressions, typical of the narrative".{{sfn|Rosebury|2003|pp=14–19}} He comments that there is much more detail than would be found in an [[allegory]], and that it describes the "emotional experience of arriving at an unfamiliar place: the little-travelled and socially-deferential Sam (Frodo's servant) feels an anxiety from which the others are relatively free."{{sfn|Rosebury|2003|pp=14–19}} He states that Tolkien sets "both comforting and terrifying events" in ''The Prancing Pony'', insisting that "it remains resolutely unallegorical": it is "neither a symbol of comfort, nor the abode of giants which it half-appears to Sam".{{sfn|Rosebury|2003|pp=14–19}} Rosebury adds that the [[Proverbs in The Lord of the Rings|use of proverbs]] specific to Bree, like Butterbur's "there's no accounting for East and West as we say in Bree, meaning the Rangers and the Shire-folk, begging your pardon", provides both a comic element and "fix[es] the geographical contact-but-distance between the two communities."{{sfn|Rosebury|2003|pp=14–19}}