Bree (Middle-earth)
Encyclopedia
Bree is a fictional village in J. R. R. Tolkien
's Middle-earth
, east of the Shire
and south of Fornost Erain. It is thought to have been inspired by the Buckinghamshire
village of Brill
, which Tolkien visited regularly in his early years at Oxford. (Supposedly Tolkien also lived in Brill for a short while.)
Bree was a very ancient settlement of men in Eriador, long established by the time of the Third Age
of Middle-earth. After the collapse of the kingdom of Arthedain, Bree continued to thrive without any central authority or government for many centuries. As Bree lies at the meeting of two large roadways, the Great East Road and the (now disused) Greenway, it had for centuries been a centre of trade and a stopping place for travellers, though as Arnor in the north waned Bree's prosperity and size declined.
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 that they were stemming instead from the same stock as the Dunlendings.
These two origins are not completely contradictory as the Dunlendings were descended from the Haladin who were counted the second house of the Edain.
By the time of the War of the Ring
Bree was the westernmost settlement of men in Middle-earth, and there was no other settlement of men within a hundred leagues of the Shire. A day's ride east along the road lay The Forsaken Inn, according to Aragorn
, although nothing more is known of it.
Gandalf
and Thorin Oakenshield
met by coincidence in Bree, setting in motion the events recounted in The Hobbit
. Both were interested in the dragon
Smaug
at the Lonely Mountain
. Together they planned the Quest of Erebor
, which resulted in the death of Smaug and the finding of the One Ring
by Bilbo Baggins
.
. Bree was the chief village of Bree-land, a small wooded region near the intersection of the main north-south and east-west routes through Eriador
. Bree-land was the only place in Middle-earth where men
and hobbit
s dwelt side by side. The hobbit community was older than that of the Shire, which was originally colonized from Bree.
and the second Anglo-Saxon
.
, Frodo Baggins
met Strider (Aragorn
) at the largest and most popular inn in Bree, The Prancing Pony, owned by Barliman Butterbur
. The hobbits also returned to Bree in The Return of the King
on their way home. The meeting of Gandalf and Thorin is described in "The Quest of Erebor" in Unfinished Tales
.
's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and his companions arrive at Bree almost immediately after they leave the Shire, giving the impression that less time separates the two events than is described by Tolkien. Furthermore, Jackson shows the Ringwraiths attempting to kill the hobbits in their room. Also, Gandalf later said that the Riders threw down the gates of the town and rode through it like a fierce wind and that all the Bree folk were left cowering and expecting the end of the world.
Bree, and all of Bree-land, is featured prominently in the PC game Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, which allows the player to explore the town.
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
, east of the Shire
Shire (Middle-earth)
The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in...
and south of Fornost Erain. It is thought to have been inspired by the Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
village of Brill
Brill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...
, which Tolkien visited regularly in his early years at Oxford. (Supposedly Tolkien also lived in Brill for a short while.)
Bree was a very ancient settlement of men in Eriador, long established by the time of the Third Age
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
of Middle-earth. After the collapse of the kingdom of Arthedain, Bree continued to thrive without any central authority or government for many centuries. As Bree lies at the meeting of two large roadways, the Great East Road and the (now disused) Greenway, it had for centuries been a centre of trade and a stopping place for travellers, though as Arnor in the north waned Bree's prosperity and size declined.
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
Edain
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Edain were men who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves....
who did not reach Beleriand
Beleriand
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic...
in the first age, remaining east of the mountains in Eriador
Eriador
Eriador is a large region in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. In the Second Age, and possibly much earlier, it was largely forested, but the Dúnedain felled most of the forests to build ships. Much of it was encompassed in the early Third Age by the kingdom of Arnor, which...
. The other that they were stemming instead from the same stock as the Dunlendings.
These two origins are not completely contradictory as the Dunlendings were descended from the Haladin who were counted the second house of the Edain.
By the time of the War of the Ring
War of the Ring
In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...
Bree was the westernmost settlement of men in Middle-earth, and there was no other settlement of men within a hundred leagues of the Shire. A day's ride east along the road lay The Forsaken Inn, according to Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
, although nothing more is known of it.
Gandalf
Gandalf
Gandalf is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West...
and Thorin Oakenshield
Thorin Oakenshield
Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain is a major character in The Hobbit and is mentioned in passing in The Lord of the Rings...
met by coincidence in Bree, setting in motion the events recounted in The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
. Both were interested in the dragon
Dragon (Middle-earth)
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium features dragons closely based on those of European legend.Besides dragon , Tolkien variously used the terms drake and worm .-History:The dragons were created by Morgoth...
Smaug
Smaug
Smaug is a fictional character in the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is a dragon, and the main antagonist within the story.-The Hobbit:...
at the Lonely Mountain
Lonely Mountain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain in the northeast of Rhovanion. It is also the source of the Celduin river.- Origins of the Kingdom Under the Mountain :...
. Together they planned the Quest of Erebor
The Quest of Erebor
"The Quest of Erebor" is a work of fantasy fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien, posthumously published by his son Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales...
, which resulted in the death of Smaug and the finding of the One Ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
by Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
.
Location
Directly west of Bree were the Barrow-downs and the Old ForestOld Forest
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Old Forest is a small forested area which lies east of the Shire in Buckland....
. Bree was the chief village of Bree-land, a small wooded region near the intersection of the main north-south and east-west routes through Eriador
Eriador
Eriador is a large region in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. In the Second Age, and possibly much earlier, it was largely forested, but the Dúnedain felled most of the forests to build ships. Much of it was encompassed in the early Third Age by the kingdom of Arnor, which...
. Bree-land was the only place in Middle-earth where men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
and hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s dwelt side by side. The hobbit community was older than that of the Shire, which was originally colonized from Bree.
Bree-land
There were four villages in Bree-land:- Bree was the largest settlement. In Tolkien's books, it was mostly populated by men, but hobbit servants worked at the Prancing Pony Inn and special hobbit-sized rooms were available there; there were also some hobbit homes on the hill. Bree lay at the junction of the Great East Road and the Greenway (a path leading south), and had a small amount of commercial traffic as a consequence. Bree had a gate and gatekeepers to keep out troublemakers from the wild lands beyond. On rare occasions, adventurous BrandybucksBrandybuck clanIn J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Brandybuck clan was a powerful Hobbit family. Like the other main aristocratic family, the Tooks, they had a Fallohide strain, though they and the Bucklanders among whom they lived were at least partly of Stoor origin, and "by all...
and TooksTook clanIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Took clan was one of the most famous Hobbit families.The first recorded Took was an Isumbras Took, who became the 13th Thain of the Shire after Gorhendad Oldbuck crossed into Buckland, becoming Master there.After Isumbras, the Thain position...
from the Shire would venture as far east as Bree.
- Staddle was populated primarily by hobbits who made a living from light agriculture, including pipe-weed. Staddle was on the south-eastern side of Bree-hill, sitting south of Combe and Archet. It was the only village (other than Bree itself) visible from the Great East Road.
- Combe was populated primarily by men, with some hobbits, all of whom made a living from agriculture. Combe was situated on the borders of the Chetwood and on the edge of Bree-hill, between the villages of Archet and Staddle.
- Archet was the furthest north. Located in the Chetwood, it was populated primarily by men.
Etymology
The name Bree means "hill" according to Tolkien, referring to the fact that the village of Bree and the surrounding Bree-land were clustered around a large hill. The name of the village Brill, which Bree may have been inspired by, also means "hill". Brill is a modern contraction of Bre-hyll. Both syllables of Bre-hyll mean "hill" – the first is CelticCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
and the second Anglo-Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
.
In The Lord of the Rings
In The Fellowship of the RingThe Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place in the fictional universe Middle-earth. It was originally published on July 29, 1954 in the United Kingdom...
, Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
met Strider (Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
) at the largest and most popular inn in Bree, The Prancing Pony, owned by Barliman Butterbur
Barliman Butterbur
Barliman Butterbur is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings.Butterbur was the owner of the Inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree. He was a fat, bald Man, but as Bree was inhabited by both "Big Folk" and "Little Folk", i.e. hobbits, he had two hobbit employees:...
. The hobbits also returned to Bree in The Return of the King
The Return of the King
The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.-Title:...
on their way home. The meeting of Gandalf and Thorin is described in "The Quest of Erebor" in Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980.Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and...
.
In adaptations
In Peter JacksonPeter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and his companions arrive at Bree almost immediately after they leave the Shire, giving the impression that less time separates the two events than is described by Tolkien. Furthermore, Jackson shows the Ringwraiths attempting to kill the hobbits in their room. Also, Gandalf later said that the Riders threw down the gates of the town and rode through it like a fierce wind and that all the Bree folk were left cowering and expecting the end of the world.
Bree, and all of Bree-land, is featured prominently in the PC game Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, which allows the player to explore the town.