Chapter 9 - At the sign of the Prancing Pony
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Relevant questions are indicated in the synopsis in [] brackets.
SYNOPSIS
---------
The company travels the four miles to the village of Bree, a journey
which should take about 1 to two hours walking. The region of Bree-land
is in by small area which is inhabited, with wild lands [1] all around
that.
(Background on Bree)
The Men of Bree were brown, broad, and short, and had lived there for a
long time, descendents of the first Men to come there [2]. They were
more familiar with Elves, men, and dwarves than other 'Big people.' The
other group to live in Bree-land were hobbits, and *they* too (nudge
nudge, wink wink, see the italicized 'they' in the text) claimed to be
the oldest settlement of hobbits in the world. Nowhere but in Bree did
Hobbits and Men live together in cooperation, which is said to be
peculiar but 'excellent.'
Shire hobbits considered Bree hobbits to be dull and uncouth, and called
them 'Outsiders.' [4] While the Bree hobbits were decent people, some
of the non-Shire hobbits were like tramps, simply digging holes in the
ground to live in when they felt like it.
Synopsis (cont)
------------
They reach the gate by dark. They are told by the gatekeeper that there
are 'queer folk about' and the inn has some guests. A dark figure
enters the city after them by jumping over the gate. They find
'The Prancing Pony' inn, with a picture of a fat pony standing on its
hind legs. Barliman Butterbur is there, who is said to be fat and bald
[5]. Barliman's assistant is a cherubic and perky hobbit named "Nob"
[6]. He shows them to their rooms where they have dinner, and join the
company in the common-room.
There are many men, local hobbits and dwarves in the common-room, all
talking. The 4 are introduced, and he the local hobbits are friendly
and inquisitive. They ask a lot of questions, so Frodo lies and says
that he writing a book on the hobbits living outside the Shire. They
joyfully give him so much information that he would have been able to
write the book after all, but then they settle down after he doesn't
seem to be doing anything about it right there and then.
Frodo sees Strider [8] sitting alone, who invites Frodo to sit with him.
While they are talking, Pippin begins to tell a story about Bilbo's
birthday party. It sounds like Pippin may be giving away the part about
the disappearance, so [9] Frodo steps in and says thank-you and
good-night from all of them. But the company asks for a song. So Frodo
begins to sing [10]. They love it, but during Frodos encore he gets
excited, and jumps up into the air and the ring slips on his finger [11] .
The whole crowd is amazed that Frodo has seemingly vanished into thin
air. He crawls into a corner, takes the ring off and comes before them,
but they still treat him suspiciously and they all leave the room in a
hurry [12] [13]. Butterbur tells Frodo to warn him and the guests
before doing any magic tricks again, because they don't take kindly to
surprises. They plan to leave by eight in the morning, and Butterbur
promises to tell Frodo something important that he has remembered. Then
Frodo goes off to bed, suspicious of everyone and everything.
QUESTIONS
------------
1. What type of 'wild lands' were around Bree?
2. What event are they referring to when they said 'the kings of men
returned' from over the sea?
3. Rangers are said to be darker than even Bree-landers. What type of
'dark' is this talking about, swarthy? Ob racism discussion may follow.
4. What attitude do the Shire hobbits maintain with respect to the Bree
hobbits? Vice versa? Are shire folk prim and proper?
5. Barliman makes a joke about Ranges and Shire folk both being weird.
"there's no accounting for east and west, meaning the Rangers and the
Shirefolk, begging your pardon."
Bree seems to be 'between' Shire hobbits and Rangers, geographically,
culturally, physically, in skin colour, and hair colour. Breelanders
are both sedentary, and have access to travellers and their news. So
what is that all about?
6. Nob: This name seems to be from another English novel. Is it a young
boy from one of Dickens novels?
7. Mugworts: What could Mug-wort mean? Is this a name Harry Potter took
from Tolkien or what?
8. What is a lankard? (Strider carries one.)
9. Strider told Frodo to stop Pippin from telling his story. Does this
mean that Strider knew about Bilbo's birthday party ? Why would he
remember this, being a ranger.
10. 'Only a few words of it are now, as a rule, remembered. This seems
to be a reference to the rhyme "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and a
fiddle...the cow jumped over the moon" which looks like it is derived
from Tolkien's made up poem.
Here it seems that Tolkien 'invented' a geneology for the real life
nursery rhyme. This is the sort of thing Tolkien seems to have done
with LOTR as a whole, first inventing the story and then inventing the
mythology it derives from.
11. When Frodo is singing the song, the suggestion to put on the ring
came from someone in the room. Who could it be?
12. Southerners mixed up with swarthy breelanders were the spies of the
enemy. Ob discussion: the race issue.
13. Most of the locals left after seeing the magic act, but the dwarves
and strange men stayed a bit longer. Does this mean that Breelanders
were more fearful of the wider world, but the foreign men and dwarves,
obviously travellers, were undisturbed by it? Is this more of the
'scale' of cosmopolitanism on which hobbits are at the bottom, Bree a
bit higher, and men/dwarves/elves higher, and Rangers the highest?
14. anything else you fancy.
Hasan Murtaza
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