[ Daily Tolkien ] Strange as news from Bree...

Suite 101 ^ | December 3, 1999 | Michael Martinez

[JameRetief]

A discussion of Bree's significance and probable history in the Third Age. [ Published prior to the first Lord Of The Rings movie ]

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Strange as news from Bree...

Word has it that we won't see much of Bree in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Bree is the little village east of the Shire where Frodo and his companions meet up with Aragorn (who is known there as Strider). I expect most of the Bree scenes will deal with how the Hobbits come to travel with the Ranger, and the movie will just move on. Will we even see Bree in the third movie? It's too early to say.

It seems a shame that Bree will be given so little screen time, but I suppose if someone ever creates a television series based on the movies there is a good chance they'll base it on Bree. The 1980s

mini-series "Anne of Green Gables", starring Megan Follows, led to a sequel mini-series and finally a television series which lacked both Anne and Megan and that really had nothing to do with the Anne/Green Gables stories. It was just set in the town where Anne eventually grew up.

Would such a television series do Bree right, I wonder? Unfortunately, the movies won't do it right. Jackson's Bree is a pseudo-medieval set and it's not yet clear that Bree hill is anywhere around. (This is one of Tolkien's linguistic jokes, btw: "Bree" means "hill", so the town of Bree is actually the village of "Hill" -- can it be the same without the hill?)

Tolkien says so little about Bree I wouldn't be surprised to find that many people miss a great deal of the information he actually provides the reader. Bree is hardly a thriving metropolis. Tolkien says it contained about 100 stone houses "of the Big Folk". The majority of the houses were situated on the hillside and they had windows looking west (so they were on the western side of the hill). The village was protected by a deep dike and a hedge which ran in a half-circle away from the hill on the western side. The great road passed through the western side of the hedge and exited on the southeast corner, going round the hill.

A dike and hedge for 100 stone houses. That description implies a great deal of wealth existed at some time in Bree's past. Building with stone is not so rare in some regions where stone is easy to be had, but even the hobbits tended to build with brick in the Shire. So Bree apparently had access to a quarry, a valuable asset in the larger economy of Eriador in past times when there would have been more people and some demand for stone.

Bree's location at the crossroads of the great highways of Eriador probably ensured its survival throughout the Third Age more than any other factor. The highways ran from Fornost Erain in the north to Tharbad in the south, and from the Grey Havens in the west all the way to the Misty Mountains and beyond. The east-west road was (apparently) originally built by Dwarves, but the Numenoreans appear to have taken it over when they founded Arnor.

Bree's heyday probably occurred from the years 1300-1600 in the Third Age, This was the period when the Hobbits migrated westward from Rhudaur to Arthedain and many of them settled at Bree. Arthedain was the strongest of the three Dunadan kingdoms in Eriador, and its Dunedain were the ancestors of Aragorn's people. Other folk lived in Arthedain during these years as well, some partially of Dunadan descent, some descended of the Edain who settled in Eriador (mostly Beorians), and some descended of the Gwathuirim, the mysterious woodland folk of Enedwaith and Minhiriath who fought for Sauron in the War of the Elves and Sauron. The men of Bree were descended of this latter group, and they appear to have been the only large group of men (besides the Dunedain) to survive the fall of Arnor.

Arthedain's kings claimed sovereignty over all of former Arnor from 1356 onward, and after the war of 1409 Arthedain became Arnor again. But its people were diminished in number. Many had been lost to the various wars. Whole families, villages must have been wiped out in the great invasion of 1409.

Bree must have assumed a strategic role in the war of 1409. Cardolan, the southernmost kingdom in Eriador, was overrun. Most of the Dunedain of Cardolan had lived in the South Downs, a range of hills southeast of Bree. Angmar invaded and overran these hills, killing many of the people there and driving the survivors westward. Some of the Dunedain took refuge in Tyrn Gorthad, the hills to the southwest of Bree. At that time there were no barrow-wights in the hills, and the land was had long been home to Dunedain and Edain alike. But Angmar's army attacked Tyrn Gorthad as well, and the last prince of Cardolan died there.

Arthedain gained help from Lindon. Cirdan sent an army of Elves east to help the Dunedain. That army may have joined forces with the army of Arthedain as it came past or from Bree. Such a rendezvous would help explain why the army of Angmar didn't push north into Arthedain. The Witch-king's soldiers were at the end of a long supply line, they had been practicing a scorched Earth policy, and the Elves were coming in fresh. Elrond, who had been besieged in Rivendell, brought an army out of Lorien and helped defeat the Witch-king's army.

After the war of 1409 Cardolan became a part of the reunited Arnor, but its people were few and hardly any of the Dunedain remained there. Bree was probably the first large town north of Tharbad. There must have been traffic between Fornost Erain and Tharbad, where Arnor had once maintained a garrison alongside a Gondorian garrison, and probably Cardolan's kings had retained the garrison under their control. But Arnor only had 200 years in which to recover from the devastating war before the Great Plague came rolling north.

Beyond Tharbad there dwelt in the hills of northern Dunland a large community of Stoors. Some of the Stoors had lived there since their ancestors crossed the Misty Mountains around TA 1150, but others had migrated south from Rhudaur in 1300 when Angmar first rose in the north. The Stoors of Dunland don't seem to have had much interaction with the Harfoots and Fallohides of Arthedain, but there was some communication as many Stoors migrated north when the Shire was founded by Marcho and Blanco in 1601.

It is hard to imagine what Bree must have been like before the hobbits came west from Rhudaur. It was probably a quiet little border town, enjoying the benefits of being at the crossroads of two kingdoms. The Hobbits probably took one look at the hill and fell in love with it. Many of them settled on the eastern side of the hill, in the town of Staddle. For all we know, Staddle was founded at this time.

Travelers passing through Bree would have included Dunedain, Dwarves, Elves, and various men of other kindreds. The east-west traffic probably consisted mostly of Elves and Dwarves, and the north-south traffic probably consisted mostly of Men and Hobbits. Hobbits (and Men) probably also lived north of the Bree-land. The lands along the northern road must have been fairly populous.

All that began to change in 1601. First the Hobbits migrated west, settling in the lands beyond the Baranduin river. Marcho and Blanco set out from Bree, but not all the Bree Hobbits left for the new land. And since there were other Hobbit communities at the time most of the colonists may have come from outside Bree.

Why would the Hobbits decide to colonize new lands? Tolkien writes in the Prologue that the Harfoots were "the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes."

My feeling is that the Hobbits were suffering a population explosion. All of Arnor's people may have been increasing, and King Argeleb II may have felt the time had come to start reclaiming some of the long-abandoned lands. Elendil's army suffered grievous losses during the War of the Last Alliance (Second Age 3329-41). The main part of the surviving army returned to Arnor in Third Age year 1, but Isildur stayed in Gondor until the next year and he was subsequently ambushed along with his three elder sons and 200 Dunadan soldiers. So Arnor entered the Third Age with far fewer men than it had started out with when Elendil founded the kingdom in SA 3320.

It wasn't simply that many families went without fathers. Many young men must have died before taking wives, or before they could bring forth many children. Whole families must have died out both among the Dunedain and the other Men of Arnor. Valandil, Isildur's youngest son, lived in Annuminas, Elendil's chief city, during the years of his reign (TA 10-249). But Tolkien writes that his heirs (presumably starting with Amlaith of Fornost, eldest son of the last High King of Arnor and first king of Arthedain) moved the royal residence to Fornost Erain.

It is reasonable to infer that most of the Dunedain were by that time living in the North Downs, east of the Hills of Evendim. Annuminas was situated in the Hills of Evendim, just north of the lands which eventually became the Shire. Elendil may have recruited heavily from the families of this region, and these soldiers may have formed the core of his army. The assumption that men from the Hills of Evendim and the royal demesne between Baranduin and the Lune bore the brunt of Arnor's losses in the war suggests one reason for why the region became depopulated.

We do know the kings moved east to Fornost because there were too few people to live in Annuminas. Presumably there were few people living near the city as well. So Dunadan culture became centered in the North Downs. Other Men of Beorian descent had once lived in the lowlands between the North Downs and Bree. Sauron overran these lands during the War of the Elves and Sauron (Second Age 1695-1701) but if any of the Beorians survived the war they probably resettled the lands they had lost.

Owing to the fact the Dunedain possessed the North Downs, and that no one chose to live in the Weather Hills (which formed the frontier between Arnor and Angmar), it appears the Hobbits had few places in which to dig their tunnels. Bree would have been an ideal location, but it could not have supported all the Hobbits. Hence, Argeleb II probably had to figure out what to do with all the Hobbits who wanted to live in tunnels in hills.

The lands beyond Baranduin had plenty of hills. There were the Green Hills, the White Downs, and the Far Downs, smaller than the great hills of the east but still sufficient to house many Hobbit communities. Encouraging the Hobbits to settle the western lands would have reduced pressure on the Men living north of Bree, if their own numbers were increasing. Argeleb and his advisors must have felt Arnor's future was looking rather bountiful. And Sauron must concluded as much, too.

Gondor had passed through the Kin-strife (1432-48) soon after Angmar was defeated in the war of 1409. But though the rebel Gondorians eventually fled to Umbar and seceded from the southern kingdom, Gondor remained strong and was reinforced by many Northmen who settled in the kingdom. Sauron must have felt his efforts to weaken the Dunadan realms by flinging war after war at them wasn't working. So he cooked up the Great Plague and unleashed it on Middle-earth. It didn't seem to matter to him that the Men who served him also suffered. His chief goal seems to have been to weaken the Dunadan realms, and in that he succeeded admirably.

The Great Plague swept north and west and denuded land after land. The Dunlendings survived because they were essentially still a primitive people, probably still living in scattered clans and households much like their ancestors had thousands of years before. But the Stoors of Dunland lived together in communities, and they died out as a result of the plague. Tharbad probably suffered greatly, too, but being the base for royal garrisons it probably had a contingent of healers and loremasters who could help preserve the town.

The unfortunate people in Minhiriath and northern Cardolan, on the other hand, were devastated. All the remaining Dunedain of Cardolan (who must have been relatively few in number now) perished, and most of the other people living there died, too. Whole towns probably vanished in the course of a season. One month people were tilling the fields, selling goods at the market; the next month they were gone, or too ill to carry on.

The plague lessened as it entered the northern parts of Eriador, so the Hobbits beyond the Baranduin suffered greatly but they survived. Nonetheless, it may be that many other Hobbits living outside the Shire and Bree died at this time. Bree may also have had some resident healers and loremasters, being an important town, but its folk must have suffered much like the Hobbits.

So Arnor suffered a more serious setback in the days of the Great Plague than it did in the war of 1409. Arthedain had emerged from the war as a reborn Arnor. Many people had died in the war but the Elves had helped defeat Angmar, whereas the Elves could not be much help against the Great Plague even though they might be gifted healers. Men and Hobbits had to let nature run its course.

Bree must therefore have declined considerably due to the Great Plague. Most of the traffic from the south must have vanished completely. Tharbad might still send messengers north, but Gondor withdrew its garrison (if any of the soldiers survived) and after that time the two Dunadan kingdoms left each alone for many years. Without the Stoors there was no more reason to expect traffic from Dunland.

The Shire-folk remained close to the Bree-folk in the early years, however, and there was probably a great deal of traffic between Bree and the Shire. Dwarves probably also maintained a steady traffic, for this was before misfortune turned the Longbeard Dwarves out of their ancient homeland and set them on a centuries-long wandering migration. The great dragons had not yet come down from the north to trouble Men and Dwarves. Middle-earth must still have seemed a reasonably safe place after the Great Plague.

King Araval attempted to recolonize Cardolan, probably after he won a victory over Angmar in 1851. The year 1851 marked the onset of Gondor's troubles with the Wainriders, the ferocious Easterlings who overthrew the Northmen of Rhovanion. Sauron seems to have felt threatened by three powers: the Kingdom of Rhovanion, Arnor, and Gondor. Rhovanion was destroyed, Gondor lost a king and its eastern marches, and Arnor won a brief war. But Araval's colonization efforts failed because Angmar had sent wights to infest the Barrow Downs in Tyrn Gorthad after the Great Plague. No one could withstand the terror wielded by these monsters.

The implication, therefore, is that Arnor's population was growing again, though we don't know what people Araval tried to send as colonists. Bree must have stood poised to benefit from renewed trade with Cardolan (which may have recovered a little in the years since the Plague anyway), so its people would have been greatly disappointed the colonization failed.

Araval's failure preceded by a few decades a renewal of warfare with Angmar. This time Angmar's attacks began to inflict significant losses on Arnor. The population must have declined and its ability to maintain a large standing army became impaired. King Araphant renewed communication with Gondor in 1940. That communication, presumably handled through the palantiri, must have had no impact on Bree. News of the war would pass through the town but word would be old and stale by the time it came there.

In 1974 Angmar overran Arnor. The North Downs fell, Fornost Erain was taken, and the Dunedain who avoided being slaughtered mostly fled west to Lindon. Tolkien writes that "the Shire-folk survived, though war swept over them and most of them fled into hiding." Where would they hide? Probably in the hills and woodlands. Their towns, like Bywater and Hobbiton, were probably all destroyed.

What fate did Bree suffer? We don't know, but it must have suffered from being deprived of support and communication with the rest of Arnor. The Bree-folk suddenly found themselves on their own, and may have been attacked or perhaps even driven off. But I find it unlikely that Bree was directly affected. The Witch-king seems to have been concerned primarily with destroying the power of the Dunedain. The Shire-folk may have suffered only because the war burst in on them.

After Gondor, Lindon, and Rivendell destroyed Angmar the few remaining peoples of Eriador had to resume their lives. But Arnor was not re-established by Aranarth, son of Arvedui the last king of Arnor. Instead he assumed the title of Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North. One can well imagine the news received by the Bree-folk. Instead of seeing their king returned to his throne and Arnor grow strong again, they were basically left alone in the wide, desolate lands. The Shire remained, and there were still Dwarves to travel on the roads, but there was probably little other traffic in those days.

Furthermore, Khazad-dum was destroyed only a few years later. With the demise of the great civilization of the Longbeards Eriador probably saw a brief influx of Dwarves and then a drop-off in traffic. Tharbad remained, but by now it must have been barely a shadow of its former self, without any soldiers to protect it. The Shire also remained, now governed by its own chieftains and Thain, but the Shire-folk were busy rebuilding their lives after the war, too, and they were not likely to indulge in great commerce.

So Bree's long decline began in earnest after the final war with Angmar. The Dunedain probably settled in the lands east of Bree, for Tolkien says the Breelanders knew or believed the Rangers travelled mostly in the lands east and south of Bree. And we know that Rangers maintained a guard over the Shire, but their most visible guard was stationed at Sarn Ford, by Southfarthing. Is it possible that Aranarth's people, or his descendants, settled in the South Downs so as to be near Rivendell and situated between Tharbad, Bree, and the Shire?

The Rangers seem to have set themselves to the task of cleaning up Eriador. The Witch-king had filled Angmar with evil creatures and men, and though most of these were destroyed when Gondor and Lindon defeated the Witch-king's army in the Battle of Fornost, it seems that northern Eriador was never again wholly free of evil creatures.

In "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" Tolkien writes that at the end of the Third Age "no other Men [than those at Bree] had settled dwellings so far west, or within a hundred leagues of the Shire". If we take a "league" to measure about 3 miles, that would mean the nearest Mannish settlements were in the Misty Mountains. While it's not impossible that the Dunedain lived in the western foothills of the mountains near Rivendell, it would seem the Rangers would have to spend a great deal of time away from home. Nonetheless, most of the Ranger activity Tolkien mentions does in fact occur near Rivendell.

Both the South Downs and the Misty Mountains seem to fit Tolkien's wording, although the South Downs lay closer to the Shire than 100 leagues. So it may be that Aragorn's people did in fact dwell in the mountains, and they only sent Rangers into Eriador to maintain a watch over the Shire, Buckland, and Bree.

Bree's decline from the late 20th century would have been relatively slow and gradual. There was never any hope of recovering the old status the town had once enjoyed, but it remained at the crossroads between the west, east, and south. Tharbad, the Shire, and the Dwarves of Ered Luin provided at least some trade and commerce, and brought news to Bree to be shared with other peoples. The Rangers, too, must have visited the town on their many journeys. The Bree-folk must have known who the Rangers were at first, but with the passing of centuries they eventually forgot the connection and became somewhat suspicious and contemptuous of the Rangers.

The 24th century saw a return of evil things to Eriador, as well as the founding of the Buckland. Tolkien mentions there was traffic between Buckland and Bree for many years, and between Eastfarthing and Bree. I find this curious, since Eastfarthing seems to have had a large Stoor population. But perhaps the Stoors were influenced by their ancient habits of consorting with Men and thus were drawn toward Bree.

As Eriador became more and more dangerous through the centuries Bree must have seemed like an island in the sea to many travelers. They would have found safe lodgings after many days in the wilds, or would have prepared for long journeys into the east and south by provisioning their parties at Bree. Feeding and equipping traveling parties may not have earned much income, but it would have helped to bring in as much traffic as Eriador could provide.

The last century of the Third Age nonetheless must have been really difficult for Bree. Tharbad was deserted in 2912 after it was flooded. Any traffic which had passed up to Bree must then have dwindled or vanished completely. The Shire and Buckland were now becoming quite insular, and at the end of the century Saruman of Isengard took an interest in the Shire which appears to have drawn off a great deal of business from Bree.

About all that remained for the Bree-folk would be Dwarves, Rangers, and the occasional migrating or fleeing Elves. The local population probably declined steadily through the last decades, for there wouldn't have been sufficient trade to sustain a large town. But where would the people go? Did they all die off? Probably not. If Bree declined some of its people undoubtedly settled on farms outside the villages of the Breeland, still within the boundaries of the Bree-land and (unknowingly) protected by the Rangers. Or it may be that some of the Bree-folk traveled south to Minhiriath to try their luck in the wilderness.

Barliman Butterbur seems to have been surviving mostly on local business, regular customers who would eat and drink at the Prancing Pony but not really use its room services. The inn probably served as the village meeting hall and headquarters in times of trouble. Barliman also operated the only livery stable in the village of Bree. So there seem to have been few if any merchants left at the end of the Third Age. The townsfolk might still have worked whatever quarry they controlled, and probably were moderately active in carpentry and farm-work. As Barliman had hired help, it seems plausible the larger farms would hire villagers to help them plant and harvest their crops, clear fields, and maybe build an occasional barn or house.

Everything Bree's people needed they seem to have grown or made for themselves at the end of the Third Age. They grew their own pipeweed (Southlinch was the variety Barliman gave to Gandalf and the Hobbits after the War of the Ring). They probably engaged an occasional Dwarf for smith-work, or contracted with Dwarves for special projects, but otherwise seem to have become quite independent and self-sufficient in the long years of the late Third Age.

Author: Michael Martinez
Published on: December 3, 1999
Michael Martinez is the author of Visualizing Middle-earth

[JameRetief]

The Daily Tolkien articles by various authors	The Tolkien Virgin articles by Mark-Edmond
ARTICLES 1-10	1) Pre-amble and The Ainulindalë
ARTICLES 11-20	2) Ainulindalë/Valaquenta
ARTICLES 21-30	3) Of Aule and Yavanna
31) Model Languages: On Tolkien	4) Of The Coming of Elves and the Captivity of Melkor
32) Beyond The Movie: Author and History	5) Of Thingol and Melian
33) Beyond The Movie: Language and Culture	6) Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalie
34) Beyond The Movie: Myth and Storytelling	7) Of Feanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
35) Who were the real heroes of Middle-earth?
36) The Undefinable Shadowland
37) Strange as news from Bree...

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Sauron must have felt his efforts to weaken the Dunadan realms by flinging war after war at them wasn't working. So he cooked up the Great Plague and unleashed it on Middle-earth.

Sounds like the Elves and Men should have pushed for more inspectors.....