“Too much description” is another common complaint about Tolkien. I get it. We fairly often get the kind of post here on /r/Fantasy along the lines of, “don’t hate me, but does anyone else not love Tolkien?” And of course the answer is that yes, there are plenty of people who don’t, and that’s fine. I love all the descriptions, but I’m not going to complain if you find it rather dull when this chapter opens with a 963 word treatise on the history and geography of Bree.
Afterwards (and following some questioning by the guy manning the gate) we get this sinister little tidbit:
The man stared after the hobbits for a moment, and then he went back to his house. As soon as his back was turned, a dark figure climbed quickly in over the gate and melted into the shadows of the village street.
This is yet another example of something where my memories of first reading this have come back to me. Obviously this isn’t one of the Black Riders, it’s just our man Aragorn, but the assumption that it’s one of the Riders is natural and clearly what Tolkien expected us to think. I bought it, certainly.
But now that we’re in Bree, it’s time to go to The Prancing Pony by Barliman Butterbur. Here we meet old Barley, and his Hobbit-helpers. After a good meal, Frodo, Sam, and Pippin head to the common room (wouldn’t be a fantasy book without some ale in a common room). Here we get some more hints of the trouble in the world, as there are inordinate number of strangers coming up from the South fleeing dangers of various sorts. The Hobbits, however, soon feel right at home among the Hobbits of Bree. Which would be fine, except Pippin is young, doesn’t always think things through, and enjoys being the center of attention.
It’s not nearly as bad as in the film, where Pippin is all like, “I totally know Frodo Baggins! That’s him right over there!” It’s much more realistic than that bit of stupidity: Pippin is telling stories out of the Shire, which the Bree-folk are eager to hear, and eventually he starts telling the story of Bilbo’s going-away speech. A natural thing, as it’s a good story, and harmless in and of itself - many of the Bree-folk would have heard it before. But as the Mysterious Stranger Lurking in the Corner (whom I’ll get to in a bit) warns Frodo, it 1) brings the name “Baggins” to everyone’s mind, and 2) Pippin might accidentally let something slip.
So what does Frodo do? Why, naturally, he gets everyone’s attention and starts singing a silly, extended version of “The Cow Jumped Over the Moon.” Naturally.
It’s a silly plan, but it was rather desperate and spur-of-the-moment, and it works. Which I appreciate: we had a very realistic problem of a young guy not thinking things through and enjoying being the center of attention, and Frodo employing not-very-well-thought-out plan to prevent it.
But then Frodo “accidentally” puts the Ring on his finger and vanishes in the middle of the common room:
How it came to be on his finger he could not tell. He could only suppose that he had been handling it in his pocket while he sang, and that somehow it had slipped on when he stuck out his hand with a jerk to save his fall. For a moment he wondered if the Ring itself had not played him a trick; perhaps it had tried to reveal itself in response to some wish or command that was felt in the room. He did not like the looks of the men that had gone out.
No one really buys his story of falling and rolling away quickly, but no one has an alternative explanation. And, as the aforementioned Mysterious Stranger tells Frodo, he’s managed to draw more attention than anything Pippin might have said. Whoops.
So, the aforementioned Mysterious Stranger. Barliman doesn’t know his real name, but says he’s known as Strider around Bree. The movie did a pretty good job with this moment: in the context of all this, he’s menacing more than anything else. Especially when he makes clear that he knows more about “Mr. Underhill” than he is supposed to. And he wants to have a private word with Frodo later. Dun dun DUUNNNNNNNN.
Friday a bunch of bumper stickers and untold numbers of cliched tattoos are begotten when we have a chat with a mysterious fellow called Strider.