Bree

Bree is a village of Men and Hobbits in Eriador, the chief settlement of the Bree-land, lying east of the Shire at the meeting of the old roads, the East Road running west to east and the disused Greenway running north to south. It is one of the few places in Middle-earth where Men and hobbits dwell together as neighbors, and in the time of the War of the Ring it is the largest settlement for many miles in that emptied land.

Bree is best known for its inn, the Prancing Pony, kept by Barliman Butterbur, a busy crossroads house where travelers of many kinds gather. It is at the Prancing Pony that Frodo and his companions first meet the Ranger known as Strider, who is in truth Aragorn.

Geography

Bree stands at the foot of Bree-hill, a great hill rising alone above the surrounding land, with the village built on its western slope behind a hedge and a dike with gates. The Bree-land comprises Bree itself and the lesser villages of Staddle, Combe, and Archet nearby. The crossing of the East Road and the Greenway just outside the village made it a natural meeting place and market, though by the late Third Age few travelers came from the deserted lands to the north and south.

History

Bree is very old, having been settled by Men in the early days and inhabited continuously through the rise and fall of the northern kingdom of Arnor. Its folk are a sturdy, independent people who kept their village and their ways through all the long years after the kings passed, neither part of any realm nor troubled overmuch by the wider world, though the Rangers of the North watched over the land around them.

In the story

Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, fleeing the Shire and the Nazgûl, come to Bree and lodge at the Prancing Pony. There Frodo nearly betrays himself by vanishing with the Ring, and there he receives Gandalf's letter and meets Strider, who becomes their guide. The Black Riders raid the inn by night, but the hobbits escape with Aragorn into the wild on the road toward Rivendell. Bree thus becomes a turning point early in the quest, the place where the hobbits pass from the safety of the Shire into the wider and more dangerous world.