Wk 12 Bk6 Ch7: Gangrels Ruffians Robbers

[Stormrider]

From: Storrmrider (Original Message) Sent: 6/12/2003 10:40 PM

Inside the Prancing Pony
by Ronald Chironna

Bree has changed very much since the hobbits last stopped there! The inhabitants of Bree are very cautious and untrusting of strangers. They are plagued by gangrels, ruffians, and robbers. The hobbits and Gandalf are greeted at the gate with a cudgel in the gate-keeper's hand and Butterbur was ready to clobber them with a club!

Where did all of these unsavory characters come from? Were they the free agents of Sauron (those that enjoyed serving the Dark Lord) who were fleeing from the judgments of the new King in Gondor?

How do Harry Goatleaf and Bill Ferny figure into this group of ruffians?

What do you think the "set-to" in which Breelanders were "killed dead" was about?

Did the Breelanders fight back or swallow the fighting meekly?

What sigificance did Tolkien intend for the new atmosphere of Bree?

[Stormrider]

From: Kendal Sent: 6/13/2003 3:28 AM
"Where did all of these unsavory characters come from? Were they the free agents of Sauron (those that enjoyed serving the Dark Lord) who were fleeing from the judgments of the new King in Gondor?"

In the sense that the first Evil, born with Morgoth's rebellion against Eru, was
transmitted through Sauron to the corrupted Saruman, one might say that all these ruffians were tools of the Dark Lord who dwelt in Mordor in the Third Age. But, I do not think that many of the Gangrels, Ruffians, and Robbers infesting Bree and The Shire at the close of LOTR had much of a direct connection with Sauron. As I recall it, they were a fifth column of infiltrators, spies, saboteurs and suborned locals put in place by Saruman in his attempt to find, intercept, and take possession of the Ruling Ring. The "Squint-eyed Southerner" and the "Orc-men" were definitely of Sauman's making, and the Bree locals , Harry Goatleaf, and Bill Ferny, were a hireling of Saruman's.

It is interesting that in Bree, where Big and Little People were mingled, there was
enough local resistance to effectively free at least the town and its immediate environs from these 'unsavory" types. It is otherwise in The Shire itself where the same coalition of Sarumanic unsavories actually comes to control the daily functions of the polity (with the exception of Tookland and Brandybuck enclaves).

I think Tolkien is using the situation at Bree as a forewarning device for the Hobbits as they near home. Certainly Butterburr conveys, most strongly, the impression that all is not well there, and the Hobbits have yet one more major battle to fight.