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Bree (Middle-earth)
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Bree is a fictional village in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, east of the Shire. Bree-land, which contains Bree and a few other villages, is the only place where Hobbits and Men lived side by side.
Research by a branch of the Tolkien Society suggests that The Bell Inn in Moreton-in-Marsh, with its name above the door, was a source of inspiration for The Prancing Pony.
Research by a branch of the Tolkien Society suggests that The Bell Inn in Moreton-in-Marsh, with its name above the door, was a source of inspiration
Frodo meeting Strider in The Prancing Pony. Scraperboard drawing by Alexander Korotich, 1981
Frodo meeting Strider in The Prancing Pony. Scraperboard drawing by Alexander Korotich, 1981
"THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR" in two different Tengwar modes: the abbreviated tehta of Gondor (above); the full mode (below). If the full
"THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR" in two different Tengwar modes: the abbreviated tehta of Gondor (above); the full mode (below). If the full mode was what the Hobbits were used to, the text above the door of the inn would have been in that mode, and that would explain why they could not read tehta signs in Gondor.
The name "Bree" was inspired by the name of the village of Brill, Buckinghamshire; it contains the Celtic Breʒ and the Old English hyll, both meaning
The name "Bree" was inspired by the name of the village of Brill, Buckinghamshire; it contains the Celtic Breʒ and the Old English hyll, both meaning "hill".
Sound and language in Middle-earth
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J. R. R. Tolkien was both a philologist and an author of high fantasy. He had a private theory that the sound of words was directly connected to their meaning, and that certain sounds were inherently
Bree (Middle-earth)
…a style that we should perhaps vaguely feel to be “Celtic”'." Shippey comments that this was part of Tolkien's "linguistic heresy", his theory that the sound of words conveyed both meaning and beauty. The philologist Christopher Robinson writes that Tolkien chose a name to "fit not only its designee, but also the phonological and morphological style…
Early 20th century movements like Italian Futurism stressed language and the sound of words. Gino Severini's 1912 Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Taba
Early 20th century movements like Italian Futurism stressed language and the sound of words. Gino Severini's 1912 Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin (detail shown) incorporates words like "Bowling" and "POLKA" in its imagery.
Tolkien described a Keatsian style of listening to poetry and song. Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, c. 1822
Tolkien described a Keatsian style of listening to poetry and song. Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, c. 1822