Well, what's this - I was wondering whether we skipped a chapter or something. Surely you don't mean there is nothing interesting about this chapter? At least for myself I could speak about quite a lot of things.
First, the beginning. I'm going to skip the current things and focus on the historical information. I find it very interesting that we are very plainly told that the Breelanders lived there already in the First Age. Well, why not, it's plausible and even logical, but still, it's interesting to actually fully realise it. Isn't it strange? Somewhat, this implies that Bree itself (of course in some different state) is a settlement far, far older than let's say Osgiliath, Barad-Dur, Minas Tirith, Umbar or Isengard (about such young places like Dale or Edoras I don't even speak). Maybe, who knows, even older than all the human settlements in Beleriand. Fascinating idea, isn't it? Beren and Túrin are running around Beleriand and performing their great deeds, but behind the mountains, the Breelanders still reside and wait. And wait. And wait. As the classic says, "the villagers won".
Also, there is one interesting piece of information that breaks one common stereotypical thought about the Hobbits. It's a slight remark, although it speaks very plain towards a reader.
Quote:
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There were probably many more Outsiders scattered about in the West of the World in those days than the people of the Shire imagined. Some, doubtless, were no better than tramps, ready to dig a hole in any bank and stay only as long as it suited them.
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"Than the people of the Shire imagined" - and I could add "than most of the Tolkien fans are used to imagine". Normally, when someone says "Hobbits" to us, we think about the Shire and a little branch in Bree and its neigbouring villages. But here we are confronted with a view of many other Hobbits who live around there in the wilderness of ancient Arnor. Something that seems (at least to me) more like a desperate construction to back-up a crazy fanfiction or a bad RPG is actually true and put forward by the author himself. Interesting how easily one can slip into stereotypical thinking, eh?
Concerning Harry Goatleaf. He is the first character of the Breelanders the four travelers confront. He is just a minor character, but he has some depth - simlar to Fatty Bolger and all these folks who are left behind to emerge later. But in RotK we learn how he changes. I wonder - what was his stance
now, at this time? Because I think him quite genuine and all right at this time. Or was he already doing something, like, what, spying for Saruman? Or was this just the time when he was "corrupted" - did the Black Riders simply scare him that much? I find his life story a very interesting question and if I were to be inspired by
Esty, who wrote her fanfic about Folco Boffin, I would write about Harry Goatleaf. Maybe his story was tragic? Being afraid, maybe even of the loss of some who were close to him, he chose betrayal? A Gorlim of the Third Age?
Barliman Butterbur mentions Dwarves who are going West that just arrived this evening. And they indeed are sitting down there. But there is nothing else about them. Why? Wouldn't it be nice for the hobbits to, let's say, have a little chat with the Dwarves? And are the Dwarves actually ever mentioned there after that? I am not aware of it. When the nightly attack comes, the Southerners are concerned about the loss of their horses, but not a single remark about the Dwarves being angry - and a Dwarf could surely become angry and demand the innkeeper to pay for the loss - about losting their ponies, which they likely would have (as we know from Thorin&co.'s case).
And concerning the Dwarves' origin - I think they probably were some folks from Erebor or the Iron Hills traveling to the Blue Mountains, as that's the only logical explanation I can come up with. However, if anyone has any other ideas, I am listening.
A personal remark: The welcome the Hobbits get from Butterbur and Nob always make me wish to be there and to eat with them. However dramatic the circumstances are, the Prancing Pony is still a piece of home, and it's also the last one for a long time to come.
Merry is once again great in this chapter. I have strong sympathy for him here, as well as in the following chapter. He decides not to go down ("too stuffy") and goes for a nice evening walk, and yet he experiences probably the coolest thing of all of them (coolest = from the silly view of the person who is all excited about adventure. That's not meant to say that Merry is, that's meant to say that I'd be
). More about this in my thoughts to the next chapter.
And, the last thing. This chapter is full of tension of anticipation, there are things like the mysterious shadowy figure that jumped over the gate, strange remarks from Harry, Strider and Butterbur that remain unexplained, and the chapter itself ends with Frodo's appointment of two private meetings - and the one with Butterbur is by nature even more curious than the one with Strider, because, what can such a figure like the jovial innkeeper have to say to Frodo? Not speaking at all about the three men who left the room after Frodo's disappearance. In short, if there is anything close to the genre of a detective story in LotR, it is this chapter.
And a P.S. about Hey Diddle Diddle. I must have heard the song first about ten years ago (while I read LotR still quite a long time before that), and only after several years I actually once, listening to it, started to wonder whether it - or some modification of it - is not what Tolkien means by the words that some of it is remembered until today. But when did I really discover that? Just now on this thread, of course. But I expected to find it.
