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Thinking about it, I feel like Bree actually represents not an anomaly, but the most common type of settlement in Middle-earth. Take away the Little Folk, and mix up the parochialism a little, and you could be in Westemnet, or Lebennin, or the Vale of Anduin, or even in Dunland or down in Harondor (where, unless there was a war on, you'd have a similar mixing of Gondorian and Haradrim).
The fact that the Fellowship only visits capital cities and unique enclaves is a quirk of narrative, not a representative sample of Middle-earth. It's to Tolkien's credit that he takes time to show us somewhere that isn't special - the kind of town where 90% of Middle-earth's population would live.
hS
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