Money !

[Lostgaeriel]

Hi dwarfwarrior! You might want to try actually pulling your books off the shelf, opening them up and looking up the passages. **mildly peeved at the spread of misinformation**

Frodo did not pay for Bill the Pony; Barliman Butterbur did.

Bill Ferny's price was twelve silver pennies; and that was indeed at least three times the pony's value in those parts. It proved to be a bony, underfed, and dispirited animal; but it did not look like dying just yet. Mr. Butterbur paid for it himself, and offered Merry another eighteen pence as some compensation for the lost animals. He was an honest man, and well-off as things were reckoned in Bree; but thirty silver pennies was a sore blow to him, and being cheated by Bill Ferny made it harder to bear.

As a matter of fact he came out on the right side in the end. It turned out later than only one horse had been acutally stolen. The others had been driven off, or had bolted in terror, and were found wandering in different corners of the Bree-land. Merry’s ponies had escaped altogether, and eventually (having a good deal of sense) they made their way to the Downs in search of Fatty Lumpkin. So they came under the care of Tom Bombadil for a while, and were well-off. But when news of the events at Bree came to Tom’s ears, he sent them to Mr. Butterbur, who thus got five good beasts at a very fair price. They had to work harder in Bree, but Bob treated them well; so on the whole they were lucky: they missed a dark and dangerous journey. But they never came to Rivendell.

~~~
Welcome to the Barrow Downs, Lord Dickie! In future, please do a Search of the Books or Novices and Newcomers forums before beginning duplicate threads.

See the Novices and Newcomers thread Money in Middle-Earth.

Also M.E. Currency, which has links to other threads in Books concerning this topic.

[ April 04, 2003: Message edited by: Lostgaeriel ]