Butturbur's Worst Customers

[Bêthberry]

Great thread title, Inziladun! And very interesting conjectures here from everyone.

To be honest, I have a bit of a different idea about Aragorn's comments. I've never thought of them as anything but a reference to the Black Riders. I could be wrong, but it strikes me that they are the closest foes Aragorn has most recently faced and might possibly be upper-most in his mind.

After all, at the Prancing Pony he said to Frodo:

Originally Posted by Aragorn, chapter 'Strider'

'Now, don't mistake me,!' he cried, as Frodo rose from his seat, and Sam jumped up with a scowl. 'I shall take more care of the secret than you do. And care is needed!' He leaned forward and looked at them. 'Watch every shadow!' he said in a low voice. 'Black horsemen have passed trhough Bree. On Monday one came down the Greenway, the say; and another appeared later, coming up the Greenway from the south.'

Then later as Butterbur produces Gandalf's letter for Frodo, he says,

Originally Posted by Butterbur, chapter 'Strider'

'Leaving the letter aside, I promised Gandalf no less. Barley, he says to me, this friend of mine from the Shire, he maybe coming out this way before long, him and another. He'll be calling himself Underhill. Mind that! But you need ask no questions. And if I'm not with him, he may be in trouble, and he may need help. Do whatever you can for him, and I'll be grateful, he says. And here you are, and trouble is not far off, seemingly.'

'What do you mean?' asked Frodo.

'These black men,' said the landlord lowering his voice. 'They're looking for Baggins, and if they mean well, then I'm a hobbit. It was on Monday, and all the dogs were yammering and the geese screaming. Uncanny, I called it. Nob, he came and told me that two black men were at the door asking for a hobbit called Baggins. Nob's hair was all stood on end. I bid the black fellows be off, and slammed the door on them; but they've been asking the same question all the way to Archet, I heard.

. . .

'What are all these queer goings on? What are these black men after, and where do they come fron, I'd like to know?'

'I'm sorrry I can't explain it all,' answered Frodo. . . . These Black Riders: I am not sure, but I think they come from---'

'They come from Mordor,' said Strider in a low voice. 'From Mordor, Barliman, if that means anything to you.'

'Save us!' cried Mr. Butterbur turning pale; the name was evidently known to him. 'That is the worst news that has come to Bree in my time.'

Aragorn's words are general enough at the Council of Elrond, yet his reference to "the one fat man" suggests the Innkeeper of the Prancing Pony, who has shown us (in passages I haven't quoted) how little he understands or appreciates Strider. I could be wrong, of course, but it seems to me that no fell creature of the Barrow Downs nor troll of the wilds could strike the uncanny fear into the hearts of men (and hobbits) that the Black Riders do; nor could they be the foes which freeze Butterbur 's heart.