Butturbur's Worst Customers

[CSteefel]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Forgive me for trying to out-pedant the resident pedant, but - if Aragorn's words are supposed to be in the Instantaneous Present, they can't refer to Black Riders, as these were nowhere near Bree and/or Andrath/Amrath at the time of his speaking (being unhorsed and uncloaked after the Incident at Bruinen Ford, and their present whereabouts unknown). And if he was using the Timeless Present, he can't be referring to Black Riders either, as they weren't habitually to be found within a day's march of Bree. (Also, there's the bit about "...if he [=the 'one fat man', Butterbur] were not guarded ceaselessly", which implies a constant threat.)

In any case the reference seems to be something resembling a more or less permanent threat to Bree, so not the Black Riders.

Probably parsing things too much here, but I suppose it could be noteworthy that Butterbur sees those dark figures in the woods once the Rangers leave the area (to help out Aragorn). Still hard to say whether there is something real there, or just the inflamed superstitions given all the incidents of the preceding period...