Whispers in Bree

The chapter “At the Sign of the Prancing Pony” is when the novel really comes into its own, gaining momentum, depth, and complexity.  In some ways, this chapter is an exploration of the spoken word, cataloging the variations and nuances of conversation, rumor, whisper, chatter, and gossip.  Like so many of Tolkien’s chapters, it provides a fascinating tension between comfort and danger. 

The town is known for its rumors – “Strange as News from Bree,” the saying goes – and here we are introduced to Rangers who bring “news from afar, and… strange forgotten tales.”  In such instances, “talk” is exotic, expansive, and intriguing.  Yet there is a more dangerous and claustrophobic element of conversation that suffuses the inn.  When the hobbits meet the proprietor of The Prancing Pony they are confronted by “a babel of voices and a cloud of smoke.”   The hobbits notice furtive, sinister, whispering characters such that, by the end of the chapter, even the amiable Barliman Butterbur’s face appears to be “concealing dark designs.”  And the “talk” and rumors that spring up after Frodo puts on the ring and vanishes are decidedly dangerous, as Strider soon reminds him. 

Whispers are full of ambivalence.  They can be the tools of conspirators and criminals.  Yet friends are apt to whisper, as are lovers.  At the inn at Bree, whispers and songs and rumors collide in spectacular fashion – and our hobbit heroes must move carefully.