A Night To Remember

"THE PRANCING PONY"

Inn at Bree. The Prancing Pony was a meeting place for both Bree-folk and travelers on the Great East Road and the Greenway. The inn was a place to hear news of the outside worlds and was frequented by Men, Hobbits, Dwarves, and the occasional Wizard. The art of smoking pipe-weed was said to have begun in Bree and from the Prancing Pony it spread among the races of Middle-earth. The inn was also noted for its fine beer.

The Prancing Pony was located on the Great East Road at the base of Bree-hill. The front of the inn faced the Road and an archway led to a courtyard between two wings that ran back into the hill. The main door was to the left of the archway. A sign hung over the door with a painting of a rearing pony and the words The Prancing Pony by Barliman Butterbur. Inside there was a large Common Room, several private parlours, and a number of bedrooms, including a few rooms in the north wing designed for Hobbits that were low to the ground and had round windows. The inn also had stables.

At the time of the War of the Ring, the proprietor was Barliman Butterbur. The inn had been in his family for generations. Two Hobbits who worked for Butterbur were Nob, who was a servant in the inn, and Bob, who worked in the stables.

Two important events leading up to the War of the Ring took place at the Prancing Pony. The first was the chance meeting on March 15, 2941, of Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield, who concocted a plan to set out to recapture the Lonely Mountain from Smaug with a company of thirteen Dwarves and one Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins.