Timeline Event
Bree-folk expel strangers (estimated date)
Event Type: Military/Strategic
Age: 3rd Age - Ring War
Date: December 29, 3018
Description:
They put [Mr. Butterbur] in a large chair by the wood-fire, and Gandalf sat on the other side of the hearth, and the hobbits in low chairs between them; and then they talked for many times half an hour, and exchanged... news....
But he did say much on his own account. Things were far from well, he would say. Business was not even fair, it was downright bad. 'No one comes nigh Bree now from Outside,' he said. 'And the inside folks, they stay at home mostly and keep their doors barred. It all comes of those newcomers and gangrels that began coming up the Greenway last year,1 as you may remember; but more came later. Some were just poor bodies running away from trouble; but most were bad men, full o' thievery and mischief. And there was trouble right here in Bree, bad trouble.....'
'[We] showed them the gates and pushed them out: before the year's end, that was; and the fight was early in the New Year....'
The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 5, Homeward Bound
Notes
The date is estimated, to slightly precede the New Year's.
1 [It] seemed that the Men who had come up the Greenway were on the move, looking for lands where they could find some peace. The Bree-folk were sympathetic, but plainly not very ready to take a large number of strangers into their little land. One of the travellers, a squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow, was foretelling that more and more people would be coming north in the near future. 'If room isn't found for them, they'll find it for themselves. They've a right to live, same as other folk,' he said loudly. The local inhabitants did not look pleased at the prospect.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 9, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 14Mar08
