Bree-landers

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"The Big Folk and the Little Folk (as they called one another) were on friendly terms, minding their own affairs in their own ways, but both rightly regarding themselves as necessary parts of the Bree-folk."
At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

The Bree-landers or Bree-folk were the peoples who inhabited the Bree-land, Men and Hobbits who lived peaceably side by side. These two races, identified individually as the Bree-hobbits (the Little Folk) and the Bree-men (the Big Folk).[1]

Their main settlements were four communities scattered around the Bree-hill: Bree itself, Staddle, Combe and Archet.

History[edit | edit source]

The Men who would eventually become them were among the first to come west during the Elder Days. They would evidently stay in the area, as when the Numenoreans returned to Middle-earth in the Second Age, they found the Bree-landers still present.[2]

Bree-hobbits similarly had an unclear origin, but tended to regard themselves as the oldest colony of hobbits in the world. They would settle in Staddle for the most part, though some would live in Bree proper as well. The two races of Hobbits and Men lived peacably with each other, but generally tended to mind their own business.[3]

After the War of the Ring and the refounding of Arnor, the Bree-landers became subjects of King Elessar, who had once operated in the area under the name of Strider.[4]

Culture[edit | edit source]

They were a generally friendly folk, at least until the upheavals brought about by the War of the Ring. They had some dealings with the Shire-hobbits, though the road between Bree and their 'colony' of the Shire was less traveled by the late Third Age.

Bree measured time with the Bree Calendar[5] which is obviously a Hobbitish localization of the King's Reckoning.[6]

They maintained their own dialect of Westron. The "Bree-dialect" did not use words like "history" and "geography" much[1] betraying a disinterest in lore and the outside world.

References