Minor places in Middle-earth#The Prancing Pony
The Prancing Pony The Prancing Pony Inn also or Inn of the Prancing Pony is the name of a fictitious guest house from the book The Lord of the Rings by the English author JRR Tolkien. In the German translation it is called the restaurant "The Prancing Pony " and is a meeting point for travelers who do in the town of Bree halt.
Gasthaus zum Prancing Pony
In the story Lord of the Rings, the inn plays a central role in meeting the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merrie with Aragorn on their way to Mordor in Bree. The inn was built at a time when the streets between the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor were still traveled a lot and were visited by merchants. It was for generations owned by the Blum family butter. It was, despite the decline in visitor numbers, is still a popular meeting place for people, Hobbits and Dwarves, the news from the far flung areas of Middle-earth brought to here. Also, the wizard Gandalf visited the house at times and the Dúnedain of the North always had a keen eye and an open ear for everything that is happening there. Gandalf left a letter there, which was not forwarded as requested by the owner of the restaurant to the Shire to Frodo so that it only got him when he arrived in Bree. Here the hobbits met on Strings, a Ranger who later turned out to be Aragorn and accompanied them from then on.
Background
While studying at Oxford, Tolkien in the years 1939/1940 lived in Northmoor Road, he revised some passages of the chapter " The Gasthaus zum Prancing Pony" to his story The Lord of the Rings. Here are some inspirations from his home environment have been included in the history and in particular the appearance of the town of Bree. Thus, the description of the " Prancing Pony " on similarities with the guest house "The Bell Inn " in Moreton in Marsh ( Oxfordshire ). Even otherwise there are a lot of matches with this place.
Comparison of the Inns
Both buildings have a three storey construction; this size and unusual design of the " Prancing Pony " felt the hobbits as strange and yet it opened it with his lying on the street frontage and the two wings that were built into the slopes of the mountain, an inviting impression.
The " The Bell Inn " is also a stone building with three floors, lots of windows and an archway leading into the courtyard between the wings as well as with former stables. The former entrance, which, as with the " Prancing Pony", from there led into the building, has since been bricked up and replaced by an entrance to the Fosse Way.
Comparison of the villages
Bree is described as a place of one hand clung to the Breeberg and was on the other hand protected on the open side of a tall hedge and a moat with two entrance gates. In addition, there were more than one hundred stone houses in a small village inhabited by human beings. The local hobbits lived in caves on the slopes of Breeberges.
The houses of the town of Moreton in Marsh are also predominantly stone buildings. Also, there are gates and a tower, with the curfew could be monitored when the gates were closed. In Bree, this tower is replaced by the cottage of Torwärters. Bree stood at an old crossroads and right on the main passageway former East Street, which ran along just outside the Walls.
Moreton in Marsh is also in such a strategically important location, the former Roman road ( Fosse Way ), which also comes from a northeasterly direction and leads to the southwest. This is true in Moreton in Marsh on the old road which runs from the north to the south, ie from Oxford to Worcester.
The " Prancing Pony" was a meeting place for all big and small travelers from the former territories of Minhiriath, Cardolan, Rhudaur Arthedain ( with Eriador and the Shire ), so the entire catchment area of the former Kingdom of Arnor. The host came from the family for generations and Buttercup 's first name was Barliman.
Moreton in Marsh is also in an area meet in the four counties, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
In addition, there are both in Tolkien's descriptions and drawings around Bree and the actual circumstances around Moreton in Marsh further parallels, such as the "Three - Farthing Stone", the Barrow Downs ( Barrow Downs ) or the White Towers on the Tower Hills in the Shire and the real " Four Shire Stone ', the' Rollright Stones " and the " Broadway Tower ".
Reception
Under the name of The Prancing Pony or the respective translations into other languages, restaurants, bars, pubs and inns were named according to this model worldwide.
German-speaking
- For Prancing Pony restaurant in Kaichen ( Niddatal ).
English speaking room
- The Prancing Pony pub in Malvern ( Worcestershire ), England.
- Prancing Pony Pub & Stables Restaurant, a restaurant on the Rivendale Caravan Park in the Peak District National Park.
Spanish-speaking area
- El Poney Pisador a restaurant in Salamanca, Spain.
- El Poney Pisador a brewery with a pub in Almería, Spain.
- El Poney Pisador a restaurant with a bar and nightclub in the suburb of Ciudad Vieja Montevideo, Uruguay.