Imagine being the child of such a people. We might speak of a person who has become closely acquainted with loneliness almost wearing it like a garment but to speak of a whole people in this manner deepens their mystery and its sadness. To speak of a once great people as a company who now walk in loneliness is deeply poignant. Alan Lee’s mysterious evocation of the Rangers of the North Tom speaks of the Rangers as “sons of forgotten kings walking in loneliness, guarding from evil things folk that are heedless.” And now the heedless folk, the unwary hobbits feeling quite at home in a warm and comfortable inn, meet one of the guardians who have long maintained them in their comfortable life. When Tom freed the hobbits from the barrow wight and brought out the treasure from the darkness he spoke of the Men of Westernesse, foes of the Dark Lord but overcome by the evil king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, chief of the very Black Riders who have been pursuing the hobbits. But we have been introduced to the Rangers before and by Tom Bombadil. He allows them to keep their lives a secret as long as they do not bring trouble to Bree. It isn’t Barliman’s business to inquire too closely into the lives of others. He is one of the Rangers, a “wandering folk”. Strider comes and goes but keeps himself very much to himself. Even Butterbur knows very little about him. Strider in The Prancing PonyĪll that Frodo can see of his face is the gleam of his eyes and so everything about him speaks of mystery. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face”.
His legs were stretched out before him,showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. He is “a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall… He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved.
“You had better do something quick!” whispers a stranger sitting in the corner of the room to Frodo and for the first time in the story we are introduced to Strider. Pippin begins to tell the story of Bilbo’s farewell party and soon it becomes possible that he might mention the name of Baggins and even speak of the Ring itself. In The Prancing Pony a marvellous evocation by Katie īut put a hobbit like Peregrine Took among a company of people most of whom are strangers to one another and who are only too glad to be entertained by a good teller of stories and soon the need to be discreet is forgotten. All of which might be regarded by those of a suspicious nature as somewhat manipulative but which most of us are willing to accept because the quality of our visit to the inn has been improved thereby. The common-room of an inn is not the best place in which to remain unnoticed and it becomes even more difficult if the host is skilled at creating a community within it, introducing locals and visitors to one another so that each becomes relaxed in one another’s company, stays a little longer and spends a little more money.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp 151-159
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