November 7, 2002

No Wraiths in the Inn
Brett C.

Magic Fire, the evidence of the intruders not being the Nazgul ia as follows;

1. Although the Ringwraiths are certainly present briefly inside the town, when they attempt ot capture Merry while he is out for a walk, [and are subsequently frightened away by Barliman Butterbur's hobbit servant - good grief!!] Aragorn states that he thinks they will not launch an attack on the inn itslef, but will rather work through others. He tells Frodo...

"They are not all here yet. And in any case that is not their way. In dark and loneliness they are strongest; they will not openly attack a house where there are lights and many people - not until they are desperate...but their power is in terror, and already some in Bree are in their clutch. They will drive these wretches to some evil work..."

2. In Unfinished Tales: The Hunt for the Ring Gandalf is relaying his understanding of the Wraiths quest to Frodo in Minas Tirith, after the fall of Sauron. This narrative, and the one also given by Gandalf at the Council of Elrond, state that the WitchKing remained to the south of Bree in the Barrow-downs while other Nazgul invaded the Shire. From the events at Crickhollow we can be certain that the number of Wraiths actually within the Shire borders was at least three, and indeed Gandalf puts the number at four. Also Unfinished Tales states that he sent 'some' to watch the road where it left the Shire heading East to Breeland.

Being conservative and calling 'some' two, this would leave 2 of the 9 still with their captain, already less than is seen inside the inn in the movie. Merry and Nob, Butterbur's servant, only speak of seeing two dark shapes in the shadows in Bree, and Gandalf declares that there had only be new of two of the Riders in Bree before the coming of their captain the night after Frodo's departure, further establishing this reckoning. Finally, we may be fairly safe in saying the WichKing was never in Bree untill after Frodo ahd departed, since Gandalf asserts that he only heard of the failure of the attacks on Crickhollow and the Prancing Poney when his companions brought word to him in his camp on the Barrow-downs, after which "...he then sent some eastward straight across country, and he himself with the rest rode along the Road in great wrath."

Having said all that, I still think Pj's version is visually powerful, and excellent cinema.