Cloaked Stranger
"One of them Rangers. Dangerous folk, they are, wandering the wilds..."
Barliman Butterbur
This strange dark figure is sat in the darkest corner of the Prancing Pony Inn in Bree. When questioned Barliaman Butterbur reveals that he knows him only as Strider, one of the wandering Northern Men. To the hobbits he is neither friend nor foe, they do not know if he should be trusted but he offers them a way out of the town of Bree when it becomes apparent that Gandalf the Grey has been delayed, so they decide that they have no choice but to follow him to Rivendell.
Little do the four hobbits know that were it not for Strider the Ring probably would have quickly reached Sauron as it was in the Prancing Pony that Frodo put on the Ring and reveals his whereabouts to the Nazgūl.
They will later learn what happened to Gandalf to keep him from meeting them at the Prancing Pony and that Strider is not who he says he is...
Return to The Prancing Pony Inn