“But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers…Strange as News from Bree was still a saying in the Eastfarthing…”
- The Lord of the Rings™
Bree-land is a small inhabited region like an island in the midst of empty lands. Travellers of many races pass through the area, since it contains the two most important thoroughfares in Eriador. The village of Bree stands at the crossroads of the great East Road and the North Road, also called the Greenway since it is seldom used and grass-grown. Nearby are the villages of Staddle, Combe, and Archet. To the west lies Buckland, a Hobbit colony just outside the proper borders of the Shire which sits on a narrow strip of land along Brandywine River. Between the Shire and Bree is the dark, dangerous Old Forest, which was fenced off long ago by the Bucklanders with a great hedge called the High Hay. Northeast of Bree are the Chetwood Forest and the treacherous Midgewater Marshes. And to the south are the sinister Barrow-downs, where fog rises over the broken stone rings of forgotten burial sites.
Some points of interest:
Old Man Willow
“…the hearts of trees… were often dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning… But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow.”
- The Lord of the Rings™
Deep in the heart of the Old Forest, Old Man Willow looms over the Withywindle River, spreading his rooted wisdom and malice to nearly every tree in the ancient woodland. He despises mortals for their assaults upon the living Forest, and uses his dominion over the trees to ensnare anyone foolish enough to enter this ancient remnant of a vast, forgotten wood.
Tom Bombadil’s House
“There was Tom Bombadil’s house before them, up, down, under hill. Behind it…the land lay grey and bare, and beyond that the dark shapes of the Barrow-downs stalked away into the eastern night.”
- The Lord of the Rings™
Tom Bombadil, the master of wood, water, and hill in the Old Forest, lives in a simple stone house adorned with beautiful flowers and lush gardens. Travelers in trouble may hear his merry singing and be granted refuge in the home of the River-daughter, where an ancient strength keeps the shadows of the Barrow-downs at bay.This zone may have maps for mulitple areas. Click here for all of them! Locations with maps: Lone-Lands | Bree-Land Homesteads Click here for more and bigger maps with filtering options