Barliman Butterbur

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Barliman Butterbur is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings.

Butterbur was the owner of the Inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree. He was a Man, but as Bree was inhabited by both Men and hobbits, he had two hobbit employees: Bob, who worked in the stables, and Nob, a servant.

Butterbur appears to have had a rather bad memory, "One thing drives out another" he says. He forgot to send Gandalf's letter to Frodo, leaving Frodo uncertain as to Gandalf's fate and causing him to start his journey much later than the letter indicated. He did not remember it until Frodo and his companions arrived to stay at the inn, and even then it was long before the connection was made. He did, however, remember in time to produce Strider's credentials. In The Return of the King, Butterbur was amazed to learn that Strider, a former patron of the Prancing Pony, had become king of Gondor and Arnor.

Butterbur appears in both Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (1978) and Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), but in both adaptations most of his scenes, including the references to Gandalf's letter, are cut. Alan Tilvern voiced Butterbur (credited as "Innkeeper") in the animated film, while David Weatherley played him in Jackson's epic. James Grout played Butterbur in BBC Radio's 1981 serialisation of The Lord of the Rings.