"I see stars," replied the Ranger. "A vast multitude of bright, shining stars."

"And what does that tell you?" the Elf asked?

Sensing a deeper purpose behind the Elf's question, the Ranger gazed upward thoughtfully for a moment and said, "Well, I think it means that the universe is immense, and that the Valar must have labored many ages before settling in Arda."

"Hm," the Elf said quietly. The Ranger decided he had not given the proper answer, so he cast his gaze westward and beheld the bright light of Earendil's star.

"And it also tells me that we are all part of a great tale, ever unfolding, adding layer of challenge and adventure upon layer," he added quickly.

"I see," said the Elf, and he said nothing more. But the Ranger, realizing he had not guessed the Elf's purpose, gave up and asked with great exasperation, "Well, then, what does it tell you, that we see the stars?"

"It tells me," said the Elf as he turned to his companion, "that someone has stolen our tent."

Do Gildor Inglorion's wandering band of Elves ever stop to sleep? Gildor is a very puzzling character because he appears to be nothing more than a deus ex machina. He is a convenient tool to provide Frodo with temporary relief from the pursuit of the Black Riders, a place to sleep unnoticed in the Shire, and a means by which to convey news to people in lands far beyond Frodo's experience. Very little of Gildor's own business is ever explained, and the only explanation is provided in The Road Goes Ever On, a book most Tolkien readers will hardly ever see......

Supposedly, Gildor and his companions are returning from a special pilgrimage they have made to Lindon (or, rather, to the three Elf-towers which stand between the Shire and Lindon).

There, according to The Road Goes Ever On, Gildor and many other Elves use Elendil's palantir in Elostirion to see the Undying Lands (presumably as they are, not as they were) and perhaps to pass messages back and forth with whomever watches over the Master Stone in Avallone (which the reader is not even supposed to know exists -- this fact was revealed in the Unfinished Tales essay on the Palantiri). There is nothing in the published texts which suggests that Gildor or any other Elf uses the Palantir of Elostirion to convey or receive messages from Elves (or the Valar) in Aman.

But this is one of those open-ended "Well, there is nothing in the texts which says they did not!" issues. So, it's okay to say "perhaps" (rather than "it must be so"). Given what we have been told about the uses to which the Palantiri were put, the supposition seems reasonable, if unsupportable.

However, as the tale of Frodo's journey to Rivendell unfolds, the reader learns that Gildor conveys news to Aragorn, Tom Bombadil, and Elrond. The reader is also indirectly informed that Gildor travels back and forth across Eriador. He tells Frodo, for example, that he has seen Frodo with Bilbo in the Shire before, and that Bilbo had bid the Elves farewell in their glade in the woods above Woodhall.

Gildor's function in Elvish Eriador therefore seems to be that of a Professional Traveler. But even he and his people claim to have a permanent home, far away from the Shire. Tolkien suggests in The Road Goes Ever On that Gildor's people live in or near Rivendell. But what does all that have to do with whether Gildor's people sleep on the road, and why should that matter? Well, it matters insofar as people occasionally ask me where Gildor and his companions would have stayed on their travels across Eriador.

While common sense suggests to me they would seek out the most safe and comfortable lodgings available, it seems offensive to other people that Elves should ever stop over in Bree. I have no idea of why. People just seem to have a very difficult time accepting the idea that Elves would ever want to sleep in a soft bed or have a pint of ale in the company of Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits.

In Tolkien's mythology, the Elves were undoubtedly the first providers of hospitality to strangers in Middle-earth. The Dwarves would never have settled in for such a lifestyle, whereas Elves were always feasting, and building cities, raising crops, traveling across the landscape, and doing things which we generally associate with inns and taverns.

If there were any inns in the First Age, they were probably located near and/or inside most if not all of the Elvish towns and cities. We don't hear about them. But they may have been there, as clutter in the background imagery of Tolkien's unwritten details about the ordinary aspects of Middle-earth. Now, it does not follow that, if there are inns in Middle-earth in the Third Age, there must be inns in the First or Second Age. The Prancing Pony, for example, is said to be ancient, but we are never told precisely how old it is. The Bree-folk settled in the area sometime in the Second Age, but the Prancing Pony could have been built in the Third Age.

The Elvish civilization in Beleriand was very different from the Human civilization of Eriador at the end of the Third Age, and the two cultures undoubtedly had different priorities and needs. So, there is no historical evidence of inns prior to the Third Age, and in order to show that it's reasonable to suggest that Tolkien could have allowed for inns in Beleriand, one must show a historical purpose for them. In our history, inns and taverns have been used for thousands of years. Tolkien's inns and taverns are obviously modelled on English institutions, but these types of businesses have evolved in different ways around the world. Of course, Tolkien doesn't provide Middle-earth with one colorful aspect of historical inns and taverns. That is, Roman inns, taverns, and road-houses are believed by many experts to have been closely associated with prostitution -- in some cases, exclusivly devoted to it.

The image of the ale-serving brothel doesn't really fit into the heroic literature which inspired Tolkien, particularly "Beowulf", which so many people feel laid the foundation for certain cultural themes found across Middle-earth. Yet, England has a long if broken history of hospitality associated with inns and taverns. For example, there were Roman taverns (tabernae) and road-houses in ancient Britain, but they all fell into disuse as the Anglo-Saxons spread across the isle, pushing the Romano-Celts westward and south. As their culture flourished in the new land, the Anglo-Saxons developed ale-houses and taverns, but their inns (for the most part) were established centuries later by monks who needed to provide lodgings for pilgims.

Hence, unlike their Roman counterparts, the industries which benefitted from English inns and taverns concerned alcohol and pilgrimage more than anything else, although no one would deny that prostitutes found their ways into all corners of English society eventually. And yet, neither monks nor prostitutes are to be found in Middle-earth. While some people would argue that prostitution must be part of at least some societies in Middle-earth, sexuality plays very little role in the mythological context Tolkien provided for Middle-earth.

There are no stories of Manwe gamboling with Elven maids in Tasarinan, for example. Middle-earth is very chaste. Hence, its inns must remain very chaste. But that is not necessarily uncharacteristic for ancient inns. In some parts of the ancient world, inns grew up around more respectable industries. For example, many centuries before the Romans built their empire, ancient inns rose up along caravan routes throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Although some or all of those may have become associated with prostitution at some point, they served more noble functions by providing caravans with safe havens on long and dangerous roads, or at least places where travelers could find food and water.

There were unwritten laws of hospitality which spread throughout the ancient world.

We know of them primarily through religious or semi-religious texts, such as The Bible and the Cyclic Epic (including Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey"). The traveling stranger was to be welcomed with food, safe housing, and a friendly demeanor. It was considered a grave insult for anyone to be mistreated or even ignored in many cultures. Before the Mediterranean civilizations popularized the custom of traveling on pilgrimage, most people only traveled for very important reasons. Merchants risked their lives and fortunes by taking their goods and wares to foreign lands, but if they banded together or were wealthy enough to hire armed guards, they generally enjoyed safe travel.

Government emissaries could expect to be accompanied by soldiers in friendly territory, and in lands where diplomacy was observed the ambassadors traveled in relative safety. Anyone else was pretty much on his own. There was too little travel to support many guest houses where individual travelers could stay. And there were often too many bandits in the wide lands between towns for people to cope with them on their own.

People who traveled far in the ancient world usually did so because of family concerns such as weddings or funerals, or because they needed to flee their homes (perhaps they were in trouble with the law or their lands had been invaded), or because they had a special mission. Special missions might be religious in nature, or political. Sometimes, a traveler might simply be a man looking for a woman to take as his wife. The fortunate traveler found his way overland by joining other travelers. This practice continues even today, although we have introduced efficiencies and commercialized it almost beyond recognition.

Now, we travel in great numbers by train, plane, bus, or boat because it is more economic to do so than for safety. But we still come together with strangers and share our road for no reason other than that we all need to reach the same or similar destinations. Groups of travelers needed places to stay, too, and, when feasible, they would stay at inns. But they also camped out in the wilderness if necessary. And The Lord of the Rings makes it very clear that travelers in Middle-earth did both. Frodo and his companions fell asleep in the Elven glade above Woodhall, but they were planning to sleep in the countryside anyway. When they set out for the Old Forest, they had no expectation of reaching an inn right away, and certainly knew nothing about Tom Bombadil's house. Their intermediate goal was, of course, Bree, but beyond that they expected they would have to sleep under the trees.

After the Hobbits reached Bree, they found other travelers were staying at the Prancing Pony. Dwarves traveling from the east had just arrived, and there were a group of travelers (apparently Rohirrim) who had recently come up the Greenway from the south.

So, why wouldn't Gildor and his Elves have wanted to stay in Bree, if there was only one other inn located between Bree-land and Rivendell (the Forsaken Inn, which Aragorn said stood a day's journey east of Bree)? Some people suggest that perhaps Gildor and his companions did not sleep. In fact, there is a widespread, if mistaken, notion that Tolkien's Elves did not require sleep.

This misunderstanding arises in part from the passages in The Two Towers where Tolkien suggests that Legolas does not sleep as Aragorn and Gimli do while the three are chasing the Orcs who have taken Merry and Pippin. One passage in particular states, "...and he could sleep, if sleep it could be called by Men, resting his mind in the strange paths of elvish dreams, even as he walked open-eyed in the light of this world." However, Tolkien is not stating here that this was the only way Legolas ever slept. He slept in Moria, for example, while Gandalf kept the watch in the abandoned guard-room where Pippin dropped the rock into the well. And when the Fellowship entered Lorien, they were greeted by Haldir and his brothers, who had skins and furs they used for sleeping on their flet. And there are other references to Elves sleeping, or needing sleep, throughout the stories. And, yes, there is the passage in The Return of the King where the Elves stay awake far into the night in Hollin, conversing in their thoughts with Gandalf, while the Hobbits sleep, for about a week. But these are unusual circumstances, not intended to persuade the reader that Elves never sleep. In fact, the passage does not say the Elves never slept.

It only says they stayed awake far into the night after the Hobbits fell asleep. Tolkien provides enough examples of Elvish sleeping habits elsewhere to establish that they can and do sleep normally. It's highly doubtful, for example, that Elrond kept beds in his house just in case some friendly Dwarves or Hobbits cared to drop by. So, Elves normally slept much as we do. Which brings us back to Gildor and his company.

Assuming the Elves of Rivendell and Lorien did not ever sleep while in Hollin, then we know that Gildor and his folk could have stayed awake for at least seven days and nights. But such an assumption is not necessary. If there were safe havens scattered across Eriador in the form of small camps where the Elves could stay with relative peace, they might have stopped only once every few days. We do know, for example, that Aragorn's Rangers had caches of firewood and possibly other supplies in Eriador. So, why not the Elves?

Keeping their own caches and hidden retreats (like the glade in the woods above Woodhall in the Shire) would allow Gildor and his folk to travel straight across Eriador. Which means they should have arrived at Rivendell or their home well ahead of Frodo and his companions. Indeed, Glorfindel says the messages arrived about a week before he meets Aragorn and the Hobbits. But he doesn't say that Gildor's folk came directly to Rivendell. In fact, all he says is that Gildor's folk "sent messages as swiftly as they could". It sounds very much like Gildor's folk don't travel as swiftly as the messages. So, is there any reason for the reader to assume that Gildor's company had arrived home yet? Not really. Rather, it appears that Gildor was still wandering on his road across the lands before Glorfindel set out. And if that is the case, then why shouldn't Gildor and his companions have ever stayed at Bree? Well, one can point to the obvious omission of Elves from the list of Barliman's patrons in "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony".

Gildor is inescapably absent from the roster. Nor is there any mention of Elves having passed through the village in recent days ahead of Frodo and company (who had, after all, passed a couple of days with Tom Bombadil). On the other hand, Tolkien tells us at the start of the "Prancing Pony" chapter that the Bree-folk "were more friendly and familiar with Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other inhabitants of the world about than was (or is) usual with Big People." Well, if the Bree-folk are friendly and familiar with Elves, then it follows that at least some Elves would be friendly and familiar with the Bree-folk. So, Gildor's absence as a guest at the Prancing Pony must be assumed as due to some reason other than that the Elves avoided Bree. Perhaps Gildor really did try to make it back to Rivendell quickly, and Glorfindel's description of the arrival of the messages leaves out too much detail.

What we can be sure of, however, is that the Prancing Pony and probably all other inns mentioned in The Lord of the Rings thrived primarily by serving the needs of travelers and local customers. The book suggests that travel had fallen off in recent years prior to Frodo's arrival. And if that is so, the causes must be related to Sauron's return to Mordor, the exodus of the Elves, and the decline of Eriador's population.

Tharbad, once an ancient port and fortified outpost of Arnor and Gondor on the Gwathlo river, had been abandoned in 2912 after it was destroyed by floods. Its people, if they were Dunedain, may have joined Aragorn's people in the Angle. Otherwise, they may simply have scattered across the landscape to settle in Cardolan, Bree-land, and Dunland (and possibly Enedwaith). Bree would have, until that time, enjoyed some sort of trade with Tharbad, which must have served Eriador as a conduit to Dunland and possibly Rohan. That trade could and did pass between north and south is established by Saruman's dealings with Lotho Sackville-Baggins in the Shire. Lotho sold vast quantities of supplies to Isengard, as Aragorn and his companions discovered in "Flotsam and Jetsom".

It follows that Bree and the Shire must have enjoyed trade with Tharbad and Dunland, and possibly Isengard, prior to Lotho's dealings with Saruman. Therefore, merchants, their agents, and families moving between north and south would obviously stop at Bree while on their ways to other lands. The Dwarves who customarily traveled between Ered Luin, Erebor, and more distant lands would also stay at Bree. And then the Rangers were said to occasionally stay over as well. The Shire inns most likely served only Hobbits and Dwarves. A few along the main road may have, in ancient times, had accomodations for Men and Elves, but by the end of the Third Age, it seems likely few if any such accomodations would have remained. Gildor's folk may have stayed in the woods simply because the Shire-folk could not depend on Elven and Mannish traffic enough to devote inn rooms to Big Folk.

On the other hand, the Shire taverns enjoyed a considerable local trade. Their patrons were mostly the working class Hobbits like Sam Gamgee and his friends. The only other use to which inns were put in the Shire was to house companies of the expanded Shirrifs, who were charged with helping to enforce Lotho's new Rules. Since the inns were the social hearts of many communities, it may have made sense to use them informally as town halls. Which is not to say that all business would have been concluded inside the Shire's inns and taverns. In fact, Brandy Hall and the Tooks' Great Smials may have served as small administrative palaces in some ways. The families living in those locations were the leading families of their regions. Their clan chiefs wielded real authority (over the Buckland and the Shire respectively). But the Thains were not autocratic rulers over the Shire. The few governmental services of the Shire were indeed supervised by the Mayor of Michel Delving, rather than by the Thain. Barliman Butterburr's role in Bree is also interesting. Just exactly how does he fit into Bree society? It would appear that his inn is used by most of the Bree-folk (at least from the village of Bree, and perhaps from Staddle, the village on the far side of Bree hill) for their socializing. And Barliman also seems to be something of a leader in his community. He is certainly liked and respected, and he possesses some wealth.

If the Bree-folk don't have a public building, then the Inn of the Prancing Pony may serve as their courthouse, town hall, and night-watch command post. Inns, and perhaps taverns, could thus double as public service houses. Which is not to say that they explicitly do, but they are there, ready for general use, and Tolkien offers nothing else in the wild lands of Eriador. And that brings us back to Gildor and his folk. If their primary business (in the story) involves travel back and forth across Eriador, and if they gather news and convey messages between Rivendell and Lindon (or between Rivendell and Aman), then it would certainly make sense for them to at least visit a few of the more prominent inns such as the Prancing Pony. Yet, if that is so, then why doesn't Tolkien mention it?

Of course, one must consider that Gildor's role in The Lord of the Rings is rather minimal, if somewhat crucial. He helps Frodo get past the first encounter with the Black Riders, and then he sets the stage for other encounters down the road (with Aragorn, Bombadil, and Glorfindel).

Tolkien expands Gildor's world slightly in The Road Goes Ever On by assigning a purpose to the particular journey which Frodo interrupts: Gildor and his companions are returning from a pilgrimage. But that is all we really know about Gildor. He plays no further part in the story, and hence the length and route of his trip back to his halls is excluded from the essential narrative. In fact, another mystery concerning Gildor regards his meetings with Aragorn, who tells Frodo at Bree that "the tidings had gone far and wide that Gandalf was missing and the horsemen had been seen. It was the Elven-folk of Gildor that told me this; and later they told me that you had left your home; but there was no news of your leaving Buckland."

Well, when did Gildor first learn about the Black Riders?

And if he knew Gandalf was missing before he met Frodo in the woods, why did he act surprised?

On the other hand, as Frodo spoke with Gildor, Gildor confessed, "I already know a little, and I can read more in your face and in the thought behind your questions." What little did he know, and from whom did he learn it?

One possibility is that Gildor traveled west to Lindon about the time Radagast the Brown found Gandalf. The Elves could have learned from Radagast that the Nazgul were abroad. It may also be that Aragorn or Gandalf had spoken with Gildor concerning Frodo's plan to leave the Shire. They need not have told Gildor everything, but then, how did Gildor seem to know that Frodo was "bearing a great burden without guidance" (as Glorfindel reported to Aragorn and Hobbits when they met on the Road)?

Did Gildor sense the Ring, or had Gandalf and Aragorn told him a little concerning Frodo's inheritance?

Was it truly coincidence that Gildor just happened to walking through the woods of the Shire on the night of September 22?

After all, Gandalf knew when Frodo planned to leave. Indeed, Gandalf told Frodo he would leave the Shire in June because "I have heard something that has made me anxious and needs looking into." What did he hear? Unfortunately, Gandalf's explanation of his disappearance at Rivendell fails to confirm the reported news: "'At the end of June I was in the Shire, but a cloud of anxiety was on my mind, and I rode to the southern borders of the little land; for I had a foreboding of some danger, still hidden from me but drawing near. There messages reached me telling me of war and defeat in Gondor, and when I heard of the Black Shadow a chill smote my heart." Now, this is a curious report from Gandalf, for it implies many things, but most specifically seems to contradict his earlier claim that he had heard something. Perhaps he felt it necessary to disguise an angelic foreboding as having heard something, or perhaps Tolkien simply forgot to check what Gandalf had told Frodo in the earlier chapter.

Certainly, Gildor and his Elves could have served a useful purpose by informing Gandalf of events outside the Shire. But it seems they did not play such a role. So, even the idea that Gildor might have communicated with Radagast seems to have no support. In the final analysis, we can say nothing about Gildor with any authority, except that he was in the right place at the right time. But we can say with certainty that, as one of the Noldor, he came from a culture which was used to building great cities and living in comfortable houses and towers.

While he might have traveled by night out of a desire to enjoy the stars, he undoubtedly traveled in the wilds only by necessity. There is plenty of evidence showing that the Elves did not simply ignore the other peoples of Eriador. Gildor and his folk were on friendly terms with Aragorn and the Rangers, and Tom Bombadil, and they seem to have kept some sort of watch over Bilbo and Frodo.

So, I think that, while Gildor and his companions probably did not stay at the Prancing Pony while returning eastward in September 3018, they would not have bypassed the inn out of habit or preference. They most likely did visit the inn on other occasions. And perhaps when Elrond, Galadriel, and Gildor led their large following of Noldor west through Eriador for that final voyage over Sea, the people of Bree sensed something unusual, stood beside the Road and watched sadly, and knew that an age in Middle-earth was indeed coming to a close. And when the Gaffers and Gammers told their grand-children about the fair-folk, the young ones might have asked, "Did the Elves sleep like us? And did they ever stay at the Prancing Pony in Bree?"

Michael Martinez is the author of Visualizing Middle-earth and Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, 3rd Edition. His next book is Understanding Middle-earth, to published by Vivisphere in 2003.