How did it happen in the movie?
Right after Gandalf reveals the secret of the Ring, Frodo and Sam leave for Bree where Gandalf has promised to wait for them.
We get some shots of the two Hobbits walking through fields and across hills, smoking pipe and cooking. During their journey they see a group of Elves pass by, travelling to the Grey Havens.
When they are crossing Farmer Maggot’s crops, they literally bump into their friends, Merry Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. After some further accidents and misunderstandings, they find themselves hiding and later even running away from the Nazgûl, the Black Riders Gandalf warned Frodo about.
After crossing the Brandywine River on the Bucklebury Ferry, they reach the Human town of Bree.

How did it happen in the book?
While the journey from Hobbiton to Bree doesn’t take up more than five scenes, in the book it is described in no less than six chapters. The chapter titles contain a link to an article about that particular chapter.

1.III. Three Is Company: where Pippin, Frodo and Sam leave Hobbiton for Crickhollow, where Frodo has ‘bought a new house’ which Merry and Fatty Bolger are preparing for him.
In this chapter the travellers encounter their first Black Rider and hide from him by the side of the road, and later on they enjoy the hospitality of Gildor Inglorion and his company of Elves travelling to the Grey Havens.

1.IV. A Shortcut To Mushrooms: where our merry trio end up on Farmer Maggot’s premises and are welcomed as old friends. After a hearty meal Maggot brings them to Bucklebury Ferry. On the way they meet Merry, who accompanies them on the second half of their journey to Crickhollow.

In 1.V. A Conspiracy Unmasked Frodo discovers his friends outsmarted him: he never intended to move into the house in Crickhollow but used it as a decoy to draw away attention from him and Hobbiton. But his loyal friends knew all along, and after a good bath they tell him that they want to accompany him. Fatty Bolger, not the most adventurous Hobbit, stays behind to guard the house.

1.VI. The Old Forest gives an account of the Hobbits’ journey through said forest, where they can’t seem to follow the road they want and end up being nearly eaten by Old Man Willow – a rather wayward tree. They are rescued by a rather peculiar fellow, Tom Bombadil, who takes them to his home. The days they spend in the company of Tom and his wife Goldberry are described in 1.VII. In the House of Tom Bombadil.

1.VIII. Fog On the Barrow-downs sees our heroes travel from the brink of the Old Forest to Bree. They are caught in a rather uncanny adventure on the Barrow-down, where it is once again Tom Bombadil who has to come to the rescue.


Peter Xavier Price – Three Is Company

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