What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional innkeeper who serves at The Prancing Pony?

Barliman Butterbur is the fictional innkeeper who serves at The Prancing Pony in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.

Butterbur runs the inn at Bree, a settlement where Hobbits and Men meet on the road between the Shire and the eastern lands. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin stay at the Prancing Pony during their journey, using the inn as a temporary refuge before continuing toward Rivendell.

Butterbur is absent-minded but fundamentally helpful. He has received a letter connected with Gandalf, but forgets to deliver it to Frodo in time. He also tells the Hobbits about a mysterious Ranger called Strider, whose true identity is Aragorn. The inn therefore becomes a key meeting place in the early movement of the quest.

The name is sometimes remembered simply as “Butterbur,” but Barliman is his given name. The character also appears in The Return of the King, when events in the wider war finally reach Bree.