Frodo and his companions visit The Prancing Pony in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
The inn stands in Bree, a settlement where Hobbits and Men live together. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin stop there while traveling east from the Shire, after leaving Hobbiton to escape the Black Riders searching for the One Ring.
At the inn, Frodo uses the assumed name “Underhill.” He meets Aragorn, who is still known to the Hobbits as Strider, and receives a message from Gandalf explaining that the wizard has been delayed. Frodo’s accidental use of the Ring draws the attention of the Nazgûl.
The Prancing Pony is not merely a rest stop. It is the place where the Hobbits first encounter the Ranger who will become one of the story’s central heroes. Bree also represents a boundary between the familiar Shire and the wider, more dangerous world.