Ferny family

Bill Ferny

A family of the Bree-land. 'Ferny' was one of the traditional 'botanical' names favoured among the Men of Bree, which implies that members of the family had lived in Bree for several generations. At the time of the War of the Ring, the Ferny family was represented by a single member, Bill Ferny, who lived in a house near the South-gate of Bree.¹ Bill Ferny was described as having swarthy skin and dark brows, which we might therefore take as characteristic of at least some members of the family.

In the year III 2953 or soon afterwards, the Wizard Saruman began to establish agents in Bree, as well as in the Shire. This would have been more than sixty years before the War of the Ring, presumably too early for Bill Ferny himself to have become entangled in the Wizard's schemes (though possibly his unnamed father may have become one of Saruman's agents at this time). However these matters developed, by the end of the Third Age, Bill Ferny was in Saruman's employ, and was hosting an Orc-like stranger at his house in Bree, and even being visited at times by Black Riders.

When Frodo and his companions passed through Bree, Bill Ferny did what he could hamper them. He caused their ponies to bolt from the stable of the inn, and even seems to have had some involvement with the raid of the Black Riders on Bree. He then agreed to sell his own poorly-treated pony to the Hobbits as they departed,² a pony that would be named 'Bill' by Sam Gamgee after his former owner. As the Hobbits left Bree and set out into the wild, Ferny watched them go so that he could report their direction.

Months after the Hobbits had departed, a battle broke out in Bree. Newcomers from the south began the fighting, and several Men and Hobbits were slain. Bill Ferny took the side of the incomers, and after their defeat he fled with them into the wild. It was later found that he had run westward to the Shire, where he guarded the new gate on the Brandywine Bridge for a while. When the Travellers returned to the Shire from the South, they forced him to allow them into the Shire, and Bill Ferny fled once again. After this point we hear no more of him, apparently the last of the Ferny clan of Bree.