Talk:The Prancing Pony

Leaving it for someone with more experience here on this website:

Shouldn't the references to the name of the inn The Prancing Pony be italicized each time——including the capitalized definite article——as they are in LOTR?

This ought also to hold true for the names of other inns in the Shire: The Floating Log, The Ivy Bush, The Green Dragon, the Golden Perch, and the Forsaken Inn (note lowercase article, not italicized as part of name). The only one that breaks this pattern of italics is the reference to Bridge Inn.

Ed8r (talk) 14:25, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Inn of Bree

There is no separate page for Inn of Bree and the page for The Prancing Pony never uses this term, yet this is the name it is given in LOTR as the hobbits approach Bree and narrator is explaining the Greenway.

Ed8r (talk) 14:33, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

I am surprised by your questions. Have you read the section Italics about the use of italics in the Tolkien Gateway Manuel of Style? The Manual of Style does not require the use of italics for names in modern English. There is not separate page for an inn called the Inn of Bree, because the Inn of Bree that is mentioned in the chapter At the Sign of the Prancing Pony in LOTR is The Prancing Pony so the content of the page would be the same and Inn of Bree could only redirect to The Prancing Pony page. Apart from that the use of capitalized Inn of Bree may be an error by J.R.R. Tolkien or by somebody at the publisher, because it is only used once and in Concerning Pipeweed in the Prologue the spelling "the old inn of Bree, The Prancing Pony" is used. In my opinion, mentioning the Inn of Bree as a possible other name and a redirect page called Inn of Bree that redirects to The Prancing Pony page are not necessary. --Akhorahil (talk) 15:22, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. Yes, I read the section on italics in the manual of style. But while that guide specifically proscribes use of italics for direct cites AND specifically calls out "isolated words and phrases in other languages," what it does not mention on way or the other is application of italics to represent Tolkien's own style and whether or not italics ought to be applied to accurately represent those styles.

If I may offer my opinion, which will perhaps be obvious from my original point of discussion, if Tolkien directed that the names/titles of inns be set in italics, it behooves us to duplicate his style. Note for example on this page, under the History section, where italics are used: "It was perhaps in the Pony where..." Ed8r (talk) 14:46, 28 April 2023 (UTC)