The Inn/Tavern in Fantasy lit...

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Am I the only one who absolutely loves the mental images a small town inn or tavern evokes while reading fantasy? I love when a good deal goes down in the back room of the bar, or when a fellowship is formed at the table in the back of the community dining hall.

I thought Jordan was GREAT at really transforming the reader to the inn, and that was always a huge plus for me with his books. Are there any other fantasy series you can think of where a mug of ale and a pipe are prominent players whilst there is treachery afoot...
 
Eastenders... though the tobacco is now banished to the pavement outside.

More fantasyesque though and more obvious "The Prancing Pony" in LOTR.

Oh and The Mended Drum in Ankh-Morpork
 
Also in TP, there's Biers, where everyone knows your shape.....
 
Absolutely not switchback, I love a little tavern, a secret dark room out the back where whispers and secret conversations take place. Big strong doors and dark gloomy basements. A roaring fire to keep out the cold of the night. Its nearly always raining outside but inside toasty warm. An array of characters gathered.
Got to love The Prancing Pony but there are others... although not quite an inn but Nabjor's camp in The Redemption of Althalus is very welcoming selling good mead and women but with a darkier side as Nabjor's buys all manner of things and keeps a strong axe by his side for less than friendly visitors.
 
The Inn of the Last Home always sounded cosy to me. It's built in a living tree. It is in the Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 1.


I know what you mean though. It definitely conjurs up some powerful imagery when done right. Some older bars I've been to remind me of these places. All wood bar, fireplace, dimly lit, musty beer odor. I always thought a fantasy setting would be a great theme for a modern bar.
 
Not always treachery (though it certainly crops up), but certainly where many challenging adventures begin: The Silver Eel and The Golden Lamprey in Lankhmar, favored watering(?)-holes for Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser....
 
The Flying Swan in Robert Rankin's Brentford.

And the tavern in Star Wars.

What is it with the chopped off arm motif in Star Wars?
 
Spot on with Jordan's WOT Switchback, especially The Eye of the World You'll be treated to a thorough grounding in the coziness of inns there...Erikson's Garden of the Moon; The Pheonix Inn in the city of Darujhistan is a frequent spot where Kruppe, Crokus, Rallik Nom of all people...gather to discussed the exploits of the day...with a few mugs of ale (and free for Kruppe at that...:)), but I'm afraid there is quite a lot more than just treachery afoot where these three are concerned...;)

Cheers, DeepThought
 
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I also thought of the Inn of the Last Home! I just started Garden of the Moon DeepThought, look forward to encountering aforementioned inn.
 
Yeah, the Phoenix Inn is another great spot! That spot is so great for being so pivotal to the story. I love when the Inn/Tavern is basically another character. Loved when Crokus had his first run-in with Sorry...

Plus, it's been a while since I read all the WOT books, but there was a later one I remember that relied heavily on the Inns. I'm thinking book 5 maybe? When the ladies were in Tanchico?? And also, maybe the same book, or maybe an earlier one, but when Mat and Rand were playing for their rooms/supper in various inns along the way. Fun stuff...
 
Hilarious Joke said:
...I just started Garden of the Moon....
Click to expand...

A phenomenal read that! Hilarious Joke, take your time with it; don't speed read or rush through, try to immerse yourself into world (which is very easy with Malazan), savor it. You'll not be disappointed. Hard to imagine that it gets better and better with each book, this is just mind blowing considering the prequel before the one your always reading in the Malazan series just happens to be way better than any EPIC fantasy around. I remember the time I first read GOTM (around the time it first came out, mid 90's I think); I had even forgotten to eat that day! among other things...:D

Switchback said:
...it's been a while since I read all the WOT books...
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too and I think it's as you say the fifth book (The Fires of Heaven) Inn scenes are featured heavily in that volume too.

Cheers, DeepThought
 
Mine belong to the world of Spider Robinson:

Callahan's Place where the regulars include a talking dog, several extraterrestrials and time-travelers, an ethical vampire, a couple of Irish mythological beings, and an obscenity-spewing parrot. The stories make heavy use of puns. Irish whiskeys are the preferred beverage, with Tullamore Dew and Old Bushmills referenced in nearly every collection of shorts or novel that references the saloon.

And although this is not an inn, there's the house of excellent repute run by Lady Sally McGee (Mike Callahan's wife). The regulars at Lady Sally's brothel (where the employees are "artists" and the patrons are "clients") insist on the same empathy and humor as those at Callahan's, and they are just as likely to have fantastic backgrounds.
 
For a complete contrast, there's always the Draco Tavern, in the short stories by Larry Niven - a modern, cosmopolitan bar near the spaceport, where mine host keeps a selection of exotic beverages for the varied alien species who may drop in.

The stories, 26 of them, most quite short, have just (2006) been collected into a single volume.

Larry Niven, the Draco Tavern
 
No prob.:)...it's a useful compilation, as they were previously scattered about among about half-a-dozen other collections.
 
I've always been fond of the WoT taverns and inns, too, simply for the details used in writing them. Besides them, Robin Hobb describes some good inns in her Farseer/Tawny Man trilogies, and some of the early Eddings books have some nicely described ones. I think my favourite has to be the Prancing Pony from LOTR, though.
 
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andrew.v.spencer said:
The Flying Swan in Robert Rankin's Brentford.

And the tavern in Star Wars.

What is it with the chopped off arm motif in Star Wars?
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The Flying Swan is an actual pub in the Ealing road in Brentford it is called the Bricklayers Arms which has now closed.

There is also the Inn in the Thieves World antholiges where One Thumb was the barman.
 
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