"You meet a mysterious stranger in a tavern." Origins?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Meeting a mysterious stranger -- or even meeting the new adventuring party -- in a tavern or inn has become a common fantasy and sci-fi trope.

On a certain level, this makes sense. Inns and taverns are meeting places and cross-roads, and likely places for strangers to encounter one another by accident or to arrange a somewhat public meeting between strangers.

It's very common now in fantasy or sci-fi, whether you're reading George R.R. Martin and the encounter at the Inn at the Crossroads, or the Most Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. Some of that in movies probably lends itself to Western movies when bar fights and showdowns were a common trope.

What are the literature origins for fantasy and sci-fi? The iconic scene to me is the hobbits meeting Aragorn at the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn is the mysterious stranger in the corner who approaches the party with information and an offer. Tolkien published in 1954 and I'm sure influenced many later fantasy sources ... but are their earlier literature sources from which this trope draws its foundations?

 

[aco175]

The inn/tavern provides a reason for people from all these strange places to be there. Players make up a character and there might not be a lot of backstory, but meeting at the inn allows you to have no reason. The world might even be unknown to you and the DM feeds it as you go, but you happen to be at this place and need to go along with these others.

It can handwave a lot of fiddly bits to make the game work.

 

[Koloth]

Not exactly a tale of adventurers meeting but there is the mention in the Bible about "No room at the inn" for Jesus being born in a manger and later shepherds arriving to see him after being told about the birth by angels. It does sort of check the "Meet the mysterious stranger" box. Seems possible that reference inspired later writers to use the idea.
Maybe someone knows if any of the Homer or similar times stories/poems mention meetings at inns. If so, would predate the Bible reference by about 800 years.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If I recall correctly, The Canterbury Tales begins with everyone meeting in an inn to head off on their pilgrimage.

 

[Umbran]

If I recall correctly, The Canterbury Tales begins with everyone meeting in an inn to head off on their pilgrimage.

Published in 1400, and so is likely to be the oldest version of it in print.

Having a frame tale like the tavern meeting was already an established trope at the time, but none of the prior examples are meeting in a tavern, as far as I am aware.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Meeting a mysterious stranger -- or even meeting the new adventuring party -- in a tavern or inn has become a common fantasy and sci-fi trope.

On a certain level, this makes sense. Inns and taverns are meeting places and cross-roads, and likely places for strangers to encounter one another by accident or to arrange a somewhat public meeting between strangers.

It's very common now in fantasy or sci-fi, whether you're reading George R.R. Martin and the encounter at the Inn at the Crossroads, or the Most Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. Some of that in movies probably lends itself to Western movies when bar fights and showdowns were a common trope.

What are the literature origins for fantasy and sci-fi? The iconic scene to me is the hobbits meeting Aragorn at the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn is the mysterious stranger in the corner who approaches the party with information and an offer. Tolkien published in 1954 and I'm sure influenced many later fantasy sources ... but are their earlier literature sources from which this trope draws its foundations?

Strider at the Prancing Pony? That's at least 70 years old or so.

Edit: Never mind. I see we're looking for Tolkien’s antecedents.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The origin, is reality, and hence is as old as the invention of inns.

 

[Mannahnin]

I don't think I know of an example in Howard or Leiber's work. In The Tower of the Elephant Conan hears about the titular tower in a tavern, as I recall, but it's not a mysterious stranger giving a quest.

I'll have to ponder on it further, though I'm curious what other people come up with.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think for our purposes, this is the effective starting point. I'm sure there are some fantasy authors or DMs who are influenced by the Canterbury Tales -- which are awesome -- but they're a drop in the bucket compared to the ones influenced by Lord of the Rings (even though no one in the Lord of the Rings gets a hot poker shoved into a place it doesn't belong).

 

[Cergorach]

If I recall correctly, The Canterbury Tales begins with everyone meeting in an inn to head off on their pilgrimage.

From Asia we have things like Romance of the Three Kingdoms (written somewhere between 1300-1400), but that also has written predecessors. I also wonder if something similar to inns and taverns shows up in other old Asian tales.

Someone mentioned the Bible, but what about other old religious texts that predate christianity/judaism?

They found a 4700 year old public eatery (tavern) in Iraq: https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/lagash-tavern-0017863 That stuff is old! There must be more stories then just something as recent as the Canterbury Tales, and something not so European centric as well...