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

[Deset Gled]

There's a part of Romance of the Three Kingdoms where Lei Bei does the "You all meet at an inn" bit. Which goes to show that it's not just a European/western world thing. The whole world meets at a tavern. Because that's, like, the purpose of a tavern.

Date wise, Romance is typically dated as 15th century and would be just behind Canterbury Tales.

Edit: Dang it, missed it by that much.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In accord with prior suggestions, I’m going to say that the trope probably evolved shortly after the rise of organized trade routes & caravans. IOW, probably before most people were literate and relied on oral tale telling.

 

[Clint_L]

The Canterbury Tales, baby. And it's still never been topped.

Edit: okay, maybe Star Wars.

 

[MarkB]

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

Or older. I'm sure there were tales of strangers meeting at the local watering hole back when it was a literal watering hole.

 

[TiQuinn]

Treasure Island is another novel that starts off with a number of mysterious strangers coming into a rural inn, and setting off a chain of events that leads to Jim Hawkins embarking on an adventure.

 

[Tonguez]

Canterbury Tales is likely the oldest featuring an actual Inn.

But The Odyssey is notable for powerful NPC (goddess) disguised as a traveler gives a “quest hook” to adventurers in a guest-hall

 

[aco175]

It's common knowledge that PCs do not trust anyone from the 1e days of adversarial DMs, so meeting in a public place with lots of people is needed.