[Nogrod]

I must admit to have wondered the same thing Menelvagor does here. Or at least the Weathertop-incident.

One could say that they just didn't find Frodo and the Ring in Bree. Plausible, perhaps. Although one is left with the question, why didn't they search more as they clearly terrorised everyone around and had the upper hand?

The Bruinen ford could be explained too, I think. Confusion, fastly changing situations and the spirit of the elven horse + the magic of the Rivendell etc.

But the Weathertop? Some halflings and one hero with torches against the Black Riders, against the Nazgûl? (Okay, it's laughable beyond even disbelief in the PJ adaptation!) Just compare their might and effect on the goodies later in the story! To my eyes they gain a lot of power between FotR and RotK. On Weathertop they drew back from a torch-wielding hobbit, in Minas Tirith the "newly-born" and mightily strengthened Gandalf has trouble dealing with them... Is this logical? I doubt that.

I think Raynor's and A Brandybuck's learned comments are worth noting, but still. On Weathertop they had their chance and chose to ran away. I'm a bit baffled about that, still am.