Within a days march...

[The Saucepan Man]

Secondly, I'd be interested to find out exactly what would be enough to freeze the heart of our worthy Barliman.

Or rather what wouldn't freeze his heart [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] . Much as I love the amiable barman as a character, I agree that he was unlikely to be of much use in a pinch.

I doubt that Aragorn was talking about the Nazgul for the reason that symestreem mentioned. He seems to be talking about things that the Dunedain have been guarding the folk of the Shire and the surrounding lands from in the past, and the Nazgul had only just appeared in those parts. Also, as Finwe stated, the Rangers were not able to prevent the Ringwraiths from entering the Shire.

I don't think it was the Barrow-Wights either. I get the sense that (like many of us here [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ) they were unable to leave the Barrow Downs, and so the surrounding area would not need guarding against them.

So I would guess that he was talking about more general horrors wandering in the wild areas, such as Trolls, Wolves (possibly even Wargs, since they were abroad in Eregion) and maybe Orcs on raiding parties from the Misty Mountains. Any of those would probably be enough to freeze poor old Butterbur's heart (and, indeed, mine [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ).