[Rumil]

Nice topic Mirkgirl, (I don't think you're appreciably madder than anyone else here [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] )

It's struck me before now that at the start of the journey Merry does seem to have some authority over the other hobbits. Perhaps its because he's on 'home ground' round Buckleberry ferry, Buckland and the outskirts of the Old Forest. He also appears to be leader of the 'conspiracy unmasked'.

Later on this authority is less evident (although he didn't go throwing stones into wells in Moria like that fool of a Took!). When abducted by the Uruk Hai, Pippin shows the greater resourcefulness in devising an escape plan, but then Merry demonstrates that he has put his time in Rivendell to good use by remebering the map of the area.