The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Which characters out of the books do you wish had fallen in love?

Kalimac · 03-08-2002, 11:51 PM

Merry and Pippin...hmmm, time for peering at the appendices with a microscope [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. Pippin does get married only about six years after Frodo leaves, to Diamond of Long Cleeve, and has a son named Faramir; both of these events are mentioned in the "Later Events Concerning the Fellowship" section in the ROTK appendices. There's no mention there of Merry's marriage nor (obviously) of the births of Merry's children.

But wait, there's more! If you look at the family trees in the post-1954 edition, Merry is listed as having married Estella Bolger - Tolkien added this himself, so presumably it can be taken as canon - he discovered a lost document referring to the marriage, maybe. There are no children listed in the family tree, but if you look back at the "Later Events Concerning..." for the year 1484, when Eomer summons Merry and and Pippin, it says:

"He [Merry] took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire."

Since it says "their sons" there's a pretty clear implication that Merry and Estella Bolger had at least one child, maybe more. Why they're not listed in the family trees is anybody's guess; maybe there was a fire in the library of Brandy Hall which destroyed a lot of later documents concerning the Brandybucks, so information on Merry's descendants was only left in chance references in outside sources. Obviously there would be no way of knowing if it "took forever" for Merry to get married, he was older than Pippin and maybe would have married even sooner. Who knows.

As for Merry and Pippin living together, they were both comparatively young for hobbits and still in their carefree bachelor years, so to speak, still sort of like college roommates; hobbits don't really seem to get married before coming of age. Sam is thirty-nine when he gets married, and Rosie is thirty-four, but there's no implication that this is particularly late. As for them journeying off to Gondor together in the end, presumably their wives were both dead by this point, conveniently for the plot [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] . (Diamond to Pippin: "You're going WHERE?").

[ March 09, 2002: Message edited by: Kalimac ]

03-08-2002, 11:51 PM	#31
Kalimac Candle of the Marshes Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Flyover Country Posts: 780	Merry and Pippin...hmmm, time for peering at the appendices with a microscope [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. Pippin does get married only about six years after Frodo leaves, to Diamond of Long Cleeve, and has a son named Faramir; both of these events are mentioned in the "Later Events Concerning the Fellowship" section in the ROTK appendices. There's no mention there of Merry's marriage nor (obviously) of the births of Merry's children. But wait, there's more! If you look at the family trees in the post-1954 edition, Merry is listed as having married Estella Bolger - Tolkien added this himself, so presumably it can be taken as canon - he discovered a lost document referring to the marriage, maybe. There are no children listed in the family tree, but if you look back at the "Later Events Concerning..." for the year 1484, when Eomer summons Merry and and Pippin, it says: "He [Merry] took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire." Since it says "their sons" there's a pretty clear implication that Merry and Estella Bolger had at least one child, maybe more. Why they're not listed in the family trees is anybody's guess; maybe there was a fire in the library of Brandy Hall which destroyed a lot of later documents concerning the Brandybucks, so information on Merry's descendants was only left in chance references in outside sources. Obviously there would be no way of knowing if it "took forever" for Merry to get married, he was older than Pippin and maybe would have married even sooner. Who knows. As for Merry and Pippin living together, they were both comparatively young for hobbits and still in their carefree bachelor years, so to speak, still sort of like college roommates; hobbits don't really seem to get married before coming of age. Sam is thirty-nine when he gets married, and Rosie is thirty-four, but there's no implication that this is particularly late. As for them journeying off to Gondor together in the end, presumably their wives were both dead by this point, conveniently for the plot [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] . (Diamond to Pippin: "You're going WHERE?"). [ March 09, 2002: Message edited by: Kalimac ] __________________ Father, dear Father, if you see fit, We'll send my love to college for one year yet Tie blue ribbons all about his head, To let the ladies know that he's married.