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withered-pages-blog · 7 years

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Greener Grass (Frodo Baggins Imagine)

It was rare for Men to ever venture through the Shire. It wasn’t as if any of the Hobbits were hostile or separate from the rest of the world, but this was their land. Hobbits, unlike many others, were very vulnerable due to their size. They were a peaceful folk that kept to themselves, they ate, they drank, they sang and they made merry. So for you, someone twice their size to regularly venture through the Shire and into Hobbiton was no small feat.

You smiled as you watched your friends drink the night away. Merry and Pippin had come to visit and so they invited you from your place in Archet. It was a breath of fresh air and a change of atmosphere to be here with your friends. Archet was in the middle of a skirmish with wandering brigands and you wanted no part in it, so you jumped for joy when a letter arrived for you.

Raising your mug of ale, you sat cross-legged on the undersized stool and took a long gulp. “That’s the spirit, Y/N. They’re finally getting the hang of things!” Merry cheered, “It’s about time you adopted the hobbit way.” added Pippin.

“Take another, Y/N!” and “Let’s have a race, Y/N!” called Hobbits from all around. You’d never really taken part in any of their drinking games and you’d never really been black-out drunk either, but you were feeling adventurous tonight.

After a long night of drinking, darts, food, drinking, a race around Hobbiton on one-foot with Sam and some more drinking, your night was through - you didn’t notice the concerned blue eyes that were on you all night long.

You unbuttoned your vest and smiled lazily, “I think I’ve had enough ale to last me a lifetime.” Hands grasped at you and your friends tried to persuade you to stay, “Just one more, Y/N. We haven’t even finished this pint.” Pippin slung his arm over your shoulder, raising his mug to your lips.

“They said no,” a timid voice said, and you all turned in it’s direction.

Frodo Baggins of Bag End sat at the end of the table, mug full and plate untouched. His arms were folded and his blue eyes were narrowed at his friends, though his strict glare never fell on you.

“But how often does Y/N come to visit us, Frodo? It isn’t often that we get the whole band together.” Merry defended. “They said no more, so don’t spoil them.”

You scratched your nose as Sam butted in, “I think Mr Frodo is right, Merry. It isn’t very often that Y/N comes to visit that’s true, but they also don’t swallow down ale like you do. Maybe we were wrong to push them.”

Raising your hands, you cleared your throat, “I’m right ‘ere.”

The group turned to you and you cringed at what was to come. Merry and Pippin looked at you with hopeful smiles while Sam and Frodo grimaced, you had to choose between the two groups.

Sighing and standing up, you cringed as you nearly bumped your head on the chandelier. “I’ll be here in the morn, you know.”

Merry and Pippin slumped in their seats and the arm slid from your shoulder. “Let me rest,” you smiled, “tomorrow I shall drink you under the table.”

The boys piped up at that, and Pippin clapped a hand onto your back, “That’s it! You all heard it.”

Leaving the group behind with a goodnight, you reached into your coin purse to leave a few silver pieces for the inn-keep, who smiled at you from across the bar. “Have a good night, Y/N.”

Waving and ducking beneath the ceiling, you entered the back of the Green Dragon Inn where the inn-rooms were. The small circular door opened with ease and you smiled, throwing your vest carelessly onto the wooden floor and beginning to unlace your mud-coated boots. You kicked them off and sighed, the relief was almost instant as you’d been wearing them for two days straight on foot - your only horse sold for coin.

Grimacing at the sudden sway of the room, you leaned back onto the bed and groaned. You blinked a few times before rolling over to face the wall but jumped in surprise at a soft knock at the door.

“Come in.” You called and the door slowly opened to reveal that same timid Hobbit. “Frodo?”

The brunette stood at the door for a moment, not meeting your gaze before asking, “May I?”

Patting the bed and raising your legs to offer room, Frodo closed the door behind him and sat by your side. “Y’right, Frodo?”

The Bag End Hobbit frowned and turned to face you, “You really shouldn’t force yourself to drink so much, Y/N. It isn’t safe.” Blinking, you raised your brows, “I feel fine. You needn’t worry.”

Shaking his head, the Fallohide’s bright blue eyes met yours and you instantly felt guilty for having made him worry at all. “I’ll take it slow next time, friend.” Frodo seemed less tense at your promise but his brows remained furrowed.

“Is there something more, Frodo? What ails you?” Your hand found Frodo’s shoulder and he tensed for a moment before sighing and relaxing into your touch. “I worry for you, Y/N.”

You blinked and tilted your head at him, “Not all Hobbits are as welcoming as the ones at the Green Dragon. What if we hadn’t been with you tonight?”

Laughing, you slapped him gently on the back, “I wouldn’t be drinking at all if you weren’t with me tonight.”

Frodo’s frown deepened and you immediately stopped laughing, your smile dropping. “What do you ask of me?”

The brunette’s lips opened and closed several times before he spoke again, “I want you to be safe. You know that Men isn’t as welcome here as other places. It is difficult to believe that something so defenseless as a Hobbit could cause any harm, but it’s possible.”

You gripped his slender shoulders and turned him to face you again, “I believe it to be more dangerous in Archet than here with you, in Hobbiton.”

Face lit up pink, you immediately let go of the Hobbit and turned away. You felt the mattress shift from lost weight and your heart sank, Frodo had stood up to leave and you turned to look at him - only to be met with his chin.

You looked up wide-eyed at his quick movements. Examining his face, you noted how strangely Elvish he looked, bright blue eyes, pale skin and wild brown curls. Frodo was also surprisingly tall for a Hobbit, despite still being half your size, and so while you sat and he stood, he reached just slightly above you.

“Y/N, I care for you,” he said and you smiled, ignoring the close proximity. “And I you, friend.”

His blue eyes intensified as he emphasized, “I care for you deeply.”

That invasive blush found you once again and your stomach twisted into knots at his words, “Frodo, what are you trying to say?”

The Baggins Hobbit didn’t try to say anything, he cupped your face in his hands and tilted your head up to expose your face to him properly. Words formed and died in your mouth as Frodo gently kissed you.

So many things happened to you then, your mind a muddled mess and your nerves alight. You weren’t sure how to respond to this, you never imagined your first kiss would be with a Hobbit, especially Frodo. He’d never once expressed any kind of interest, he never tried to court you - he was just now coming of age, thirty-three years old.

He kissed you like if he applied too much pressure he’d break you despite you being hardened from years of farming, hunting and training in Archet.

Fingers gently traced down your cheeks and to your chin and your legs parted to exterminate the room between the two of you. Frodo stepped forward and you opened your eyes to see his closed, lashes fluttering against his cheekbones.

Your mind told you that this was wrong, that this was against nature but you stayed still, unmoving for a long time before Frodo shied away from you, his lips parting from yours and leaving you buzzing.

“I-I apologize, Y/N. That was foolish.” Frodo muttered, his eyes cast down to the floor. “I believe I’ve had a bit too much ale myself.”

You wanted to protest but no words came out, and that seemed confirmation enough of your rejection to the Hobbit, who with a quick goodnight was gone from your sight.

You could’ve gone to sleep that night with a clear mind knowing that this was all just a silly accident, that it meant nothing, that Frodo definitely didn’t have deeper feelings as he’d proclaimed, you could have.

But you didn’t. You didn’t because as you lay in your bed, trying to sleep away the excitement, the worry, you remembered something vital, his mug.

Frodo hadn’t had a single drink all night that night.

#lord of the rings #lotr #frodo baggins #the shire #the hobbit #samwise gamgee #merry #meriadoc brandybuck #peregrin took #pippin #bag end #gandalf the grey #hobbiton

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

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Finally it’s time for Akallabeth

“wait let me do the little dingle over the e: Akallabêth”

Sometimes I think Tolkien is just randomly putting accent marks on words he made up, for no reason. We may never know! For now, let’s investigate the fall of Nūmenor.

We open with a discussion of how some men turned evil because they were scared of Morgoth, and SOME men stayed good and pure and went into the west to be closer to the ~light that Morgoth cannot extinguish~. I was going to comment on how interesting it is that east generally = evil (or at least unfamiliar and therefore untrustworthy) in Tolkien’s works; usually east is associated with sunrise, new beginnings, light, all kinds of nice things. And then I remembered that he fought in the war and probably this is literally just because he was trying to murder people who came from slightly east of him. so.

The narrative waffles a LOT in this first couple paragraphs (pages?) but we get this adorable image: after Morgoth is imprisoned “the seeds that he had planted still grew and sprouted, bearing evil fruit, if any would tend them.” They are delicate plants. Evil is like a grass lawn. It needs a lot of maintenance, and makes a good status symbol. The gist, I think, is that the eldar are invited to come live on Tol Erreséa and the Valar realize they have nowhere to put their favorite edain so they whip up another quick island, which is not as good. Unexpectedly, that island is called Andor (”thanks!”). Oh no wait it’s also called Elenna (”we navigate by magic stars”), Anadünę (”westish; dūnedain = west edain”!), and Nűmenŏrē (”west, but Quenya”).

Racial characteristics of the důnedain include living a really long time, being very tall, low fertility rate, and having glowing eyes, which is sick as hell. Elros has been appointed by the Valar to be their first king, which seems like a really shitty way to choose a ruler. What do the Valar know about government? There’s only 14 of them and they live in a hippie commune, irresponsibly ignoring their nieces and nephews until it’s time to murder a huge number of people. ANYWAY Elros has an absolutely biblical lifespan and rules Nūmenor for 410 years.

The dünedain become sooo learned because the eldar come and visit a lot. It says they learn several eldarin languages, preserve lots of histories and songs (the way to MY heart) and also they all have a name in their own language as well as an elvish name, because Tolkien can’t fucking resist giving characters a ton of extra unnecessary names. I also finally get an answer to my tree question, which is that the tree Nimloth is NOT Elwing’s mom somehow magically transformed into a tree, it’s just a tree that happens to be called Nimloth. This is a gift from the eldar, and it’s like the grandkid or grandtree of Telperion.

Since they are Forbidden from sailing west (they might find out about immortality!! awkward!!) the dŭnedain sail east and bring Civilization to the poor fearful and confused humans still living on Middle Earth. How charitable! What a sickening metaphor!

The Ban on West doesn’t really work, and humans start agitating to get to go to Aman. There’s this continual bizarre thing where nobody who lives in Valinor can ever leave, and nobody who doesn’t already live there can get in. I wasn’t really expecting the Akallabëth to be the most uncomfortably colonialist part of the Silmarillion, but here we are?? So there’s a lil bit of boring dynastic politics, everyone now has Tar- in front of their name, and the dųnedain are a people divided! Should they listen to people who are clearly better and wiser than them, or should they foolishly seek to be more like those better people??

Jokes aside, this passage is awesome:

But the fear of death grew ever darker upon them, and they delayed it by all means that they could; and they began to build great houses for their dead, while their wise men laboured unceasingly to discover if they might the secret of recalling life, or at the least of the prolonging of Men's days. Yet they achieved only the art of preserving incorrupt the dead flesh of Men, and they filled all the land with silent tombs in which the thought of death was enshrined in the darkness.

I, too, cultivate the hobby of enshrining the thought of death in the darkness. Fuck yeah.

The Unfaithful among the dűnedain end up with political power, probably because the Faithful (to Valar commandments) are naturally the nonconfrontational sort. The 22nd king, Ar-Gimilzòr, actually bans all elvish languages and also actual elves from Eressēa. He starts ghettoes for the Faithful. He encourages them to go to middle earth to hang out with the eldar there, and never come back, thank you. There’s more... stuff, probably best summarized by

There was a lady Inzilbêth, renowned for her beauty, and her mother was Lindórië, sister of Eärendur, the Lord of Andúnië in the days of Ar-Sakalthôr father of Ar-Gimilzôr.

...lots of accent marks. For a brief time the king of Nųmenor is an actual seer, which is awesome, but his brother overthrows him because he’s too Faithful. Said brother’s son is the INFAMOUS Ar-Pharazŏn who I have heard so much about; he marries Tar-Mȋriel, his cousin, and changes her name, probably without asking because that’s the kind of guy he is. Very into conquest and jewels and such. This guy, this guy, hears about Sauron and is like “I will make him my vassal.” Sauron, naturally, bewitches him to get him to take Sauron “captive” so he can go to Nǘmenor. He becomes Pharazȫn’s adviser and gets him to enact all manner of troubling new legislation, and starts convincing him to cut down Nimloth. Elendil (just some descendant of Elros) hears about this, and his brave little son Isildur goes to steal a fruit from the tree so they can plant it, leading to that one awesome picture where he inexplicably has blue hair and is really beautiful. He is badly wounded, but when the sprout from the planted fruit grows leaves, he recovers fully. He’s The True Heir You Guys.

Sauron erects a temple to Melkor and starts having human sacrifices, because why the fuck not?? The jerkest of the dǚnedain start going to Middle Earth to murder, conquer, et c. There’s also this strange (presumably a typo) where Sauron calls Ar-Pharazòn the “King of Bangs.” I SUPPOSE he must have had an incredibly stylish fringe of hair! Will only draw him with incredible bangs from now on.

Amandil, Elendil’s dad, sets sail in desperation to plead with the Valar, hoping that even though it’s Forbidden they’ll take pity on him. He says goodbye to his family “as one that is about to die,” leaves port, and... they never hear from him again. Elendil and his family wait in great tension for the time to leave, as Numenor is assailed with eagles, lightning storms, tsunamis, smoke, and probably other sorts of familiar plagues. They don’t leave until Ar-Pharazøn leads his people to WAR AGAINST AMAN. This was a great time to leave, because shortly after that the sea splits, tons of people are killed, and PERHAPS the world becomes a globe.

Sauron, who was hoping they’d all get themselves killed, has a good laugh until the entire island sinks and is crushed; it turns out that when one of Sauron’s bodies is killed he can no longer ever assume that form again! That’s some cool-ass shapeshifter worldbuilding. He’s tired of being a prettyboy anyway; when he returns to Barad-dǖr he instead adopts the shape of an ENORMOUS FLAMING EYEBALL. Maybe. The narration MIGHT just be saying that people don’t like when he looks at them. It’s unclear.

Also, we finally find out what Akallabęth means: the down-fallen. Just to drive the point home, Tolkien mentions that in Quenya it’s “Atalantê.”

#please appreciate how much trouble I went to to never get any of the accent marks right #silm #also because I skipped ahead I guess I am now Done Reading The Silmarillion #eyes 'Laws and Customs of the Eldar' with weary resignation

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doctorwer · 7 years

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Quick and Dirty History of Middle-Earth Part 26 Part C

Part 26 Or So Let’s Play “What Were They Up To Before They Were Famous, Part C”

Names

Aragorn II (Revered King)

Thorongil (Eagle of the Star)

Elessar (Elfstone, given to him in reference to Arwen giving him her Elfstone)

Edhelharn (Sindarin equivalent of Elessar)

Estel (Hope)

Strider (Name used in Bree)

The Dúnadan (Name used by Bilbo)

Longshanks (Another Bree name. Reference to the fact that Bree humans had shorter legs than Aragorn with his Dúnadan heritage).

Arakorno (Quenya form of Aragorn)

Born: Third Age 2931

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 88

He has too many names. Also, his birthday is March 1st! Anyway, his father was the Chief of the Dúnadan, the Rangers. As was traditional, Aragorn, the future Chef, grew up as a foster child of Elrond. But when he was only 2, his dad, Arathorn, was shot through the eye by an orc. Yikes. Elrond didn’t want it to get out that Aragorn was heir to Gondor and Arnor, so he changed his name to Estel and didn’t tell Aragorn who he really was. Growing up, he would go ranging with Elrohir and Elladan, so he had a good relationship with his future brother-in-laws! That’s good! When Aragorn turned 21, Elrond told him all about Gondor and the throne and his legacy. Normally, books like this would have us see the part where the freak out because they found out they’re royal, but we are able to skip that and pick up at the point where he was cool with it.

Leaving his mom in Rivendell (Oh, yeah. His mom’s still around), Aragorn started going all over the place. Rohan and Gondor and just everywhere. When he was 49, he met Arwen for the 2nd time in Lothlórien on the hill Cerin Amroth and they got engaged. So he’s been engaged since he was 49... and he’s 88 now... So 20 years later, Aragorn helps Gandalf track Gollum down. He does take a brief stop by Rivendell to visit his mother on her death bed. He was 70 at the time she died. After that, he caught Gollum, took him to Mirkwood, and caught up with Frodo!

Names

Théoden (King)

Horsemaster

Ednew

Born: Third Age 2948

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 70

Théoden was the oldest son of King Thengel of Rohan. He had four sisters. Three have no names, but we learn the name of his favorite, Théodwyn. We only know her because she was also the mother of Éomer and Éowyn. Théoden didn’t speak any Rohirric, since he had been born in Gondor and spent his childhood there. Théoden spoke Common and elvish. Tsk. The elite coming in to rule; he doesn’t even know the language his people speak. After Théodwyn and his brother-in-law died, he adopted Éomer and Éowyn.

Théoden married Elfhild, who got pregnant and had a son, Théodred (they love to name the sons a name that sounds close to the dads. It’s all over the place). Elfhild died giving birth to Théodred. Théoden ruled Rohan for 40 years before Gríma really started to mess Théoden up. Little dick.

Before Gandalf joined the Fellowship, he went to Edoras to warn Théoden about Saruman and to ask for a horse so that he could catch up with the Fellowship. Of course, Théoden was still under Saruman’s control. Théoden told Gandalf to take any horse and GTFO. Gandalf picked Shadowfax, the bestest best horse in all of Rohan. Shadowfax was descended from legendary horses who could run really fast and really far without stopping. Of course, since Théoden told Gandalf he could take any horse, he couldn’t really say anything.

Names

Gríma (Mask, Visor, Helmet)

Wormtongue

Born: Whoooooo knoooowwwsssss

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: Probably old. He sounds old.

Gríma is a bit if a mystery. He was the son of Gálmód and a native of Rohan. Pretty simple after that. He became a spy for Saruman because he was promised he could “marry” Éowyn. He used his lies and literal poison and shit to keep Théoden under Saruman’s spell. Gollum had tricked the Ringwraiths into going to the wrong place to find the Shire, but they passed by Wormtounge. The Witch-king questioned Gríma, who was all scared and told the Nazgûl where they could find The Shire and that Gandalf had been through Rohan recently. With Saruman, Gríma’s fate is changed the most from book to film. But we’ll get to that later.

Names

Frodo Baggins (Wise by Experience)

Frodo of the Nine Fingers

Nine-fingered Frodo (What is with named people based on horrible maimings they suffered?)

Frodo Elf-friend

Ring-bearer

Born: Third Age 2968

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 51 in the book/33-ish in the movie

OK, his age is one of the few things the movies changed that don’t fit well with the rest of cannon. In the books, Gandalf was gone for several years after the party, but Frodo stayed young because of the ring. Not so in the movies, where it looks like Gandalf has been gone a few months. Anyway, Frodo was the only child of Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. When Frodo was 12, his parents died. They went out boating and some say Drogo’s massive weight sunk the boat, and for some reason they couldn’t swim. Like, why go boating, then? SO, they both drowned. For a long time, Frodo lived with his uncle, Rorimac Brandybuck, Master of Buckland (Remember, that’s one of the three leaders of The Shire). Frodo was a trouble maker. Aw. Adorable. Bilbo adopted Frodo when he was 21. Frodo was 21. Bilbo was 99.

All the hobbits inter-marry to no end, so it’s hard to pin down the exact relationship between Bilbo and Frodo, but it was closer to cousin than uncle. But since Bilbo made Frodo his heir, it probably just seemed proper to call him Uncle Bilbo. Bilbo taught Frodo elvish and a lot of the history of Middle-Earth. The two even had the same birthday. Hobbits came of age at 33. I don’t know why, since they have the same average life spans as humans, 90-100. It seems like they don’t have very long time in the ‘adult’ age bracket. But since their entire lives just seem devoted to eating, drinking, and smoking, I guess they don’t need to be an adult for all that much. It’s not like they can’t drive a car until they come of age or they go away to college when they come of age or something. Anyway, when Frodo turned 33, Bilbo turned 111. Which is the birthday we see in the movie.

Name

Boromir (Steadfast Jewel)

Born: Third Age 2978

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 41

The oldest son of Denethor II and Finduilas. When Boromir was 10, his mother died. After that, his father was a lot more unpleasant. Even though their father clearly liked Boromir better, Boromir and his brother, Faramir, were very close. Boromir looked after his little brother. So cute. He spent most of his time keeping Team Evil from crossing over into Gondor through Osgiliath. Boromir never cared to marry (make of that what you will). He preferred to fight in battles and shit. And he didn’t care about history, expect the tales of the great battles of old. He was a jock. Faramir and Boromir started having freaking dreams, so Denethor ordered Boromir to go to Rivendell for advice. Faramir really wanted to go. Sad thing is, since Faramir passes on the Ring in the book, if Faramir was the one who went, both brothers might have lived. Boromir lost his horse along the way and had to go the rest of the way on foot, which took 110 days. Ouch.

Name

Théodred

Born: Third Age 2978

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 41

The only son of Théoden. His mom, Elfhild, died giving birth to him. Théodred was an officer type deal. Second Marshal of the Riddermark. Gríma tried to get Théoden and Éomer in trouble with the king, but they were just too loyal. They always followed Théoden, even if his orders were total crazy balls. Just before we first meet Éomer, Saruman assassinates Théodred. He had his orcs attack with clear orders to definitely kill the prince. There was a huge battle around the river and Saruman’s army that would latter attack Helm’s Deep were trying to get over the river. All this complicated military stuff happened and the strongest orcs charged Théodred at once, which is yesh. He died pretty soon after, but Team Good pushed the orcs back. If you watched the extended movie, you saw Éomer finding his cousin by a river. The regular movie just had Éomer riding up with some guy and then Théodred lying in bed, dying from poison, with Éowyn taking care of him. And then he’s dead. It’s very confusing without that river scene! Like, wait, he’s poisoned??? Why???? Who is he?????

Name

Samwise Gamgee (Simple Minded)

Born: Third Age 2980

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 39

Ah, Sam. We all know and love Sam. Fun Fact: Tolkien has said that Sam was always intended to be the hero of this piece. Yeah, Frodo carried the Ring. But Sam was the one who saved us all. Mentioned because my sister was all “Blah, Frodo was a horrible hero” and I was all “…No, duh…Kinda the point…” In a letter, Tolkien wrote that Sam was the “chief hero” and he’s the only Ring-bearer to give it up with his own free will, and he ends up saving Frodo over and over again. I almost wonder if it was commentary on typical English ideas at the time? Like, I don’t know what they thought back then in England, but it almost seems like the English expected their heroes to be rich and smart? Like, look at C.S. Lewis’ work? But Sam is even called simple minded, and every character overlooks him and acts like he is less than them. Not in a mean way, but a “I’m from a well-to-do family and you’re a blue collar worker” way. Literally everyone in the Fellowship are nobles in some way except Sam. But, throughout the book, he:

was all sly and did recon re:Frodo to report to Merry

pretended to be asleep so he could listen in on Frodo when he was talking with an elf

was the only one not tricked by Old Man Willow.

he surprises everyone by reciting a poem about Gil-galad from memory

he invents his own song, on the spot

he’s arguably the most level-headed of the hobbits. Nothing much spooks him.

It’s a constant theme that people misjudge him only to be shown up later.

Anyway, Sam is the son of Hamfast “The Gaffer” Gamgee and Bell Goodchild. Sam is the only one of the four hobbits in the Fellowship not even remotely related to them. The rest are all cousins several times over and shit. Like I said. They inter-married out the wazoo. They were all upper class and Sam was lower class. Sam had five brothers and sisters and he lived on Bagshot Row, which was very close to Bag End. Bilbo taught Sam about elves and about the world out there and encouraged Sam’s love of poetry. He also taught Sam to read, which is treated like a big deal, so most of his family probably couldn't. Sam was a gardener, like his father. His father had been the gardener at Bag End, but was retiring and Sam was training to take his place around the time the movie started.

Name

Fredegar “Fatty” Bolger

Born: Third Age 2980

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 39

Cut from the movie completely. He has a younger sister named Estella who one day marries Merry. He was in on the mission Frodo was on. He helped Marry, Sam, and Pippen secret Frodo out of the Shire. He didn’t want to leave the Shire, which is why he didn’t join them. His job was to stay at Frodo’s new house as a decoy for the Ringwraiths. Eventually, the Ringwraiths showed up, Fatty ran for help, and all of Buckland was woken by the Horn-call of Buckland, which chased the Ringwraiths out.

Names

Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck (Great Lord)

Merry the Magnificent

Born: Third Age 2982

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 37

Merry was the only child of Saradoc Brandybuck and Esmeralda Took. He and Pippin were first cousins. Merry knew something was weird about Bilbo since he was 18, a tween (tween = hobbit culture teenagers. They stay tweens from teen years until they come of age at 33). He saw Bilbo going down the road, when the Sackville-Bagginses came up it. The wife of in this couple would be the hobbit lady that Bilbo mentions in the beginning of The Hobbit and is all “Damn bitch stole all my spoons”. Anyway, Merry saw Bilbo disappear, then reappear on the other side of a hedge. He also saw a glint of gold as Bilbo put something in his pocket. So Merry was pretty suspicious. Little snoop also stole a look in Bilbo’s private journal. Merry didn’t tell anyone what he had seen or learned, though.

He had an important role at the beginning of the book, but that’s cut from the movie. It doesn’t make a huge difference, just made Merry clearly the brightest in the bunch. In the book, Sam, Merry, and Pippin knew that something was wrong with Frodo. Sam was indeed eavesdropping under Frodo’s window that night. It was they were worried about him and Merry came up with a plan to have the three of them go with Frodo. Frodo was planning to move from Bag End to Crickhollow, a house much closer to the edge of The Shire. Frodo, Sam, and Pippen went to Crickhollow where Merry met them. Frodo was all “Dear friends, I cannot stay” and the other hobbits were all “Surprise, Motherfucker! We’re going with you!” Merry was the one who got all their necessary gear and bought their ponies. Then the story continued like normal. We can pretend that Merry did have that plan, but Sam getting caught threw everything off and they had to start before they planned to. Which is why Merry and Pippin were stealing from the field instead of waiting…Just go with it…

Name

Faramir

Born: Third Age 2983

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 36

My poor baby Faramir. He was the second son of Denethor II and Finduilas. Faramir’s mother died when he was 5. Part of the issue was because she got weak after giving birth to Faramir and never really recovered. That and the fact that Faramir was pretty much a carbon copy of his mom, personality wise, led to Denethor disliking Faramir. Boromir was like their dad, proud and liked to fight. Faramir was more gentle and loved history and music, like their mother. Faramir also became friends with Gandalf, who Denethor hated and was sure was trying to take away his rule of Gondor. Which led to Denethor disliking Faramir even more. He became the Captain of the Rangers of Ithilien, who capture Frodo and Sam. His weird dream is what leads to Boromir going to Rivendell.

Name

Peregrin “Pippin” Took (People who Wandered)

Born: Third Age 2990

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 29 (omg he’s older than Éomer and Éowyn)

Pippin was the youngest child and only son of Paladin Took II, Thain of the Shire, and Eglantine Banks. Remember that the Thain is the second of three main leaders in The Shire. Pippin and Merry were first cousins. He was also Frodo’s second-cousin, once removed and Bilbo’s first-cousin, twice-removed. Hobbits loved family trees, which is how they can say such detailed relations like this. His older sisters were named Pearl, Pimpernel, and Pervinca. I sense a theme, here. Keep in mind, a hobbit doesn’t come of age until 33, so Pippin was the only minor in the group. That justifies some of his more stupid actions, I guess.

Name

Éomer (Grand War-horse)

Born: Third Age 2991

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 28

Another one of my babies. Éomer was the son of Éomund and Théodwyn, Théoden’s sister. When Éomer was 11, Éomund was killed chasing a bunch of orcs. After that, Théodwyn became sick and died. Théoden adopted Éomer and his sister and they went to live with their uncle at Meduseld, the Golden Hall. Éomer became good friend with his cousin, Théodred, and the two loved each other like brothers. After that, Éomer became the Third Marshal of Rohan. This means he led the group of defenders of east Rohan. So Éomer lived in Aldburg, a town in east Rohan. He was meeting with his uncle in Edoras when Gríma banished him.

Name

Éowyn (Horse-joy)

Born: Third Age 2995

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 24

This is my girl, Éowyn. Éowyn’s a BAMF. How many of you can say you’ve killed an unspeakable evil at the tender age of 24. Hell, I’m 22 and the most I’ve done is graduate college. Gotta get my shit together in the next two years. Anyway, this would be the daughter of Éomund and Théodwyn, Théoden’s sister. She was only 7 when her parents died. When Théoden started to fall under Saruman’s spell, Éowyn had to take care of him. What she really wanted to do, of course, was prove herself on the field of battle.

Part 27 Or So Now Let’s Play ‘Where Are They Now!?’ (FINAL)

Quick and Dirty History of Middle-Earth Pt. 1

Note: Sources for all artwork can be found on the linked pages.

#lord of the rings #J.R.R. Tolkien #tolkien #eowyn #eomer #Frodo #Pippin #aragorn #merry #sam gamgee #faramir #boromir

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