Merry Brandybuck

Sketch map of the Shire. Merry came from Buckland, on the right of the map near the Old Forest.

Meriadoc, a hobbit, known as Merry, was the only child of Saradoc Brandybuck, a Master of Buckland, and Esmeralda (née Took), the younger sister of Paladin Took II, making him a cousin to Paladin's son, his friend Pippin.[T 1] His grandfather Rorimac Brandybuck's sister Primula was the mother of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist of the book. Merry and Frodo were thus first cousins once removed.[T 2] Hobbits of the Shire saw Bucklanders as "peculiar, half foreigners as it were"; the Bucklanders were the only hobbits comfortable with boats; and living next to the Old Forest, protected from it only by a high hedge, they locked their doors after dark, unlike hobbits in the Shire.[T 3]

Merry learned of the One Ring and its power of invisibility before Bilbo Baggins left the Shire. He guarded Bag End after Bilbo's party, protecting Frodo from unwanted guests.[T 4] Merry was a force behind "the Conspiracy" of Sam, Pippin, Fredegar Bolger and himself to help Frodo.[T 3] He assembled the company's packs and brought ponies.[T 5] His shortcut through the Old Forest distanced them from the Black Riders, the Nazgûl, for a time.[T 6] In the Barrow-downs, he is given his sword, a dagger forged in the kingdom of Arthedain.[T 7] Arriving at Bree, Merry was not celebrating in the Prancing Pony when Frodo put on the Ring; he was outside taking a solitary walk, and was nearly overcome by a Nazgûl.[1][T 8] At Rivendell, he was seen studying maps and plotting their path. Elrond reluctantly admitted him and Pippin to the Company of the Ring.[T 9]

Halted at the entrance to Moria, Merry asked Gandalf the meaning of the door inscription "Speak, friend, and enter". When Gandalf, having unsuccessfully tried many door-opening spells, discovered the true interpretation, he said "Merry, of all people, was on the right track".[T 10] At Amon Hen, the Hill of Seeing, the Company hesitated in confusion, and scattered. Merry and Pippin were captured by a band of Saruman's Uruk-hai, despite Boromir's defence.[T 11] Escaping with Pippin into Fangorn forest, they were rescued by the leader of the Ents, Treebeard, and given an Ent-draught to drink: it made them both grow unnaturally tall for hobbits.[T 12] Accompanying Treebeard to the Entmoot and later to the wizard Saruman's fortress of Isengard, which the Ents destroyed, they took up residence in a gate-house, meeting King Théoden of Rohan, and were reunited with the Fellowship.[T 13][2] Merry swore allegiance to Théoden and became his esquire.[T 14] Against Théoden's orders, he rode to Gondor with the King's niece Éowyn, who disguised herself as a common soldier.[T 15] In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, while the leader of the Nazgûl was preoccupied with Éowyn, Merry stabbed him behind his knee. The Black Captain stumbled, enabling Éowyn to kill him. This fulfilled the prophecy that he would not be killed "by the hand of man", as it was a hobbit and a woman that ended his life.[T 16] Éomer made Meriadoc a Knight of the Mark for his bravery.[1]

After the War of the Ring, Merry and Pippin returned home as the tallest of hobbits, only to find that Saruman had taken over the Shire. Merry and Pippin roused the hobbits to revolt. During the resulting Scouring of the Shire, Merry commanded the hobbit forces, and killed the leader of Saruman's "ruffians" at the Battle of Bywater.[1][T 17] Sometime afterwards, Merry married Estella Bolger.[T 18] Merry inherited the title Master of Buckland at the start of the Fourth Age. He became a historian of the Shire.[T 19][T 20] At the age of 102, Merry returned to Rohan and Gondor with Pippin; they died in Gondor, and were laid to rest among the Kings of Gondor in Rath Dínen, the street of tombs, then moved to lie next to Aragorn. His son succeeded him as Master of Buckland.[T 21]

When Merry first appeared in Tolkien's early drafts, his name was Drogo Took. He was later renamed Vigo, and the name Drogo reassigned to Frodo's father. After that, he was renamed Marmaduke, and finally Meriadoc Brandybuck.[T 22]

The name Meriadoc has sometimes been seen as an allusion to the nobleman Conan Meriadoc, legendary founder of the medieval House of Rohan in Brittany,[3] since Tolkien's Meriadoc is closely associated with his fictional kingdom of Rohan. Tolkien however denied that the Breton name had any connection with his fictional kingdom.[T 23]

In the prefaces and appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien employed the conceit that he was the modern translator of a unique manuscript, the Red Book of Westmarch, and that his stories of Middle-earth derived from that.[T 24] In this guise of translator, he maintained that the character's real name was not Meriadoc Brandybuck, but rather Kalimac Brandagamba. This was said to be an actual phonetic transcription of the name in Tolkien's invented language of Westron, which Tolkien pretended that he was transliterating to English. The nickname "Merry" then represented his actual nickname Kali, meaning "handsome, happy", and "Meriadoc" served as a plausible name from which a nickname meaning "happy" could be derived.[T 25]

In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, Merry was voiced by Simon Chandler.[11] In the 1980 Rankin/Bass animated version of The Return of the King, made for television, the character was voiced by the radio personality Casey Kasem.[12] In the 1981 BBC radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, Merry was played by Richard O'Callaghan.[13] He was portrayed by Sergey Shelgunov in the 1991 Russian television play Khraniteli,[14] and by Jarmo Hyttinen in the 1993 Finnish miniseries Hobitit.[15] In Peter Jackson's 2001–2003 film trilogy adaptation of the books, Merry was portrayed by Dominic Monaghan as a cheerful prankster full of fun and practical jokes.[16]