Meriadoc Brandybuck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium | |
| Name | Meriadoc Brandybuck |
|---|---|
| Other names | Merry, Holdwine, Kalimac Brandagamba |
| Titles | Master of Buckland Master Holdwine of Rohan |
| Race | Hobbit |
| Culture | Hobbit, Shire-hobbit, Bucklanders |
| Realm | Eriador |
| Book(s) | The Lord of the Rings |
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings.
Merry, a Hobbit, was born in 2982 of the Third Age, and was the only child (and therefore the heir-apparent) of Saradoc Brandybuck (2940–F.A. 11), Master of Buckland, and Esmeralda Took (2936–?), the younger sister of Paladin Took, making him first cousins to Paladin's son Pippin, who was clearly his closest friend.
A lover of boats and maps of Middle-earth, Merry was described as one of Frodo's closest friends and also related to him several times over.
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Literature
In The Lord of the Rings, Merry was often considered, and was described by Tolkien as, the most perceptive and intelligent of the hobbits: for example, even before Bilbo Baggins left The Shire, he knew of the One Ring and its power of invisibility. He guarded Bag End after Bilbo's party, protecting Frodo from the various and often unwanted guests. He has a knowing manner and a teasing sense of humour so obviously innocent and well-meaning that they are impossible to resent. (In one incident, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins accuses Frodo of being a Brandybuck and no true Baggins; Merry assures Frodo "It was a compliment; and so, of course, not true".)
Merry also was a force behind "the Conspiracy" of Sam, Pippin, Fredegar Bolger (more commonly known as "Fatty") and himself to help Frodo. Thus, at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Merry was well prepared and organized — he assembled their packs and brought ponies. His shortcut through the Old Forest distanced them from the Black Riders for a time, though they had to be rescued from Old Man Willow by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil. At the Barrow-downs, he acquired his sword, actually a long dagger forged in the kingdom of Arnor.
At Bree, Merry was actually not present in the Prancing Pony when Frodo foolishly put on the Ring; instead, he was outside taking a walk, and was nearly overcome by a Nazgûl who arrived. At Rivendell, he was seen studying maps and plotting their path. His admission to the Fellowship came with only a little less reluctance than Pippin's; they were the two youngest members, and Elrond had planned on sending them back to the Shire.
At the entrance to Moria he asks Gandalf the meaning of the door inscription "Speak, friend, and enter". When Gandalf discovers the true interpretation he says "Merry, of all people, was on the right track".
At Amon Hen, he was captured, along with Pippin, by a band of Saruman's Uruk-hai, although he gave a good account of himself, and was valiantly defended by Boromir. Escaping with Pippin into Fangorn forest, Merry was found by Treebeard. Along with Pippin, he drank significant amounts of Ent-draught and gained height, despite being a fully-grown adult Hobbit. Accompanying Treebeard to the Entmoot and later to Isengard, he and Pippin took up residence in an Isengard gate-house. It was here that he first encountered King Théoden of Rohan, and was reunited with four of the remaining members of the Fellowship.
Separated from Pippin after his friend looked into the palantír and was whisked off to Gondor by Gandalf, Merry swore fealty to Théoden and became his esquire. Without permission from his liege, he rode to Gondor with a disguised Éowyn. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, while the Witch-king was preoccupied with Éowyn, Merry stabbed the Nazgûl in the sinew behind his knee. His sword was made by the Dunedain of Arnor, and was made for combat against the nazgul. It left the Witch-King vurnerable to ordinary weapons, allowed Eowyn to finish him. This fulfilled an old prophecy that the Witch-king would not be slain by Man (a Woman and Hobbit destroyed him). Merry heard Théoden's last words, but was, as was seemingly common luck with hobbits, unnoticed by the honour escort of Riders and was found wandering in the city by Pippin. He was saved by the healing of Aragorn and recovered fully; more quickly than Éowyn.
For his bravery in battle, Merry was knighted by King Éomer as a Knight of the Mark. During the scouring of the Shire, he effectively led the hobbits in the Battle of Bywater, and personally slew the leader of the opposing forces.
Upon his return, he and Pippin were clearly seen to be the tallest of hobbits, taller even than the legendary Bullroarer Took (as Sam said at the Field of Cormallen, Merry was three inches taller than he ought to have been). Merry went on to marry Estella Bolger sometime after the end of the Third Age. He inherited the title Master of Buckland in year 11 of the Fourth Age. He retained his links with Rohan and became expert in Rohan's language and traditions, which he discovered to his surprise to have close affinity to the early history of the hobbits. Although he was not recorded as having any children within the family trees, he is noted as having at least one son. At the age of 102, he returned to Rohan and Gondor with Pippin, dying there around the year F.A. 64. After his death he and Pippin were laid with the Kings of Gondor in Rath Dínen.
[edit] Adaptations
 Merry (right) and Pippin in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings. |
 Dominic Monaghan as Merry in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. |
 Merry (David Hyden) in the 2003 Cincinnati production of The Return of the King. |
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, Merry was voiced by Simon Chandler. In the live-action recordings Bakshi used for rotoscoping, Billy Barty was the model for several of the hobbits, but it is not clear whether Barty modelled for Merry.
In the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King, made for television, the character was voiced by radio personality Casey Kasem, also known for voicing the character of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo.
In the 1981 BBC radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, Merry was played by Richard O'Callaghan.
In Peter Jackson's 2001-2003 film trilogy adaptation of the books, Merry was portrayed by Dominic Monaghan.
Merry was portrayed by Dylan Roberts in the 3-hour Toronto stage production of The Lord of the Rings, which opened in 2006.
David Hyden portrayed Merry in the Cincinnati production of The Return of the King (2003) for Clear Stage Cincinnati. At Chicago's Lifeline Theatre, Merry was played by Heath Corson in The Two Towers (1998).
[edit] Weapons and attire
Merry was unarmed (except for a small pocket-knife) until the encounter with the barrow-wights. The Hobbits found several long Dúnedain daggers in the wight's treasure. These served as short-swords for the Hobbits, and Merry used his to stab the Witch-king in the back of the knee at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Upon doing so, the dagger was destroyed, as all blades that touched the unseen flesh of the Witch-king suffered this fate. The blade had been enchanted in such a way as to be quite deadly to the Witch-king, specifically, by the unnamed weaponsmith of Arnor who forged it. This power was said to be what destroyed the head Nazgûl.
At the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Merry was dressed as a typical Hobbit: knee breeches, jacket, waistcoat, cloak. After being waylaid by the barrow-wights, he lost his lighter, summer-weight clothes and was left in a burial shrift. He was forced to wear heavier woollen clothing packed on his pony the rest of the way to Rivendell. Later, he was presented an Elven cloak in Lórien, which gave him an ability to blend into natural surroundings. Merry offered his services to the Théoden, King of Rohan, and was equipped with mail, a light leather helmet, and a small green shield with a white horse emblem.
Upon returning to the Shire, Merry was described as wearing chain-mail and presumably had a new sword of Gondor or Rohan-make. Later, he and his friend Pippin Took were known to ride about the Shire dressed in their Lórien cloaks with distinctive leaf-shaped clasps.
[edit] Names and titles
Tolkien maintained that Meriadoc Brandybuck was not the character's real name, but rather Kalimac Brandagamba. This name is from Westron, the Common Speech of western Middle-earth, which Tolkien represented through English. The nickname "Merry" represents his actual nickname Kali which meant "jolly, gay", and "Meriadoc" serves as a plausible name from which a nickname meaning "happy" could be derived.[1]
It has been asserted that the name Meriadoc could be in itself an allusion to the British nobleman Conan Meriadoc, legendary founder of the house of Rohan in Brittany, [2] since Meriadoc is closely associated with the kingdom of Rohan.
Merry is called Holdwine by Théoden and was thus known as such in the records of Rohan. It most probably derives from the Old English words hold and wine, respectively meaning "faithful" and "friend".[3] Tolkien used Old English to represent Rohirric so Holdwine, like Meriadoc Brandybuck, is not what the character was actually called. Tolkien does not give Merry's real Rohirric name.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ For the derivation of Brandybuck from "Brandagamba", see here.
- ^ http://www.friesian.com/flanders.htm
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Arda, "Holdwine"
[edit] External links
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