Merry Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck | |
---|---|
In-universe information | |
Aliases | Merry, Master of Fellowship of the Ring |
Spouse | Estella Bolger |
Book(s) | The Lord of the Rings |
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually called Merry, is a
Commentators have noted that his and Pippin's actions serve to throw light on the characters of the good and bad lords
Merry appeared in the animated film of
Fictional history
Meriadoc, a
Merry learned of the
Halted at the entrance to
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
Development
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
Reception
Foils for high romance
The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance discusses the role of Merry and his friend Pippin in illuminating the contrast between the "good and bad Germanic lords Théoden and Denethor". She writes that both leaders receive the allegiance of a hobbit, but very differently: Théoden, King of Rohan, treats Merry with love, which is reciprocated, whereas Denethor, Steward of Gondor, undervalues Pippin because he is small, and binds him with a harsh formal oath.[5]
The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien uses the two hobbits and their low simple humour as foils for the much higher romance to which he was aspiring with the more heroic and kingly figures of Théoden, Denethor, and Aragorn: an unfamiliar and old-fashioned writing style that might otherwise, Shippey writes, have lost his readers entirely.[6] He notes that Merry and Pippin serve, too, as guides to introduce the reader to seeing the various non-human characters, letting the reader know that an ent looks like an old tree stump or "almost like the figure of some gnarled old man".[7] The two apparently minor hobbits have another role, Shippey writes: it is to remain of good courage when strong men start to doubt whether victory is possible, as when Merry encourages Théoden when even he seems to be succumbing to "horror and doubt".[8]
Agent of providence
Another purpose, writes the Tolkien critic Paul Kocher, is given by Tolkien himself, in the words of the wizard Gandalf: "the young hobbits ... were brought to Fangorn, and their coming was like the falling of small stones that starts an avalanche in the mountains."[9] Kocher observes that Tolkien is describing Merry and Pippin's role in the same terms as he spells out Gollum's purpose and Gandalf's "reincarnation"; in Kocher's words, the "finger of Providence"[9] can be glimpsed: "All are filling roles written for them by the same great playwright."[9]
Shakespearean prophecy
Julaire Andelin, in the
Adaptations
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, Merry was voiced by Simon Chandler.[12] In the 1980
References
Primary
- ^ a b Tolkien 1955, Appendix C, "Family Trees"
- ^ a b Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 5 "A Conspiracy Unmasked"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 1 "A Long-expected Party"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 4 "A Short Cut to Mushrooms"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 6 "The Old Forest"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 8 "Fog on the Barrow-downs"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 10 "Strider"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring goes South"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 4 "A Journey in the Dark"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 3 "The Uruk-hai"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 4 "Treebeard"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 8 "The Road to Isengard"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 5, ch. 2 "The Passing of the Grey Company"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 5, ch. 3 "The Muster of Rohan"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 5, ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 6, ch. 6 "Many Partings"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 6 ch. 8 "The Scouring of the Shire"
- ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix C, "Bolger of Budgeford"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, Prologue, "Note on the Shire Records"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 9 "Flotsam and Jetsam"
- ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix B, "Later Events Concerning the Members of the Fellowship of the Ring", entry for 1484
- ^ Tolkien 1988, "The First Phase", I. "A Long-expected Party", (iii) "The Third Version"
- ^ Carpenter 2023, #297 to Mr. Rang, draft, August 1967
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"
- ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix F, "On Translation"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, Appendix A, I, iv "Gondor and the heirs of Anarion"
Secondary
- ^ a b c Croft 2006, pp. 419–420.
- ^ Croft 2006, pp. 511–512.
- ISBN 1-85109-440-7.
- ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, p. 644.
- ^ Nitzsche 1980, pp. 119–122.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 238–240.
- ^ Shippey 2005, p. 151.
- ^ Shippey 2005, p. 180.
- ^ a b c Kocher 1974, pp. 44–45.
- ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 205–206
- ^ Canby, Vincent (1978). "The Lord of the Rings". The New York Times.
- ^ Day, Patrick Kevin (16 June 2014). "Shaggy, Merry and more: Casey Kasem's greatest cartoon voices". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ^ "Riel Radio Theatre — The Lord of the Rings, Episode 2". Radioriel. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ^ Vasilieva, Anna (31 March 2021). ""Хранители" и "Властелин Колец": кто исполнил роли в культовых экранизациях РФ и США" ["Keepers" and "The Lord of the Rings": who played the roles in the cult film adaptations of the Russian Federation and the USA] (in Russian). 5TV. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-937994-27-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7407-4742-7.
Sources
- ISBN 1-135-88034-4.
- ISBN 0-00-720907-X.
- ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
- ISBN 0140038779.
- ISBN 0-333-29034-8.
- ISBN 978-0261102750.
- OCLC 9552942.
- OCLC 1042159111.
- OCLC 519647821.
- ISBN 978-0-395-49863-7.