Someone: You can’t sum up the entirety of Peregrin Took with one sentence!
Me, an intellectual:

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@ernilipherrianath
Someone: You can’t sum up the entirety of Peregrin Took with one sentence!
Me, an intellectual:
Re-reading early FotR and it strikes me how even this early on Tolkien does such a great job of differentiating our four main hobbits.
In my head I think about it in terms of DnD stats. They all have high Dex by virtue of being hobbits, but they differ in their other highest stat.
Frodo likely has Wis as his other high stat. He is an Elf-friend, shares a close friendship with Gandalf, and tends to have a good vibe check on most people (Sméagol being his blind spot).
Sam has Con. Dude manages to continue on, carrying Frodo on his back despite how much he’s already been through. Stout hearted and brave!
Merry is obviously Int. Studying the maps in Rivendell, piecing together Frodo’s plan to leave the Shire. Writing his own books later on!
And Pippin is Cha. Singing all the time. Charming despite his foolishness. Makes friends easily. Shows up to Minas Tirith and immediately enters Denethor’s service and makes a bestie.
Back on my “Tolkien is insane when it comes to foreshadowing” shit.
He really kicks off Pippin and Aragorn’s dynamic FAST, as soon as Pippin meets “Strider” it’s like, Minas Tirith arc foreshadowing GO GO GO!
He is the only one who isn’t afraid of Strider when they meet him and even afterwards is like, talks to him like he’s just some guy even after knowing who tf he is.
Which is great and makes sense because Pippin is too young/inexperienced to really grasp Aragorn’s position and potential future but also he’s also of a similar (but not quite equal) status in the Shire as future Thain. Weirdly enough even if Aragorn doesn’t show it right away (especially not in the books) I think he kind of enjoys it??
BUT ALSO at the same time it takes about two convos with Aragorn for him to make it his mission to prove himself to Aragorn. Even BEFORE he knows he’s the future king of Gondor.
Ugh and how it ties in with Pippin’s complicated relationships with authority (Aragorn, Gandalf, Denethor) that is such a neat through line that gets set up so surprisingly early and subtly it’s so good. Him figuring out which mentors are good to listen to and what’s better off disregarded. Having to learn which is which in the most dangerous scenarios possible RIP.
He really is the walking talking manifestation of “thank goodness for children who don’t listen”. He’s just fascinating I love himmmmm.
some cuties for all of us
Knights of the Citadel and of the Mark! <3
Musing once again on Pippin and Faramir’s friendship. We see less of it in the books than we do of Merry and Eowyn’s. But there’s something in the RotK commentary tracks that made me prick up my ears.
In the Director’s commentary during the Pippin and Faramir scene, Peter mentions that Billy Boyd was thinking about how Pippin is the son of the Thain - and maybe is a bit of a disappointment to his own father. And seeing something familiar, though writ much larger, in Denethor and Faramir’s relationship.
And then don’t think about how Pippin goes from surviving Minas Tirith under siege to returning home to Tookland - which has closed its borders to the rest of the Shire and is effectively under siege by the ruffians.
I just want to see Merry and Pippin hanging out with their faves Eowyn and Faramir.
Merry is Eowyn's number one fan. Like he is so chivalry pilled about her. That is his Lady. She is badass and beautiful.
Meanwhile Pippin and Faramir are swapping Boromir stories while Pippin introduces Faramir to pipeweed.
Also never gonna be over Pippin literally naming his son after Faramir. Would love to see post-canon Faramir meeting his TINY namesake.
Just thinking about how pippin’s family thought their tweenager was going to hang out with Frodo for a little bit and then they all disappeared.
For over a year.
Meanwhile the ruffians are starting their take over with Lotho and the Shirriffs. And as Thain, Pippin’s dad shuts down the Tookland. And starts the shooting at the Ruffians!
And then Pippin comes back like five inches taller, dressed in armor, asking for an army of Tooks so they can help take back the Shire. Their irresponsible rapscallion of a tween. Not dead! But so much different then a year ago.
I just want to help my friends.
😭😭😭 I love him
I think part of why I think Pippin is such a compelling character is that LotR from his perspective is a coming of age story.
He starts the quest as an immature impulsive tween. He loves his cousins and wants to keep them safe but he is absolutely the (kind of spoiled) baby of his family.
His foolishness is rooted in his lack of impulse control. He’s curious! So much so that sometimes he just can’t help himself from touching things that he shouldn’t.
But that spontaneity also becomes a strength. Let’s contrast him with his closest friend, Merry. Book Merry is a PLANNER. He spent his time in Rivendell reading maps! He spearheaded the conspiracy!
Pippin, by comparison, flourishes when a snap decision needs to be made. His choices during their time with the Uruk Hai are a prime example of that. He’s quick thinking on his feet.
By the end of the quest, he’s in a place where he can temper his more foolish impulses and he’s become a hobbit his cousins and Sam can rely on. He goes from tween to adult.
I can only imagine how different he must have seemed to his parents and sisters when he came back to Tookland.
Rereading RotK and the first scene with Gandalf, Denethor, and Pippin is so good.
Gandalf and Denethor are having a silent old man battle while our POV character Pippin watches, semi-oblivious.
Meanwhile Denethor is super scornful of Pippin initially, spurring Pippin to offer his service - but hilariously, once Pippin feels scorned his speech register changes from his usual cheeky self to mirroring the high courtly speech of Gandalf and Denethor - and succeeding!
The fact that Pippin *can* do that is so funny, but even funnier is that literally nothing else in the books breaks him out of his normal pertinent cheeky hobbit speech. He spends two whole books talking to lords, ladies, wizards, etc the way he talks to his cousins, but he takes one look at Denethor and is like “oh hell no I gotta bring the A game”.
Folks tend to talk about how Pippin addresses Denethor like they’re both equally ignorant of the political realities of the situation, but, like, Denethor probably knows exactly what the Shire’s political situation is? He’s looking at Pippin and in his head he’s like “okay, this provincial pipsqueak is being presumptuous as hell addressing me as a peer, but technically he’s within his right, and I can respect a power move” – and while Denethor is pondering how many levels of political power chess Pippin is playing here, Pippin is just *elevator music*.
pippin can also rely on “what are you going to do? check?” do you even have a map with the shire on it? if you sent a courier to investigate would he be able to cross goblin infested mountains, not get eaten by trolls, avoid the undead riddled burial grounds, penetrate a second semi-sentient angry forest containing a singing anomaly that may or may not be a demigod, and then find a race of people whose primary reaction to outsiders is to blend into the bushes, make it back again, and then be able to give you an answer other then admitting he was probably in the wrong place there were a lot of bear-men and not a damned person can give dirrections. heck, if you say you are looking for hobbits someone who knows what one is might even punch you because theyre a friend of bilbo and suspect you are a debt collector
Given that this sort of thing is in fact the basis of a whole family of time-honoured scams where one purports to be a nobleman from somewhere that’s too distant and obscure to readily verify one’s claims, the idea that Pippin was unwittingly pulling one of the classic grifts is funny as hell.
What gets me about this is that we actually have No Idea how the Shire is run.
There’s a mayor. We don’t know what his jurisdiction is. Is he the mayor in Hobbiton? Buckland? Over-the-Water? The Tooks, Brandybucks, and Bagginses are stupidly rich and everyone kinda looks to them as community leaders, but they don’t actually make laws.
Over in Bree the response to there being a king in Gondor again (because that whole area is technically part of Gondor) is, “that’s neat. You reckon he’s gonna fix the roads? The potholes around here are awful, and the bandits are way out of hand.” But in the Shire no one could care less.
If you read British period drama though (Austen, Dickens, Eliot et al), this is very familiar. Mr. Darcy is bizarrely rich but has no title, and Pemberly is clearly a local powerhouse. The people in the nearby town all recognize this. But Darcy isn’t a magistrate or anything. He doesn’t even have a seat in the House of Lords, although his Aunt is a Lady, so his Uncle, Lord de Bourghe might have?
There’s a King whom everyone knows they kind of owe allegiance to, but that only seems to be super important in situations like you get in Lorna Doone, when the Scottish monarchy takes it into their heads to invade (again). And a Parliament who mostly seem to be ignored, except in situations like Middlemarch where redistricting is a major plot point.
So, no Peregrine Took is definitely not a visiting prince, and he damn well knows it. He is a gentleman of means, but he’s not even the heir to the Took estate. It’s more like if Mr Darcy showing up at court and sassing Prince George (who was regent on behalf of his father, King George III), and mostly got away with it because he was friends with the Archbishop of Canterbury. And then got knighted because Prince George was tickled by the whole affair.
Incorrect.
The Mayor is the Mayor specifically of Hobbitton and is an elected position with a seven year term. Mayoral duties seem to consist primarily in “presiding at banquets”, but presumably if there’s any actual city administration to do, that would be the Mayor’s job as well. Frodo in his brief stint as Mayor defunded the police.
So the police are interesting because you’ve got two sorts of groups? The Bounders were border guards, so their jurisdiction presumably covers the whole Shire. And then the Shirrifs I believe were the local Hobbiton constabulary before Lotho co-opted/expanded them into his own private army. If I am recalling correctly, their authority/presence really only begins oncr they cross the Water into Hobbiton proper.
The Master of Buckland is both the head of the Brandybuck family and a political position. Buckland was established/colonized by the Brandybucks - they’re not just extremely rich, they literally carved out their own little sociopolitical domain arguably external to the Shire itself. So again, the Master of Buckland is not just a very rich person with a big house and lots of family members, he’s the governor of a semi-sovereign state. This is demonstrably different from the Bagginses, who, among other things, don’t all live together. But this is part of why Lotho’s takeover is anomalous. He’s just a Rich Guy, not a political authority.
But we are given a third political authority, who is: the Thain of the Shire. Nominally, at least, the Shire as a whole is ruled by a Thain. (Does the Thain have authority over Buckland? I am sure this is something Merry and Pippin have different opinions about). And we know this is a Thing because, re: Lotho, there’s a line to the effect that if anyone is making a power grab it should be “the right Thain of the Shire, and not some upstart.”
Paladin Took is not just a Rich Guy (as Lotho is), he is not just the head of the Tooks and the leader/ruler of Great Smials, he is the Thain of the Shire, the closest/only example of Hobbit nobility as such. I mean, nobody cares per se, but that’s just what Hobbits are like.
So Pippin is Ernil i Perrianath not because he’s some rich kid/landed gentry who wandered into a high fantasy setting by mistake (though he is also that), he’s literally the Prince of the Halflings because he is the heir to the Thain of the Shire. Pippin is 100% technically a prince, it’s just that absolutely no one cares.
If I had to speculate wildly, I would say this all comes down to Bandobras. The Thainship was probably established as a way to recognize the Bullroarer’s heroism repelling the goblin invasion during the Long Winter. That’s why it’s passed along the Took line. When you knock off a rival king’s head (RIP Golfimbul) you get to be king now, it’s only fair. And of course for Tolkien kingship means service and being a protector of your people, so that’s what the Thain of the Shire is for. It just doesn’t come up much, and so the Thain typically stays in his own lane. The Bounders were probably established at the same time and for the same purpose. Why do you employ people to walk around the borders of your country and drink free beer? To see if wolves are invading across the frozen rivers again. The Bounders probably report to the Thain in the event that there’s anything to report. There just never is.
tl;dr: Pippin is a prince because his father is the Thain, and this is different from just being a Took.
#tolkien#lord of the rings#hobbit politics#if I am right about this then the Thain is basically Dux Bellorum#his job is to raise an army to fight off invading goblins#and NOTHING ELSE#which is basically what Pippin does as soom as he gets home#ernil i perriannath
@sevenfearsinatrenchcoat thank you so much for the correction! And count on Jirt to have an answer ready :)
So this means (a) that Pippin’s and Denethor’s authority derive ultimately from the same source and (b) Denethor is absolutely aware of this (Pippin has no clue)
Right, that last bit is basically what I’m getting at in the original post. Obviously Denethor has no way of being aware of current events in the Shire, but given the History™ involved, it’s 100% plausible that Denethor knows a. that the Shire exists as a political entity, b. that the Shire has a Thain, and c. what the Thain’s approximate political rank and position is, particularly in relation to his own rank and position. He has no means of verifying that Pippin is actually the Thain’s son and heir, of course, but he also has no specific reason to doubt it, especially given the company that Pippin keeps.
with grandpa <3
*Boromir is casually searching around the room*
faramir: Hey Boromir, what’re you looking for?
boromir: My will to live.
*Merry & Pippin walk into the room*
boromir: Oh, there it is.
Some highlights from the Director/Writer Commentary of The Return of the King with Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh:
As they mentioned in TTT, they were originally going to put the Smeagol vs. Deagol fight as a flashback during the Dead Marshes. Before they decided to use it to open RotK, their placeholder idea for a scene to open RotK was to do a sped-up helicopter shot from the Paths of the Dead, across the plains of Edoras, to the Golden Hall where Aragorn wakes up from a nightmare (and then goes and talks to Eowyn). Very glad they went the direction they did!
In the final shot they used when Smeagol takes the Ring out of Deagol's hand, the actor playing Deagol actually blinked, but they liked Andy Serkis' performance so much, they had Weta go in and freeze Deagol's eyes so they could use the shot XD
You know, I forget sometimes that they didn't even have Saruman in the theatrical cut at all. Boggles the mind.
In the scene where Aragorn comes out of the Golden Hall and goes to stand next to Legolas, who's looking out at the night...Viggo and Orlando weren't in the country at the same time, so they shot them separately and then put them together @_@
You know, I never thought about this before, but when Gandalf touches Pippin's face, they had to make sure his hands looked extra big! So they used an actor called Big Paul, who had the biggest hands they could find, and Ian McKellen directed him for how to move his hands in the shot XD And Big Paul is the Rohan guard who gets shoved aside when Merry and Aragorn rush up to the top of the wall to watch Gandalf and Pippin leave!
THEY SHOT A SCENE OF LEGOLAS TALKING TO TREEBEARD ABOUT THE ELVES LEAVING MIDDLE-EARTH?!?!?!?!?!?! :O Originally, it was going to link the Isengard scenes to the scene of Arwen and the other Rivendell Elves going through the forest, but then because of all the Edoras stuff in between, the connection was lost. They also said something about Legolas reciting a poem! And joked again about putting it into the 25th anniversary edition. THAT TIME IS COMING UP, PETER JACKSON!!!! I WANNA SEE THIS SCENE!!!!!!
a;lkdsjs;kdfljds;fjl NOW THEY'RE JUST TEASING US. They talked about a "library scene" during the whole sequence where Arwen goes back to Rivendell and confronts Elrond about how he saw her son, etc. They wouldn't say what happened in the "library scene," but talked about how they should include that in the 25th anniversary edition too. a;ldkfjs;dkfljsd;kfljdslfk
The people on set who had a crush on Sean Bean were called "Beanstalkers"! XD That's the best; every fan to this day ought to call themselves that!
Similarly to the scene with Legolas and Aragorn, the little bit with Legolas and Gimli as everyone's getting ready to leave Edoras was filmed separately because Orlando and John weren't in the country at the same time. So they filmed Legolas' shots with Brett, John's scale double, then filmed John's shots later, filming both of them against greenscreen. Then they took some unused footage from the Edoras set and put it in the background. It just boggles my mind how many of these cobbled-together scenes there are, because it feels so much like all the characters are together in the real location!
RED ALERT RED ALERT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!! They mentioned Beregond!!!! 8D When talking about why they put in the scene where Pippin and Faramir talk (when Faramir says the uniform Pippin's wearing was made for him when he was a child), in order to forge the connection between them that will ultimately lead to Pippin saving Faramir's life, they talked briefly about Beregond! They describe him taking Pippin under his wing, showing him about the city, and called the relationship between them "quite sweet" :3
Another little connection between Pippin and Faramir I don't think I've ever thought about before, that apparently Billy Boyd thought about when doing these scenes, is that Pippin is the only son of the Thain of the Shire, so there may have been a certain amount of pressure and expectation on him. Obviously, he's so young and probably didn't spend too much time worrying about that while scampering about the Shire, but maybe that's something he thinks about while watching the way Faramir and Denethor interact. Maybe a contrast to the way he would interact with his own father, maybe a reminder of the way he would be scolded? Hard to say, but it's interesting to think about.
Uuuuuuughghghg, so frustrating to listen to them talking about the scene on the steps where Frodo sends Sam away DX No matter how many times and how many different ways they explain why they did it, the explanations never quite make sense to me. "We needed there to be more tension." WHY WAS IT NOT TENSE ENOUGH THAT THEY WERE GOING INTO THE LAIR OF A HUGE EVIL SPIDER?! "There wasn't really anything happening on the steps otherwise." YEAH, BECAUSE YOU PUT THE WHOLE CONVERSATION ABOUT STORIES IN THE PREVIOUS MOVIE! Also, why not just cut from one or two shots of them climbing this awful staircase to a shot of them entering the cave? "There needed to be a payoff for Gollum's scheming." WHY WAS GOLLUM BETRAYING THEM TO SHELOB NOT ENOUGH OF A PAYOFF?! "We knew InStInCtIvElY that Frodo needed to enter the cave alone." WHY? WHY?! I've never understood that. They get separated eventually in the book, so why not just ramp up the tension of that in the movie, instead of making the characters so OOC? "We knew it would shock readers of the book, and if we'd changed that, what else might we have changed?" You know...I really, really love these movies, and I appreciate what these three were able to accomplish so much...but sometimes I kind of hate them too -_-
The horses didn't want to walk down the hill on the cobbled streets of Minas Tirith, because their steel shoes were so slippery on the stones. So they all had to be re-shod with rubber shoes. What were horseshoes made of back in ye olden days, though? Iron? Did people run into the same problems back then?
I never really noticed this before, but Aragorn never wears Anduril on his belt! He straps it to his horse, and every time you see him with it, he's just holding the naked blade. This is because they made Anduril so long it was really hard for him to wear it from his belt or to pull it out of the scabbard in a natural way XD
The aerial shot of all the Rohirrim leaving Dunharrow was originally shot to show Gandalf's cart heading into the Shire, but since they didn't use it for that, they repurposed it for RotK!
To get Elijah Wood to foam at the mouth when he's stung by Shelob, they gave him two Alka-Seltzer tablets to put in his mouth and work up some foam with his saliva. I've always wondered how they do that sort of thing in movies, but no one's bothered to explain until now....
Sean Astin's audition scene was holding Frodo after Shelob ;A; Apparently, they (or at least Philippa Boyens) were a little skeptical that an American actor would be able to do Sam's character right, but actually a lot of the English actors who auditioned for the role had a hard time with the Shelob aftermath scene, but Sean nailed it :')
Other than the close-ups, they used a dummy for Faramir on the pyre most of the time. Now I'm just imagining John Noble crouching on top of the pyre, cradling a dummy XD
The first Orc that Aragorn kills on Pelennor fields is played by his son Henry! XD
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. They actually filmed Sam pushing past the sort of psychic barrier of the Watchers at the gate of Cirith Ungol, but they didn't put it into the extended edition! I love that part. Like...I'm not even sure why, but I've always thought that was such a cool little detail, and I've always been a bit bummed it wasn't in the movie, though I was thrilled to see the actual Watchers at least there as a sort of homage. And all along, they'd actually filmed something for that after all and I never knew! :O
You know, I never thought about it before, but it makes sense that they had to replace the sky digitally in a lot of scenes in Mordor, because of course when they filmed it, the sky wasn't always completely cloudy, but Mordor needs to have a complete cloud cover at all times.
When Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens first saw the footage of Sam carrying Frodo up Mt. Doom, they sent a fax (lolol 1999/2000 technology) to Sean and Elijah. They made the first page look all formal and official, and then on the second page it just said, "You made us cry." :')
Andy Serkis refused to have Gollum stand on two feet until the scene in the Crack of Doom. There were a few times that PJ directed him to lurch onto his feet or something, but Andy wouldn't do it. He wanted to show the difference in Gollum physically when he has the Ring again. What a cool detail!
Originally, the whole part where Frodo's hanging off the ledge and Sam is begging him to reach for him happens after the Ring is destroyed. It's really interesting to consider the slight nuances of how different that would be. The final version makes it almost seem like the Ring is still calling to Frodo, like he wants to fall into the lava and join it, whereas originally it was more like "I've lost the Ring and now I have nothing left to live for."
PJ made a sweet comment in the scene where everyone bows to the four hobbits: "This is a moment where there's always a huge sniffle in the audience when the movie's going, and it's usually me." XD
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! They shot scenes of what happens to the other characters when the hobbits return to the Shire! There is footage out there somewhere of what Legolas and Gimli do, what happens with Faramir and Eowyn!!!! ;aldkfjsd;fkldslfkjd 25th anniversary edition LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
It was said throughout the Shire that the Tooks of the Great Smials near Tookborough were not entirely hobbits. Rumours and all sorts of tall tales are easily spread throughout Shire-folk and the most popular was that a distant Took ancestor once fell in love with an elf. For, as most agree, hobbits are quite sedentary creatures, preferring to spend their days merrymaking at parties and festivals, eating a vigorous meal, smoking pipes in the yard or, though they would never admit, spreading gossip from neighbour to neighbour.
Now, this story of Elvish blood running in the veins of the Thain's family was not without reason. The Tooks, though greatly respected, were not ordinary hobbits. Their kin was most adventurous; it had been Hildifons Took who went off on a journey with no return, and his brother Isengar who traversed to the sea. Their sister, Belladonna, was once an adventurous tween also, though as Bilbo often said, "she never had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins". Even Bilbo Baggins himself was known for his journey There and Back Again, and many of the Shire-folk agreed that though his last name was Baggins, Bilbo was certainly a Took.
Thus, the hobbits all agreed that the only explanation could be if the family had some other race mingled in their heritage, and naturally it took on to Elvish ancestry.
Despite the anomaly of the Tooks, the wild tales of hobbits falling in love with dazzling elves very quickly faded. It soon became a fable amongst the younger generations who giggled at the ridiculous notion that the Thain of hobbits was not entirely a hobbit himself. The rumour began to dim, and very soon, except for amongst the Sackville-Bagginses and their close circle, it faded.
That is, until the birth of Peregrin Took.
To be exact, it was not the birth of Peregrin that sparked the rumour again, but no one could pin exactly when the stories flared again and it was far more exciting and dramatic to say it was the birth of Pippin. For Pippin was not a usual hobbit. His three sisters (Pearl, Pimpernel and Peruvica,) had the same content and placid demeanor of their parents, when they were not pulling one another's hair over a doll or the last apple. Their complexions were fair too, with plump, rosy cheeks and soft limbs that spoke of the comforts they delighted in. Beautifully hobbit-ish in every way.
But not Peregrin Took. If he were to take the form of any object, it would be one of Gandalf's most rambunctious fireworks. Though he shared his sisters's rosy cheeks, he was far more wiry than most, to the extent that a nosy neighbour once walked him home and asked his mother if he was fed enough. His sisters insisted it was because he spent many hours climbing the tallest trees in the Smials, another unusual practice for creatures normally so afraid of heights.
But Pippin was not one for a cosy, placid lifestyle. He would run from the Smials to Brandybuck Hall to pester his cousin Merry, and during the summer days he would hurry along the winding paths till he reached Bag End in Hobbit, all in an obnoxiously fast time for a hobbit. There was no "slow" or "calmly" in his vocabulary; everything was done with such vivacity that made his mother dizzy. Yet, the one occasion (or perhaps two) that Pippin was quiet was when he crept out his window at night and climbed the big cedar tree a short walk from his home. There, lying in the top branches, he would watch the stars as they twinkled merrily, singing a silent song.
The second occasion, and another reason that stirred excited gossiping amongst the hobbits, was Pippin's voice. For hobbits, songs are sung almost during every activity, whether it he walking or cooking or dining or telling stories of old. Hobbits' voices are often rich and golden, like thick treacle. Pippin was often one to join his cousin in many impromptu songs in the Green Dragon and matched the darker tone of most of his kind, but when amongst the glens and greens of the Shire, his song was often clear and piercing as a crystal bell. Bilbo once remarked that the young voice reminded him of ballards sung in the Last Homely House of Elrond, which naturally caused such a great fuss and flurry amongst those in Hobbiton that Pippin refused to go there for several weeks due to the incessant requests to hear him sing.
But what did dear old Peregrin think of all this muttering and theorising about him? He didn't mind (save for the time Lobelia Sackville-Baggins followed him home all the way from Hobbiton, perstering him with all sorts of prudent questions). He enjoyed the air of mystery it gave him, and it meant he had an excuse to go and play in the woods without being thought mad. Imagine the shock and blabber that swept through the Shire when the four hobbits returned from Mordor, and Peregrin Took was suddenly unusually tall for a hobbit.
Yet the question still remains: are the Tooks of Elvish blood? Many would think so, but his closest friends would tell you that Pippin Took is perhaps the most hobbity hobbit found in the west of the Shire.
After all, it was he who introduced second breakfast to Elessar, King of Gondor, but perhaps that is a tale for another day.
I am once again thinking about Pippin and Paladin (and a bit about Denethor and Faramir)
So it’s… a bit past noon (actually close to 1pm) on a Sunday about a week before I start at university again, and I am Thinking™. About Pippin and his father. And about Denethor and Faramir.
Keep reading
the scene in return of the king where gandalf gets pippin to light gondor’s beacons is a lot funnier when you remember that pippin has already sworn fealty to denethor, which means that he’s a legal citizen of the city and servant of its ruler and therefore committing high treason
peregrin “be gay do crimes” took
Look, let’s be real, Pippin probably had no idea what the concept of fealty and kingship was to begin with.
The closest thing that hobbits had to a overarching ruler/king figure was the Thain, who didn’t demand much of his constituency that would even give anyone an opportunity to commit “treason” as it were. Also, the current Thain was Pippin’s dad. The title was passed through the family, so the the only Thain that Pippin would have been familiar with in his lifetime was his own father.
Think about it. The only example you’ve ever known of an overarching authority figure was the same person who probably had tickle fights with you and brought home soup when you were sick. There is no way that Pippin had a clue of what sort of undying and unquestioning respect and loyalty that swearing fealty to a leader like Denethor would imply. It was probably a concept that he had heard of once or twice when he overheard Frodo talk with Bilbo about history and elves and such. I’m willing to bet that Pippin’s idea of what swearing fealty meant was something along the lines of, “I will do my duty to help you and the city you rule,” or something like that, so when Gandalf was like, “Pippin the city is gonna get overrun if we don’t get Rohan’s help,” Pippin was probably like, “yes this is fulfilling my duty as a person helping the city much more than doing what Denethor is actually saying so let’s go!”