tanaquiljall | Entries tagged with pippin

This is dedicated to

sgafan and

elena_tiriel, who each in their own way know the irritation of having the wonderful work they did do swept aside by someone complaining about what's "missing"....

It was probably at Great Smials that The Tale of Years was put together, with the assistance of material collected by Merry.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Prologue, Note on the Shire Records

Day 360

Critical

Merry turned the leaves of unbound manuscript, admiring the carefully inked drawings of elves, trolls, trees, dwarves, stars and crowns adorning each capital letter or snaking their way around margins.

"It’s beautiful, Pip." He smiled up briefly at his cousin. "But there isn’t much here about the forefathers of the Mark, is there?" Looking back down, he missed the way Pippin’s lips tightened.

"All the important events are there." Pippin’s tone was dangerously patient.

"Oh, I’m sure all the things Gondor thinks are important are there," Merry waved a hand, "but you really should have put in more, you know...."

rakshathedemon asked for Elderly Pippin and Faramir in Minas Tirith before Pippin's death....

Day 339

A little piece of The Shire

"Come on out!" Pippin waved Faramir onto the little sun-warmed terrace where he was transplanting this year’s geranium cuttings into troughs.

Faramir breathed in the comforting scents of damp earth and leaves as he took one of the larger seats set out by a low table. "Your garden looks wonderful – as always!"

Pippin, gathering empty pots, inclined his head in thanks. "’Tis nothing to your gardens across the river – but quite enough for me to potter round in and keep me busy. But enough flower-talk! How is Éowyn? And have they settled on a name yet for your latest grandson?"

gwynnyd has just helped her elder daughter moved into a new apartment, so she asked me for someone setting up a household. Merry & Pippin at Crickhollow? Rosie moving into Bag End? Eowyn choosing staff for the Ithilien house?

Day 233

Secondhand

"Lawks!" Merry, edging through the door with a pile of books, stopped dead.

"I know. I'm sorry." Pippin's expression was contrite. "Mother insisted, and I'd've never heard the end of it if I'd said no."

Merry set the books down. "I don't suppose we could chop it up for firewood?"

Pippin laughed. "I wish! But I think I'd be disinherited."

Merry frowned "Wait...." Heading back outside, he reappeared a moment later with the plain cream quilt from his bed. "There!" He threw it over the cacophony of colours once stitched into the flowery upholstery of a love-seat by Eglantine Banks.

rakshathedemon asked for a follow up to Size Matters in which we find out what Pippin is doing while Faramir and Faramir spar. On the sidelines watching, or downing some brew with Beregond and/or Bergil?

Day 199

The Drink Speaking

When last they'd met, they'd been much of a height. Though Bergil – as he'd pointed out at the time – had already been a little taller. Now, come into his full growth, he towered over Pippin.

The conversation was stilted at first. Pippin enquired politely how Bergil liked his posting in the Guard and whether he was courting. Bergil congratulated Pippin on his elevation to the Thainship.

But as the ale flowed, they slowly relaxed, reminiscing over old times, until: "Do you still wrestle?"

"Do you still claim you could stop me standing you on your head?"

"Want to find out?"

A belated birthday present for Patti Baggins, who wanted Frodo being funny.

Happy Birthday, Patti!

Day 192

Tit For Tat

Frodo let out a yell when he discovered Pippin had snuck into his room at Bag End and made him an apple-pie bed. He was determined to be revenged.

Next morning, he passed Pippin the sugar-box, knowing his young cousin liked his porridge well sweetened. He watched gleefully as Pippin liberally sprinkled white grains – and then choked on the first mouthful of salt-laden porridge.

Pippin dumped chicken feathers on Frodo when he opened the cellar door. Frodo encouraged Pippin to use his telescope for stargazing – after applying soot to the eyepiece....

And so it went, until finally Pippin cried "hold!"

Another take on

paranoidangel42's request for people dealing with big changes.

Never trust a Took

Merry had been in his tweens when his father became Master of Buckland. Quite old enough to remember how shabby the ceremony now seemed compared to all he'd seen in the South.

Overruling the objections of various aunts, cousins and general busybodies, he decreed it time for new traditions.

"...Gorbadoc Broadbelt, Rorimac Goldfather, Saradoc Scattergold...." Estella bore the cup the length of the Great Room at Brandy Hall while Pippin recited the list of Masters.

Merry drained the cup in salute to his forebears – and almost choked when Pippin, with a wink, cried "Hail, the new Master, Meriadoc the Magnificent!"

After yesterday's drabble,

rakshathedemon said You realize that you now have to write Faramir's answer to Pippin's letter; or there will be dire consequences....

Day 183

Princely Words

My sympathies – I know all too well what it is to shoulder such responsibilities. Had I not had confidence in you, and thought my advice unneeded, I would have given it freely in my last.

I think you as fortunate in your friends and near kin as I. Look to them for counsel. And may your wife be as much a source of strength and comfort as my own dear lady.

Alas! I can think of no duties requiring your presence here – save friendship. I hope one day you and your family will visit, that I may inspect my namesake....

Another take on

paranoidangel42's request for people dealing with big changes.

Day 182

Being The Took

Greetings to Faramir, Steward of Gondor, from Peregrin, Thain of the Shire.

Faramir – thank you for the gifts and good wishes. But I do wish you had sent good advice instead! However do you manage? If it's not one confounded set of relatives complaining about pasturage, it's another lot arguing about who should mend a wall.

Could you not find some urgent business to call a Knight of Gondor South again?

Ah, but then I would miss your namesake growing up! He is running me ragged and has already begged for a practice sword next birthday.

I miss Da terribly....

paranoidangel42 asked for people dealing with big changes.

Day 181

Official Business

"Me?" Sam was round-eyed with disbelief at Merry's proposition. "But I never even could vote afore."

"Ah, but you're not just Samwise Gamgee, gardener, any more. You're a man of property now." Merry waved an arm expansively around the sitting room at Bag End.

"You have a position in the community to maintain," Pippin informed him solemnly, although his eyes twinkled with amusement.

Panicking, Sam looked across at Rosie. "What do you think, lass?"

Rosie carefully folded the smock she had been embroidering. "Sam Gamgee, after all you've done for the Shire, they'd be fools not to elect you Mayor."

Note: As the Shire seems to be modelled somewhat on a pre-industrialised England of the late 18th century, I have assumed an electoral system for Mayor based on a property qualification.

Because today is a day for birthday drabbles.... *g*

Day 166

A question of birthdays

Pippin, escaping Pearl's clutches, wove amongst the guests, determined not to be deflected from his goal.

Reaching Uncle Bilbo, he tugged at his sleeve. The old Hobbit turned from talking to Rory Brandybuck and smiled down at his second cousin once removed.

"What is it, lad?"

Pippin frowned in concentration, making sure he got his question right. "Do birthdays get... less exciting as you have more of them?"

Bilbo chuckled. "Not at all, my boy. Why, as you grow older, you get more of the best part of any birthday – you have more nephews and nieces to share it with!"

telperion1 asked for something about the writing of the Red Book. One of the hobbits writing it, or someone in Rohan/Gondor seeing a first draft?

I got to thinking about how this copy came into being:

...the Thain's Book in Minas Tirith [...] was a copy, made at the request of King Elessar, of the Red Book of the Periannath, and was brought to him by the Thain Peregrin when he retired to Gondor in IV 64.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Prologue, Note on the Shire Records

So... Day 13

Point of View

"I still don't see as why Strider would want a copy." Sam frowned.

"Why, for the same reason you still read it to your children!" Pippin exclaimed. "So people will remember the Great Danger."

"But he's the King! His palace must be full o' great Men who can make a better tale of it than Mr Bilbo and Mr Frodo. Not that they didn't make a good tale...."

"Yes, they did." Pippin, smiling, opened the book and pointed: "As seen by the Little People. That's what Strider wants. Now, may I take it to Great Smials to have it copied?"

Day 6

rakshathedemon asked me for Faramir and Pippin having a good time, either immediately postWar or many years later. This was somewhat inspired by

telperion1's (sadly unfinished) story Best Brew, which I was privileged to see quite a lot of while I was beta-ing it.

Shireworthy

The new Steward walked no longer in the Healers' gardens once the White Lady returned to her own land. Nor scarcely absented himself from his office unless engaged on other duties.

Eagerly, therefore, Pippin welcomed Faramir to the house shared by the hobbits, pressing a mug of ale into his hand.

Faramir saluted him before he drank. "Happy Birthday, Pippin."

"A song!" Merry demanded. Quickly they taught Faramir the Bath Song, and Bilbo's Walking Song, and others of the Shire, and Faramir's clear tenor joined theirs.

Sometimes hobbits give gifts on their birthdays that cannot be held in the hand.