Merry & Pippin Had A Moving Ending After Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

Merry and Pippin have interesting roles in "The Lord of the Rings." While Frodo and Sam are away doing the critical job of destroying the One Ring, their two Hobbit friends play more subtle (but still absolutely critical) roles. First, they head to Fangorn Forest, where they help the Ents rise up and overthrow Saruman. Then, Pippin is shuttled away to Gondor, where he enters the service of the Steward Denethor and fights in the epic Siege of Gondor, where he saves Faramir's life. Meanwhile, Merry becomes one of the Riders of Rohan and sneaks his way into the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, where he helps Éowyn take down the Witch-king.

After that, the reunited Halflings march to Mordor with Aragorn and company, where they represent their people in the final negotiations of the War of the Ring and battle before the Black Gate until the Ring is finally cast into the fire. From there, they reconnect with Frodo and Sam, and the quartet eventually makes their way back to the Shire. Once there, the ending of Peter Jackson's "The Return of the King" movie has them settle back into a life of quiet obscurity.

The books have a more dramatic story, where they fight Saruman's minions (who have moved in while they were gone) and help the Hobbits reclaim their homeland. In either case, once the movies and books end, both Merry and Pippin are quietly ensconced in the Shire once more. But their lives are far from over, and Tolkien tells us in the appendices that their ending is a pull-on-your-heartstrings kind of moment. Here's what happens.

Over the rest of their lives, Merry and Pippin play important roles in the Shire. Both of them come from politically important, powerful Hobbit families, and not surprisingly, they end up leading these units. Let's start with Pippin.

Pippin is part of the Took family. He gets married to a gal with the fantastic name of Diamond of Long Cleeve, and they have at least one recorded child. It's a boy. His name? You guessed it. Faramir. The best part? Faramir ends up married to Sam Gamgee's daughter, Goldilocks (Sam is the Mayor of the Shire by this time), bringing good ol' Sam's family into the biological fold (Frodo, Merry, and Pippin are all related, too.)

Pippin's political career is pretty spectacular (for Shire standards). He becomes "the Thain." The prologue to "The Fellowship of the Ring" explains that this is an ancient position. It makes Pippin the master of the Shire-moot and the captain of the local militias, called the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms.

As for Merry the Magnificent, he's a Brandybuck, and he becomes the Master of Buckland. King Éomer and the Lady Éowyn send him gifts, and he spends a good deal of time recording histories and writing about things like pipeweed. He also gets married to one Estella Bolger, and while there are no named kids, we do know that he has at least one son for reasons that we'll see in a minute.

All three of the Hobbit heroes are confirmed in their new positions by Aragorn (who also goes by the title King Elessar). The Shire technically lies within the domain of his new kingdom, and in the appendices of "The Return of the King," it says that "King Elessar issues an edict that Men are not to enter the Shire, and he makes it a Free Land under the protection of the Northern Sceptre." It adds, "King Elessar makes the Thain, the Master, and the Mayor Counsellors of the North-kingdom."

So, the Hobbits (minus Frodo, who has sailed away over the seas to Valinor at this point) spend their lives as very important people in the Shire. And when we say "their lives," we're talking about full lives. It isn't until Merry passes the century mark that we hear about them again. When he is 102 years old, the appendices say that he receives a message from Rohan that King Éomer, then nearing death, wishes to see him again. A faithful friend to the end, the book adds that Merry "took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire."

Their story doesn't end there. They ride to Rohan, where they meet with Éomer one last time before he dies. From there, they go on to Gondor, where they settle down and live out their final days. The appendices explain, "Then [Merry] and the Thain Peregrin went to Gondor and passed what short years were left to them in that realm, until they died and were laid in Rath Dínen among the great of Gondor."

Rath Dínen is the burial ground of the kings and stewards of Gondor. This is where Denethor tries to burn himself and Faramir alive, and while that disturbing scene isn't a great selling point, overall, the hallowed ground is a very special place. It is the tomb of kings and rulers, and the fact that Merry and Pippin get to end there is a great honor. In a final touch, the book adds that several decades later, when Aragorn gives up his life and is laid to rest in Rath Dínen as well, "It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king." This is a sad but uniquely heartwarming ending to Merry and Pippin's larger-than-life adventures.