Merry Brandybuck

Meriadoc Brandybuck
Tolkien's legendarium character
Aliases	Merry, Kalimac Brandagamba, Meriadoc the Magnificent, Master of Buckland, Holdwine of the Mark
Race	Hobbit
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 legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings.

A lover of boats and maps, Merry is described as one of the closest friends of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist. Merry is a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. He shares a close association with Peregrin Took (Pippin), another Hobbit who accompanies Frodo as a member of the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin become separated from the rest of the group at the breaking of the Fellowship and spend much of The Two Towers with their own story line. By the time of The Return of the King, he has enlisted in the army of Rohan as an esquire to King Theoden, in whose service he fights several battles during the War of the Ring. Upon the conclusion of the war, he returns to The Shire with his friend Pippin, where in time he inherited the title of Master of Brandybuck. He died and was interred in Gondor as a hero of the War of the Ring.

When he 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.

Frodo and Merry are first cousins once removed. Their common ancestors are Gorbadoc Brandybuck and Mirabella Took Brandybuck.

Merry was born T.A. 2982 (or, in the Shire-reckoning, in 1382), in Buckland. He is the only child of Saradoc Brandybuck (T.A. 2940-F.A. 11), who was a Master of Buckland, and Esmeralda Brandybuck (née Took) (T.A. 2936- ?), the younger sister of Paladin Took II (T.A. 2933–3034), making him first cousin to Paladin's son Peregrin Took. (See The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C.)

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