[00:00:00] So I am reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, and I'm just giving my general thoughts and opinions on my whole reading. It's pretty much a big idea and a video essay for every single chapter, and I'm in Chapter 5 now, and it's slowly dawned on me how good of friends Merry and Pippin are to Frodo. Much more at this point of the story than Sam is. Sam seems like an employee of Frodo, or a servant or something.
[00:00:25] There is this tone of rich aristocrats with Frodo, Bilbo, Merry and Pippin, and then there seems like a severe class difference between Sam and the rest of them, because Sam and his father and his father's uncle before him were all hired by Bilbo to work in the Garden of Bag End and to take care of it. But Merry and Pippin are just intensely good friends. Especially in the Conspiracy Unmasked chapter.
[00:00:49] You don't get the details of this really in the movie, because in the movie they are the hobbits who kind of just bump into Frodo and join him along for the journey, because they just have nothing better to do. And while they befriend Frodo the whole journey, it doesn't seem like the bond between them is really all that strong. But Merry and Pippin are fiercely good friends in the books. Let's start with the things that the movies leave out.
[00:01:12] So Frodo actually sells Bag End to his arch-nemesis, the Sackville Bagginses. Well, he actually just sells it to Lobelia and her son, because Lobelia's husband is dead. But Frodo sells the property and then buys another small little home off the beaten track in the land of Buckland. Well, a village north of Buckland, but again I digress. When he sells it, the people who are there helping him through the whole process of moving are Merry and Pippin.
[00:01:38] They are the ones he shares a meal with at the end at Bag End, and then Merry goes ahead of the group in order to prepare the house for Frodo before he gets there. Frodo deciding he wants to walk across the country in order to get there. And so Frodo begins his journey to his new home with Pippin and Sam. And they had a lot of trouble with the ring race on the way that the movies don't really have. But when they finally get there, and Merry has the whole house looking warm and welcome with almost everything unpacked,
[00:02:08] and he has hot baths and an incredible dinner laid out for them all upon their arrival. This is when the real friendship starts to show. And this is what I want to gush about. Because one of my favorite things in a chapter is a turn of phrase. You see this in one of my favorite chapters in Harry Potter, which is the Other Minister chapter. In the whole chapter you think the Other Minister is the Prime Minister of England, but only later on in the chapter do you realize that the Other Minister is actually what the Prime Minister refers to as the Minister of Magic.
[00:02:36] It's a fun writing implement that Tolkien does perfectly here, and a conspiracy unmasked. Because this is what is happening as Frodo is on his journey to his new home. The whole time he is thinking that he can't stay even longer than one night, because he must continue to find Gandalf and to go on to Rivendell. And so, when this chapter is a conspiracy unmasked, I thought the chapter was going to be Frodo unmasking what his plan is to the group.
[00:03:05] And Frodo was adamant in his mind that he had to go alone. He didn't want to endanger the other hobbits and felt that it was his responsibility to go on his own. However, this is where the fun in the chapter begins. The conspiracy unmasked is actually that Merry and Pippin were and have been spying on Frodo in order to gain information about what he's up to. Soon as Frodo begins to open his mouth to tell the group what is happening,
[00:03:31] this is kind of what the book says after Frodo has kind of given them the download on the Ringwraiths. It says,
[00:05:37] And they show their loyalty to Frodo even more as the chapter goes on. Another beautiful section that absolutely floors Frodo is this, We have all been terrified that you might give us the slip and go off suddenly, all on your own like he did. Ever since this spring we have been keeping our eyes open and done a good deal of planning on our own account. You are not going to escape so easily. But I must go, said Frodo. It cannot be help, dear friends. It is wretched for us all,
[00:06:06] but it is no use you're trying to keep me since you have guessed so much. Please help me, and do not hinder me. You do not understand, said Pippin. You must go. And therefore we must too. Merry and I are coming with you. Sam is an excellent fellow and would jump down a dragon's throat to save you if he did not trip over his own feet, but you will need more than one companion in your dangerous adventure. My dear and most beloved hobbit, said Frodo deeply moved. But I could not allow it.
[00:06:35] I decided that long ago too. You speak of danger, but you do not understand. This is no treasure hunt. No there and back journey. I am flying from deadly peril into deadly peril. Of course we understand, said Merry firmly. That is why we have decided to come. We know the ring is no laughing matter, but we are going to do our best to help you against the enemy. The ring, said Frodo, now completely amazed. Yes, the ring, said Merry.
[00:07:04] My dear old hobbit, you don't allow for the inquisitiveness of friends. I have known about the existence of the ring for years before Bilbo went away, in fact. But, since he obviously regarded it as a secret, I kept the knowledge in my head until we formed our conspiracy. And then he tells Frodo all about how he knew the ring when he watched from a field, Bilbo disappear out of thin air one time when he saw the sack of Bill Bagginses coming down the road. I think this is the kind of friendship that we all want as humans.
[00:07:31] The kind of friends that are not only loyal, but who know you so well that the secrets you keep are not really secrets to them. It's the whole idea of knowing and being known. Which seems like a huge desire of all humans at all times. And so Merry and Pippin are quickly becoming my favorite people in the books because they're not just comedic relief. They are loyal and brilliant friends, and their loyalty is shown in my favorite line of this chapter, and perhaps even the whole book so far.
[00:07:58] It comes right after Merry and Pippin tell Frodo that Sam has been their informant. And Frodo, half joking, says, Sam looked at him unhappily. It all depends on what you want, put in Merry. You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin, to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secrets of yours closer than you can keep it yourself.
[00:08:24] But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway, there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the ring. We are horribly afraid. But we are coming with you. Or following you like hounds. I love these hobbits! Tolkien writes with a lot of beauty about the gift of friendship.
[00:08:50] And Frodo here is a man who has been gifted with some of the most excellent friends imaginable. I wrote in another essay how I think there was a lot of subtext, and not so subtext, about Bilbo being incredibly lonely and sad in the first chapter. But in this chapter, it's a stark contrast. It's someone who thinks they need to be lonely and to do things alone in order to do the thing that they set out to accomplish. But all the while, they have the most loyal friends imaginable that are by his side.
[00:09:19] This is something that is more familiar territory to me, I think. I am like someone who wants to tackle things on my own. And to some extent, I want to be a martyr for it, just like Frodo is essentially doing here. But difficult journeys like this don't have to be done on your own. And Merry and Pippin are a beautiful and brilliant proof that friendship, deep friendship, is the kind of friendship that sticks by your side through thick and thin, to the bitter end. But it's not even if it's not a friend.