Title: Maps and Legends

Author: Anso the Hobbit

Beta: Marigold

Characters: Merry

Timeline, Brandy Hall, SR 1432, so Merry is 50 and has just become Master of Buckland

Summary: Before leaving for the Grey Havens, Frodo leaves something special for his closest friends and cousins, and Merry is not to open his until he becomes Master of Buckland.

Note: Written for Marigold`s Anniversary Challenge, Challenge 13, where I was told to explain what happened to the map Gandalf gave Thorin and that he in turn gave Bilbo.

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“Merry?” Esmeralda whispered, poking her head around the door to the Master`s study, peering into the dimly lit room. The only thing she saw was the flickering of the fire on the hearth and the single lit candle on the desk. She knew he was in here, though. He`d been here every waking hour since the funeral was over and the mourning guests left and he officially became Master. Even the deaf and blind could see that Merry was devastated by the loss of his father and buried himself in work trying to compensate for the grief and pain. Something needed to be done. For ten year she had hid a parcel and a letter in her deepest drawer and now she had brought it with her to Merry. She wasn`t sure it was the ideal thing to lighten his mood but she had promised. As soon as the formalities were over and Merry was Master, she was to give him the letter and the parcel.

“Yes?” Merry blinked wearily and looked up from his work.

“May I come in?”

“Of course, Mum.” Merry stretched, trying to ease the stiff muscles in his back and neck. His right arm ached again, but it wasn`t cold. He knew he had to take care of himself or else he would be ill again, once a year was enough of a strain on his family as it was.

Esmeralda entered and put a parcel on the desk. “This is for you, dearest.”

Merry looked at the packet, not seeing the seal clearly in the soft light. “Who is it from?”

Esmeralda brought a letter out from a pocket in her dress. “This should explain things.” She put the letter beside the packet, looking intently at her son for a moment. Merry looked tired and unlike him, his clothes and curls were rumpled. She then moved to light a couple of lamps so that it was possible to actually read the letter and have a proper look at what was in the packet.

Merry took the letter and with his left hand opened it with a sharp little knife he found in a drawer. “Thanks Mum.”

Merry watched as her mother left and opened the missive. Instantly he knew who had written it and tears gathered in his eyes. For a moment the writing swam before his eyes and he fumbled for a handkerchief in his waistcoat pocket, drying his tears. Tucking the handkerchief away he sat back against the high backrest of the chair and taking a deep breath to calm his beating heart he started to read:

My dearest Merry

When you read this the mastery of Buckland is yours. I imagine you sit in the great chair behind the desk where Uncle Rory and later your father sat before you. I told Cousin Esmie to keep this letter and to give it to you when you become Master. My heart goes out to you, dearest of cousins and friends. Cousin Sara was like a father to me and I know losing him is very hard on you. You two were so close. All the years I was with you, watching the two of you was like watching the perfect picture of father and son. He trusted you, valued your opinion and let you try and fail and find your own path in life and I know you have always looked up to him and trusted his guidance and advice to be solid and based on love. The apple didn`t fall far from the tree and even if you have a good amount of Took in you, you are a Brandybuck through and through. I know you didn`t always agree with the way he scattered Buckland`s hoards of gold about, but he did it with true love for his people and his country and I know you value that.

They call you Magnificent now, do they not? No, don`t laugh at me. I know they would. You and Smaug eh? You are magnificent Merry my lad. You have always been. There is a reason why people say your fair curls shine like gold, because that is what you are. You are golden and even if you might not believe it now all these years after our journey, but you are, and your heart is pure. The Shire has healed it.

I suppose you have been eager to look into the parcel that follows this letter? And mayhap you already have opened it and had a look at what`s inside. If you haven`t already opened it then read this through first, will you? I know you well enough to know that you are excited and impatient to see what it is, but stay with me for a few more lines. Have patience with your old cousin.

Merry stopped reading for a moment and couldn`t help but smile at his cousin and how well he knew him. He knew of course that Frodo could read him like an open book, and now it occurred to him that Frodo probably could read his thoughts too. It didn`t surprise Merry that Frodo could see his future, Frodo had always been like that, but for the most he had kept his knowledge to himself.

Merry looked at the parcel and felt excitement and bittersweet joy well up in him. He decided to humour his cousin though and read the letter through first.

Do you remember when you were little? I do and I have only to close my eyes to see you. I remember the day you were born. Cousin Esmie had a hard time helping you into this world, and Cousin Sara were so scared for you both that he almost pulled his hair out when the birth took longer than it was supposed to. I wasn`t allowed in to see you at first as they were afraid you had taken any damage after the tough birth but a few hours after you were born I held you in my arms and I instantly knew you and loved you. When you got older you ran so fast on your little legs and I had a hard time keeping up with you. You would chase the butterflies and the bumblebees and all that looked pretty and fly in the air. That is, until you discovered that bumblebees might indeed be pretty but when you step on their nest they burn you. I wasn`t present when that happened, but I remember Cousin Esmie told me that you cried so hard that you woke baby Pippin sleeping a few rooms away and that it was a wonder we didn`t hear it all the way up here at Bag End.

Bag End. You love this hole, don`t you? I have so many good and wonderful memories of you here. I`m not sure you remember your first visit here, but I do. I still lived with you at the Hall then and you were a wee toddler. You had Bag End mapped out in an instant, knowing precisely where all the rooms were and we had a hard time trying to locate you in the numerous rooms here. Until this day I thank the Valar that you didn`t manage to open the doors to the cellars and fall down the steep stairs.  

I can look into each of the rooms and I can see you sitting at the table helping Bilbo  make biscuits or sitting in front of the fire reading or smoking. I can walk into your room and if I dig deep enough in the dresser or wardrobe I`m sure I`ll find some forgotten item from the last time you came to stay. Or I can look into the garden, and I can see you on your knees, helping Sam with some herbs or questioning the Gaffer with your insatiable appetite for knowledge until he went completely mad but didn`t have the guts to tell you off since it wasn`t proper to tell off a gentlehobbit.

I can look down the road towards Hobbiton, and I can see you coming up, unsteadily and wearily as a 6 year old, your father right behind you to support you if your quest should falter. And when you saw me, you gathered yourself up into a spurt and ran the last bit up to the gateYou`ve always managed what you`ve set your mind to my Merry. Always. And you still will. As long as the mastery of Buckland is yours to have, and I believe that will be for many long and prosperous years, you will plan and think and put to action all that you believe will benefit the Brandybucks, Buckland and the Shire. People will shake their heads at your strange ways and think you the queerest Brandybuck that ever was, but they will do it with love in their hearts and peace of mind, because you my dear fellow will master Buckland with love and pride of your people and your country and they will see that and they will at least understand that. And maybe it will be so that they won`t understand the foreign things you bring to them they will know you do it in their best interest and they will know that you would not do anything to harm them.

Stay in the light, Merry dear. Stay in the light. He is slain and all evil is conquered. I know you fight ever so valiantly each year in middle March, and I know Pippin is there for you and I know you have a wonderful wife by your side (a certain Bolger lass if I`m not to mistaken, hmm?), and children too. You will have a wonderful lad, and he will be a good and worthy heir to Master Meriadoc, Holdwine of the Mark and friend and counsellor of kings. He might not have your love for the foreign lands but if you ask him, he will go with you gladly to visit both Rohan and Gondor and he will like it and understand more of who you are and what you think and believe in.

I need not ask you to look out for Pippin, but I do anyway. Do you remember when he was born? Of course you do. You were so afraid he wouldn`t make it and grow up but look at him now. He will be a Thain the Shire will long remember and many will look to him for guidance. The Tooks will respect him and love him, and he will bring new life and vitality to the Tooklands.

I will stop my rambling now. I can`t write as much and as well as I like to anymore. When you read this it has already been some time since I left you, and I hope the pain and sorrow is easier to bear now, my dear. I think of you every day and I miss you all dreadfully.

Now for that parcel. Dear old Bilbo told me once that I was to give this to you. He said that you were the only hobbit beside me who would really appreciate it.  There are a few other items in the parcel too, a few things to remember me by, even though I know I will always be in your heart as you are in mine.

Take care, stay well and stay in the light, dearest Merry.

With much love

Cousin Frodo

Somewhere during his reading the tears had welled up again and Merry tried to dry his eyes but the tears still kept coming. He sniffled a little and tried to compose himself. While reading his heart had again swelled with deep and aching love for his long gone cousin and dearest of friends. With a pang he missed Frodo so much he thought his heart would stop and he raised his hand and put it to his chest, trying to stop the wild beating. His clouded gaze fell to the parcel on the table before him. It was large and bulky. Frodo had tied string around it and sealed the knot with a bit of wax and the Baggins seal he only used for important documents. Merry looked at the single B in the red wax. His own seal was also formed of Bs but two of them, placed back to back so that it almost looked like a simply drawn butterfly; Brandybuck of Buckland. A top the double Bs were a curved M. M for Master and M for Meriadoc. Merry had always thought that seal fitting for him. 

Merry blew his nose and dried his tears, again composing himself, thinking that the only way he`d get through with opening this and not falling completely to pieces was to look at it as if it was a task that had to be done. And in some ways he thought it was. He missed Frodo dreadfully still and having something physical to remember him by would perhaps ease the pain some. He then took the little knife he had used to open Frodo`s letter with and gently cut the string. The thick paper wrapping fell aside and several things were revealed. The first thing he saw was a large book bound in golden leather. Merry instantly recognised it as the herblore that always had been at Bag End and that had followed generations of Bagginses. It was an old book and very carefully Merry had been allowed to look at it under adult observation when he was younger. Now he took it from the parcel and gently opened the first page. There was a dedication.

To Merry

Of all my numerous relations, I believe you would appreciate this the most. I know you treasure the knowledge this book gives you and I know you will treat it and the book with the love and respect it deserves.

Cousin Frodo

Again Merry`s tears started to fall. He remembered so well sitting in Bag End`s study reading in this book and asking question upon question about the herbs and their uses. It was nothing like the introduction to herblore Frodo had given him on his 30^th birthday. This book had rich drawings in colour and the script was beautiful, flowing and blossoming like the herbs and flowers it described. The author was unknown, but Bilbo had said it had once come from Men.

He looked back at the parcel. There among other things were an old childhood toy – a carven boat Frodo had given him and which Merry had kept at Bag End. The painted colours were worn off and it was scraped here and there but a good rub-down and a new coat of paint would make it as good as new.

At the bottom of the pile there were an item wrapped in soft cloth, shielded from the rest of the things in the parcel. Curious, Merry gently unwrapped the cloth and folded out the soft hide. What was this? A scroll or something? Maybe some of Bilbo`s poetry or a special sample of Frodo\s elvish translations? But no. Merry turned the hide right side up and beheld a map. It was Bilbo`s old map of the Lonely Mountains! The map that Bilbo had got from Thorin and which they had used to find Smaug`s lair.

The map wasn`t as large as he remembered, but he had only to close his eyes and remember sitting in Bilbo`s lap looking at the map and tracing the roads with his finger as Bilbo told him stories of his adventures.  He could hear Bilbo`s voice in his head and fell the soft cloth of his waistcoat against his back and the smell of pipe weed and books and cinnamon biscuits and all good things that was his old cousin.

Again he looked at the map. It was made by Thror, Merry knew. The ancient Dwarf king had made it. The strangest thing about the whole map was that east was on the top of it instead of north. This had made his head spin when he tried to figure out which way was which when he was little. Merry hadn`t seen the map for what seemed like ages, and it probably was. He could remember looking at it with Frodo when he was younger, but for the most part the map reminded him of Bilbo.

Turning the map so that east did indeed face up, Merry thought a bit about this special piece of map. It wasn`t Bilbo`s only map of the Lonely Mountain, but it was a very special one. It had even fallen into the hands of Sauron when they took Thrâin captive. Thankfully Gandalf managed to find it and the key that opened the secret door before any of Sauron`s servants did, and he brought it to Thorin. It was a cunningly wrought map, written in moon-letters only visible in moonlight, but Merry had never seen the letters, even if he had snuck the map out into the night to have a look at it. Merry knew the writing was there though, for how else could Bilbo have come by all the treasure in Smaug`s lair? And besides, he had explained it all in his book. The map showed the Lonely Mountain and the lands about it. The Running River lay as a blue ribbon across it.

When Bilbo left to stay with the elves he brought with him a a lot of interesting maps and books, but the map to the Lonely Mountain had stayed behind in Bag End for some reason unknown to Merry, but he supposed Bilbo had meant for Frodo to have it. And now Frodo had given it to him to remember him by. For a moment he thought what to do with it, but he decided to have it here in the study, so that he could look at it whenever he wanted and remember Frodo and all he had been and done for Merry and the Shire.

Merry glanced up at the wall over the fire place. There hang another map he treasured greatly. It was the map Bilbo had given him on his farewell party – a large and detailed map over the Shire.

For a long time, Merry sat remembering and thinking back, softly tracing the roads and writing on the Dwarven map with his finger. A knock on the door interrupted him and he shook himself a little before answering “Yes?”

Estella entered with their littlest one on her arm and Merry coudn`t help but feel happy and smile at the sight and feel genuinely thankful that the Shire was saved and for all that his cousin had done so it might be safe to be a hobbit in the Shire once more. He reached out and enveloped his family in his arms, feeling the aching diminish and the pain and grief in his heart be replaced with love and joy. He had had his adventure. This was his home. He belonged here in Brandy Hall, in Buckland and in the Shire.

THE END