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A Took by Any Other Name by Lindelea	8 Review(s)
Eirinn Leigh	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 11/20/2015
Out of all the horrors and pains in this chapter it hurt the most to think of Ferdi - not riding off to route goblins or preparing to drag Pip home to face the music as Pip would have it - but wandering through life in near silence, too took-stubborn to leave and too took-loyal to rebel against his sentence in any but the most minor of ways. Author Reply: I just saw this, years after you wrote it. Thank you so much for your encouragement, and stopping to leave your thoughts. Author Reply: And p.s., you have exactly described my feelings in the matter.

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/19/2005
Am giggling over the choice of names they are considering. "Stridin"? Lovely! Author Reply: Will you laugh to see this reply more than a decade later?

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
I was so pleased with the conversation between Merry and Pippin about Pippin's refusal to return to the Tooklands. It sheds so much light on just how he feels about taking on the Thainship and more importantly, about returning to the control of his father. Wonderful dialogue and I thought it so like Merry to know when to let it drop. The name game was interesting too. I do like Stridin! So glad that more of this was posted. Loved this line: ‘That you’re running away from anything still astonishes me.’ If Merry expected his cousin to be stung by the words, he was mistaken. Pippin’s mouth tightened, but that was all. ‘Pippin...’ Show's Merry's faith in him even if he doesn't have that faith in himself yet. And of course this from Pippin on the subject: ‘I don’t like the hobbit I become, when I’m under his critical eye, under the lash of his tongue,’ Pippin whispered. He straightened. ‘Here, I’m of use,’ he said. ‘Here, when I have an idea, I’m not told to keep my nonsense to myself.’ His voice grew more confident as he spoke. ‘Here I have the impression that I can make a difference, that I can make good...’ His eyes flashed, and he nodded, a sharp jerk of his chin that Merry had often seen in Esmeralda when she’d made up her mind. Stubborn Tooks, once their minds were made up it would be about as possible to budge them as to change the course of the Brandywine. I could copy and paste this entire chapter but I better not. LOL Author Reply: Poor Pippin. He is only recently promoted to Steward, after all, and while his Brandybuck relations have perfect confidence in him, his memory of life amongst the Tooks cannot be confidence-inspiring! Makes his courage all the more remarkable, when he decides to leave Buckland and take up the challenge of being Thain. Thanks for the encouragement. I'd write more but RL is still dominating the schedule and I've spent too long online already. (Story of my life...)

TopazTook	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
Glad to see Pippin back in his story and Merry taking care of him -- although he seems pretty confident that baby's going to be a lad, doesn't he? (And it's always so much more annoying when those stubborn ones are right.) Author Reply: Yes, annoying, and amusing when they're wrong, and somehow I cannot bring myself to write a happily married couple with one insisting the babe is to be one thing and the other insisting the opposite! So for the most part they talk about "the babe" but once in awhile they slip and say "him". Though I remember secretly wishing for a little daughter when waiting for our firstborn to arrive, I also remember wishing for my dh's sake that it might be a son... still, I don't think he'd trade any of his daughters for all the world. Thanks!

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
Name his child to spite the Tooks, huh? Isn't that just like Pippin? grin "Turning his head slightly on the pillow, he saw his cousin, wearing what he’d come to think of as his “Cormallen smile”. " Such a perfect way to describe an expression of fond concern, trying to hide as a smile. It immediately transports me to the aftermath of the battle, and Merry watching over his companions with fear and love. " ‘I don’t like the hobbit I become, when I’m under his critical eye, under the lash of his tongue,’ Pippin whispered. He straightened. ‘Here, I’m of use,’ he said. ‘Here, when I have an idea, I’m not told to keep my nonsense to myself.’ His voice grew more confident as he spoke. ‘Here I have the impression that I can make a difference, that I can make good...’ His eyes flashed, and he nodded, a sharp jerk of his chin that Merry had often seen in Esmeralda when she’d made up her mind. Stubborn Tooks, once their minds were made up it would be about as possible to budge them as to change the course of the Brandywine. " And this pretty much sums up his relationship with his father in your Shire: Paladin will never give him any credit, or acknowledge that he has grown up, and Pippin in his presence, will stubbornly live down to his expectations. So sad. And no wonder he wants to name his son to spite the Tooks. Author Reply: Y'know, somehow I can see Pippin doing this... But after perusing the Took genealogy, I find only three names that deviate from the apparent pattern: Gerontius, Sigismond, and Faramir. Altho... looking at the children of Gerontius, they don't exactly follow the pattern, either (of showing family or clan through suffix). You'd think Isumbras IV would have been his firstborn, looking at the names of his forebears, but no, we have -grim and -gard preceding him. (And no sons with the suffix -ius. Must have been a special case, his naming, don't you think? And did he have a reason for naming the first two as he did, and using -bras for the first time with his third child?) Now I begin to wonder--Gerontius the exception (ah, the fun of dealing with "exceptional" hobbits!)--if the naming convention applied only to the firstborn son (daughters don't count--no I don't mean that the way it sounds, only that their naming is not constrained by the same convention of suffix. And though JRRT seemed amused to name all the children of a family with the same starting consonant, it wasn't a hard-and-fast rule, once again looking at Gerontius). But wait, Reginard and Everard both end in -ard. So there goes that theory. My goodness, the bunnies that arise from a simple analysis of names! Author Reply: p.s. Yes, it sadly sums up the Pippin-Paladin relationship well indeed. Sometimes I'm tempted to start an entire new cycle where Paladin continues a warm and loving father, and the estrangement never happened. "AU" if compared to the world I've already written, but certainly within the pale (is that how you spell it, used that way? I know how to say it but not how to spell it) of canon. And hopefully the world and personalities and relationships I've been imagining the past two years are also "possible" within the confines of canon. Author Reply: Anyhow, what I was saying above, while musing on names, was that naming practices in the Took clan seem pretty well laid-out and constrained by tradition, in which case "Faramir" would be a large break!

Beruthiel	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
"All very well and good, to name a lass as such, but what'll I do if the babe is a lad?" LOL! Liked the mix of serious and light topics in this chapter. Especially the mention of the trouble with Paladin. Nice to finally hear a little bit of Pippin's side of things, and it's clear that he doesn't know about Ferdi's shunning. (Are his parents ever planning to tell him about that? They must realize he doesn't know, especially if they mentioned it in one of their early letters, which Pip sent back unopened. Or do they actually think he wouldn't care about Ferdi, so no point in telling him?) Are you ever going to update "Thain"? (Can't help asking, getting greedy for more Pip-Paladin angst) Author Reply: The next chapter to "Thain" has been written in draft for awhile; we are just wrangling over how much "background" to cut before posting the edited draft. The birthday party, after Ferumbras' bombshell, really is pretty boring stuff. What with gossip and Tooks, and the fact that it was written to him (even though he didn't open the letter--perhaps Paladin didn't tell Eglantine this), I think his mother assumes he knows about Ferdi; her heart is truly grieved at his apparent hardness. Paladin, of course, may know the truth of the matter but seeing how he manages to ignore Ferdi, he may well be ignoring the rest of the truth as well. In a sense, as Ferdi says in another story, Paladin is likely pretending to himself that Pippin is on an extended visit to Buckland and that he'll return someday, and all will be well. ...besides the fact that he's suffered a series of small strokes, some of which may have diminished his ability to think clearly and reason things out, or at least may have clouded his thinking. Poor Paladin. He really is a tragic figure. Thanks.

Bodkin	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
Poor Ferdi. Poor Ferdi. Poor Ferdi. Who is currently living under the Ban because his cousin refuses to return to Tookland. Who endures - what is it? - nine years? ten? as the Invisible Hobbit. On the other hand, who can blame an ignorant Pippin for not being willing to throw himself back to the wolves (aka Paladin). And, even more, for not wanting to thrust Diamond into the hotbed that is the Smials. I'm glad he seems to be recovering a little. Faramir is a pretty un-Tookish name - but we could come up with others, although some you wouldn't want to inflict on a child. Gothmog, for instance. Or Grima. Eomer Took wouldn't be bad - although that should be saved for a Brandybuck. Keep Pippin's mind on happier thoughts, Merry. That's the way. Author Reply: Ah, yes, poor Ferdi. I had to think of him when I realised Merimac was at the Smials and would invariably seek out his old co-conspirator. How would it be that Pippin was ignorant of Ferdi's fate when he returned to Tookland after nine years of the Ban for Ferdi? Had to work out a way to explain it adequately. Looking in the genealogies gave me a clue, but also not a little sorrow. Gothmog. Now there's a name I can't place. Thanks!

Connie B.	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 2/14/2005
How sad it is that families can be torn apart by the actions of one person. I wonder how different things would have been had Paladin just once treated his son with respect and listened to his ideas. I know the elder hobbit was not happy with his own situation, but to transfer his displeasure with his own situation onto his son is just so sad. Pippin is bright and imaginative and could have made a very positive difference in his father's later years if he'd only been given a chance. But change comes slowly to many and Paladin appears to be one of those. He missed a great deal by not giving his son a chance. Pippin is not totally without fault, but in a way I can't blame him. It's sad to see one so young so bitter at his family. Stubborn parents and stubborn children can be a hazardous combination. I just hope Pippin doesn't name Faramir out of spite, but because that's the proper name for his son. Thanks for another good chapter. Glad RL let up the strangle-hold long enough for you to get it done. Connie B. Author Reply: Thanks! It's another busy week, so we'll see if I can manage to update again before the weekend or not... Well, Faramir won't be named completely out of spite, though there will be that element to it... not that Pippin would ever admit it to anyone but Merry. Paladin is more of a typical hobbit than the Travellers. I remember reading in Tolkien's letters that he found them very... what was the word he used? Annoying or irritating or something like that.

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