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If It's Trewsday It Must Be Buckland...  by Dreamflower 5 Review(s)
Kaylee ArafinwielReviewed Chapter: 30 on 10/26/2011
Aww, I love this! It's sad that Merry and Pippin's children never saw their fathers again, but at least the two were with their Kings again.

Kaylee

Author Reply: I think that their children knew it would be best if their fathers left, that they needed to go back to those places they'd been in their youth.

Have you ever read Elanor's "A Secret Gate"? It's the best story I know of about Merry and Pippin going away. It's not on SoA, and it's still a WIP, but if you want to read it, I'll send you a link!

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 30 on 7/29/2011
A big moment for them both. Interesting that all Four Travelers died outside the Shire. Love how you ended each stanza with the same words.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

Author Reply: I think it is more than just interesting, I think it is significant. Clearly something about each of them had changed so much that they could not find their final rest in their beloved homeland.

Raksha The DemonReviewed Chapter: 30 on 4/2/2011
A charming poem. Merry and Pippin were always notable for their large spirits; and, because of the Ring War, and all the wonders and horrors they had witnessed; they became too large for the Shire. Their leaving the Shire to live out their final years in Gondor and Rohan strikes me as bittersweet but very appropriate; and you capture it perfectly here.

Author Reply: Thank you very much for your astute observations! All of that is exactly what I wished to convey, and I am so happy to see that in your case at least, I achieved it.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 30 on 4/1/2011
The world behind and home ahead

Much said with so few lines indeed!

A beautiful walking song which fits perfectly with the starting quote!

Author Reply: Thank you! I think that once those they loved most in the Shire had passed on, they'd begin to think of their other "family" and their other "home" in the South!

eilujReviewed Chapter: 30 on 3/30/2011
Their story never quite ends. -- There's quite a lot in those few words.

We don't have the details of their lives in the White City. 8-(

Tolkien didn't give us their death dates, so there's "no end" in that sense either. [Admittedly, he couldn’t tell us of Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam’s deaths, because there could have been no news from the West. So did JRRT simply follow the pattern and not tell us Merry and Pippin’s death dates, or did he have some other reason?]

We don't know how much information got back to the Shire from Minas Tirith. Well, of course Merry and Pippin sent letters to the Shire. And surely Aragorn sent additional details when he wrote people in the Shire, as well as speaking of Merry and Pippin to their families when he visited the North. [Now there's an interesting speculation: how many years were they in the City, and did Aragorn visit the North during that time, Merry and Pip being too elderly to travel with him?] But regardless how much their friends and families were told, I’m sure they would have liked to have known more.

Yet there's the conundrum that almost none of the details about Merry and Pip’s lives in the South got into the Red Book. There are some later dates and details about other people: the birth of Harding of the Hill in S.R. 1501 and forty years later Aragorn's death, Arwen’s fate, and Legolas and Gimli’s sailing -- but no end to Merry and Pippin's tale (aside from the info about the later disposition of their bodies alongside Aragorn’s).

And finally, the story never quite ends because when they died, there was still "home ahead."

Author Reply: No, we don't. There is a snippet, I think in UT, that says that the two of them died within a day of one another, but still, no date. Of course it had to be before Aragorn died.

I like to imagine the two of them living in Elessar's court, the darlings of everyone, and spoiled rotten by their friends for several years. I have written two stories set during that time.

"And finally, the story never quite ends because when they died, there was still "home ahead." "

Indeed! *grins*

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