Why Gondor?

[Pantalaimon]

Don\'t know if this has been asked before, but why do you think Merry and Pippin decided to be burried in Gondor and not the Shire?

 

[Maeglin]

I can only assume that they wanted to be buried with other members of the fellowship, but unfortunately only one was left, and that was Aragorn. Frodo and Sam both left on ships for Valinor, as did Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf, and Boromir died much earlier. Not to mention that they would be much more honored and remembered well if buried in Gondor. The Shire knew virtually nothing about their heroic deeds in the War of the Ring apart from helping clear out the Shire when they returned, but it wasn't like they were going to be remembered forever there, so they probably went somewhere that they knew they'd be rememebered forever.

 

[elrilgalia]

Interesting...

Perhaps because that is where they were both reunited, when they thought each other dead before ??? and therefore it was significant..

And as Maeglin said, they had some significance in Gondor, as heroes... :-\

 

[HLGStrider]

Does anyone here know much about Hobbit burial procedures? Both Rohan and Gondor seem to have elaborate methods of honoring people after death. I never see anything like that mentioned for Hobbits. Now I'm sure they must've had something they did with their dead, but I can't see them embalming and displaying them in elaborate tombs. I think the Shire would have cared less where they were buried and Gondor would have cared some.

Also, weren't both Pippen and Merry in residence in Gondor/Rohan at this time? I doubt it would have been plausible to move them any great distance after death, well, it would have been possible but it also would have been difficult. They didn't exactly have refrigerated box cars.

 

[Adrian Atandil]

I can only assume that they wanted to be buried with other members of the fellowship, but unfortunately only one was left, and that was Aragorn. Frodo and Sam both left on ships for Valinor, as did Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf, and Boromir died much earlier. Not to mention that they would be much more honored and remembered well if buried in Gondor. The Shire knew virtually nothing about their heroic deeds in the War of the Ring apart from helping clear out the Shire when they returned, but it wasn't like they were going to be remembered forever there, so they probably went somewhere that they knew they'd be rememebered forever.

Um...no. Sam had left Middle-earth 2 years prior to Merry & Pippin leaving the Shire. They stayed in Rohan until Eomer's death then presumeably stayed in Gondor under Aragorn's rule. Legolas and Gimli where still hangin' around in their little enclaves. Merry & Pippin both died within a few short years and were laid in Rath Dinen until Aragorn finally died like 60 years later Legolas made the last ship and sailed with Gimli and the bodies of Aragorn, Merry, & Pippin to Valinor.

 

[Thorondor_]

Merry & Pippin both died within a few short years and were laid in Rath Dinen until Aragorn finally died like 60 years later Legolas made the last ship and sailed with Gimli and the bodies of Aragorn, Merry, & Pippin to Valinor.

Where is that stated?

 

[Eriol]

I don't think they wanted to be buried in Gondor, specifically. They probably just wanted to spend their last years with Aragorn, remembering their youth. Their burial in Gondor was just a consequence of that. Hobbits, as Elgee said, do not seem to worry so much about burial conditions, I'd say they just assumed they would be taken care of in Gondor (i.e. they did not expect great tombs).

 

[Maeglin]

Where is that stated?

I agree....nowhere does it say that Legolas and Gimli took the bodies with them. In fact it states that Merrry and Pippin were indeed honored with a burial in Gondor, whether or not they shared tombs with the Kings I do not recall, but anyway....Aragorn's body certainly stayed in Gondor, I don't think there is any way the people were about let them take away the body of perhaps the greatest King of Gondor ever, one who saved the kingdom from complete destruction.

 

[Adrian Atandil]

D'oh! Apparently I was remembering something that doesn't exist. The exact quote from the Appendices is:

In this year on March 1st came at last the Passing of King Elessar. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Don't ask me why I remember Legolas taking the three departed with him, I don't know where I got that from. Everything else I said was right though.