Re: Happy Apple

> In the Lord of the Rings movies, Merry and Pippin were as youthful idiots.
> Pippin especially, but Merry as well.  As I recall, in the books Pippin
> *was* a youthful idiot, but Merry was more of a middle-aged, responsible,
> non-idiot hobbit.
>
> It's been a while since I've read the books (around the time the movies
> were released), but am I remembering correctly about the books?  Was Merry
> an idiot or a non-idiot?

As I recall, Pippin had only just reached his majority, while Frodo,
Merry, and Sam were all older. Frodo was supposed to be well into
middle age and already beginning to show signs, like Bilbo before him,
of being "well-preserved."

Mind you, I think making them all the same age in the movies worked
much better to make people more sympathetic toward the hobbits as a
group.

Laurie