There’s no arguing that hobbits play one of the biggest roles in the Lord of the Rings, risking their lives for the sake of Middle-earth regularly. However, without any real battle ability or turn in carrying the ring, Pippin’s importance to the story takes a different form. It’s hard to consider Pippin without Merry because, together, their shenanigans contrast the seriousness of the rest of the party. They lighten the intense moments and remind everyone in the party to smile, or at least roll their eyes.
That doesn’t mean that the two young hobbits don’t have their own distinct personalities and character traits, though. Pippin is younger than his cousin, Merry, and tends to be more immature and as a result, makes more mistakes. Merry is more the leader of the two and Pippin, the curious follower.
Together, Pippin and Merry, having both spent time in one of the opposing lands of men, served as tools in the story to illuminate the kinds of rulers running each Kingdom. Merry spent time in Rohan and reflected the good leadership of Theoden, resulting in the hobbit having loyalty and close connections to the kingdom of Rohan. Pippin, on the other hand, was stuck with Denethor in Gondor and was forced to endure the hardship of his reign as a bad ruler. While for most of the story, the two hobbits seem to mirror each other’s situations, in this instance, their lives could not look more different.
Though Merry is often the one leading in their adventures, Pippin undergoes more of a journey in the story. From the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring, to the end of Return of the King, Pippin evolves much more than Merry, simply because he had a lot more growing up to do. This is his greatest relevance to the story because he illustrates that even those perceived as screw ups are capable of great things.
Pippin would aspire to his own greatness, separate from Merry’s, despite his humble hobbit background. His full name is Peregrin Took and he is the son of Paladin Took II and Eglantine Banks. He also had three sisters which explains his close relationship with his cousin. He was certainly not raised to battle Orcs or Trolls.
Despite not looking the part, Pippin would achieve things no other Hobbit had ever done. When Pippin left the Shire to go on the journey, he was the shortest of the Hobbits but it is said that after he and Merry drank from the draught of Treebeard, they grew to be some of the tallest Hobbits ever recorded. Pippin would even later become the 32nd Thain of the Shire and hold the position for 50 years.
Pippin very much represents the way that innocence is affected by difficult times. He must learn quicker and grow up faster than would usually be required of him in the Shire. For the first part of the story, he tends to need to learn things the hard way, by making mistakes and then having to endure the repercussions. At the beginning of the journey his mindset is very childlike but by the end, he seems much more grown up and observant.
For most of the story, Pippin demonstrates what it’s like to be an underdog. Gandalf is regularly scolding him and he and Merry are almost always excluded from dire situations and battles. This is a big factor in motivating him to step up and make up for his mistakes and to do something that contributes to the mission of the ring.
Pippin is arguably responsible for him and Merry even making it to the end of the story. In the moment where the two hobbits are captured by Orcs, Pippin is the one who thinks to drop the brooch that Galadriel gave him, so that Aragorn can find them. If he had not done this, it is very possible they may not have made it out alive.
Pippin also, unintentionally, helped Frodo in his journey with Sam and Gollum. When Pippin looked into Saruman’s palantir, Sauron saw the Hobbit and mistook him for being the one with the ring. Though this meant that Gandalf had to carry him to a hiding place to keep him safe, it also meant that Sauron would be looking for him instead.
Gandalf then rode with Pippin to Gondor, hoping to hide the hobbit there. This is a pivotal moment for Pippin because it is when he begins actively trying to clean up his own messes. Knowing that Denethor’s son, Boromir, died trying to protect him and Merry, he offered to serve Denethor in his kingdom. This decision, as a result, also allowed him to later save Faramir’s life.
Through all he endured, Pippin was never broken in spirit, but was strengthened through his experiences. Pippin would go on to join the Army of the West, under Aragorn’s leadership. In battle he would even kill a troll and get rescued by Gimli, all at once.
After the ring was destroyed, Merry and Pippin would return to the Shire for a long time. In that time, they would become even more famous in the Shire than Bilbo for the roles they play in fighting Saruman’s powers during the Scouring of the Shire.
By the end of his time battling, Pippin settled down and married Diamond of Long Cleeve and they had one son that Pippin named Faramir, in honor of the son of Gondor that he saved. Faramir Took would later go on to marry Samwise’s daughter, Goldilocks. Pippin would then go on one last journey with Merry to revisit Rohan and Gondor, where he would stay for the remainder of his life. When he died, he was buried alongside Merry and Aragorn in Gondor. By the end, he’d completely grown into his greatness.
There’s simply no denying that the message of the Lord of the Rings story would not be the same if it didn’t follow hobbits. Without Pippin, particularly, the story would lose a significant element of innocence, growth, and the light-hearted moments that are sprinkled throughout the story. His character took the skepticism he received from others and turned it into respect and, as a result, truly represented the capability of an underdog.