Q: Was Pippin Took Really a Prince?
ANSWER: After Peregrin Took has sworn service to Gondor and Denethor, he is outfitted in the livery of the White Tower of the Stewards. As he walks down through the city toward the gates he hears people calling out in Sindarin, Ernil-i-Pheriannath, “Prince of the Halflings”. Some readers ask if the Gondorians were paying tribute to Pippin’s status among Hobbits of the Shire, or if they were merely giving him a nickname based on his appearance. Here is the key paragraph:
People stared much as he passed. To his face men were gravely courteous, saluting him after the manner of Gondor with bowed head and hands upon the breast; but behind him he heard many calls, as those out of doors cried to others within to come and see the Prince of the Halflings, the companion of Mithrandir. Many used some other tongue than the Common Speech, but it was not long before he learned at least what was meant by Ernil i Pheriannath and knew that his title had gone down before him into the City.
As the son of the rightful Thain of the Shire, Pippin would himself one day inherit the office. The Thainship had been bestowed upon the Oldbuck family, and then the Tooks (after the Oldbucks left the Shire), by the various heads of the families of Shire-folk, “to hold the authority of the king that was gone.” The word thain is undoubtedly intended to recall Old English thegn, a warrior servant of a king, prince, or lord. In Scotland a Thane was a minor noble positioned between a freeman and an earl. The Etymology Online Dictionary equates that office with an English Baron.
The Thain of the Shire was more than a clan-chief but not really a prince. Nonetheless, when Merry and Pippin met Theoden for the first time in the ruins of Isengard, Merry introduced Pippin with a special dignity:
‘Welcome, my lords, to Isengard!’ he said. ‘We are the doorwardens. Meriadoc, son of Saradoc is my name; and my companion, who, alas! is overcome with weariness’ — here he gave the other a dig with his foot — ‘is Peregrin, son of Paladin, of the house of Took. Far in the North is our home. The Lord Saruman is within; but at the moment he is closeted with one Wormtongue, or doubtless he would be here to welcome such honourable guests.’
When Merry says “of the house of Took” he is essentially acknowledging Pippin as a noble-born member of Shire society. Merry could probably name himself a member of the “house of Brandybuck” for the Master of Buckland (his father) was not simply a clan-chieftain but was the hereditary leader of a “tribal” land or folkland outside the Shire.
That doesn’t mean that the Thain and the Master of Buckland are princes among hobbits — but they are surely nobles and their families hold an aristocratic status among hobbitry. Pippin’s impromptu title among the folk of Minas Tirith was probably more a sign of hope (that Gondor wasn’t fighting the war alone) than anything else, but it was not completely misplaced. Aragorn elevated the Thain and the Master of Buckland (along with the Mayor of the Shire) in status within the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor by making them members of the council of the North-kingdom. His appointment was not simply a benevolent act of friendship or patronage — the Shire-folk and Bucklanders were undoubtedly a vital resource for any attempt to re-establish the ancient Dunadan kingdom of Arnor. Their leaders thus played important roles in that process.
When Aragorn formally joined the Buckland to the Shire, however, the Master of Buckland would have assumed a secondary role behind that of the Thain. The Wardens of the Westmarch (Sam’s descendants) probably assumed a comparable status to that of the Masters of Buckland.
See Also
Did the Shire Have An Army or A Military?
Of Thegns And Kings And Rangers And Things
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