#bilbo gamgee

meg is me:

Can you imagine when elanor was born and sam was like all tender and amazed and he was like "lets call him frodo" and rosie was like. She's a girl, Sam And Sam was like..... so excited to name his son frodo that he forgot it might not be a son XD

Me:

I love that he canonically didn’t even consider that she MIGHT be a girl until she came out as one 🤣🤣 “We were all set to name him Frodo! But, well, ah. He’s a she. :-C”

meg is me:

I love sam Bless sam

I desperately hope that Sam's son Bilbo was 10x worthy of the name 😂

Me:

Bilbo Gamgee was an utter gremlin

Writing Valkyrie:

He just recites poetry to get out of punishment. Sometimes it works.

meg is me:

"First he's robbing the pantry. Next he'll be robbing dragons- THAT'S MY WEDDING RING"

Me:

Bilbo Jr. tells his friends about how he, too, won his ring in a game of wits against a nasty, ugly creature while Sam is over there waiting for him to give his wedding band back like >:-C

meg is me:

Better yet His older siblings And they half believe him because quote "Daddy is rather ugly" and Elanor gets SO offended on dear old Sam's behalf

Elanor could be overheard hugging her dad and saying "don't worry you're very handsome" Sam just laughs

Me:

“Well your mother thinks I’m handsome, and that’s all that matters ;-)” Cue the chorus of “EWWW”

Windmill to the Stars:

100% something my dad would say XD

meg is me:

It's split between ewwww and awwww Bby frodo ships his dad and mom so hard and is ecstatic to learn that they have in fact gotten married to each other

Me:

“So you’ll be together?? FOREVER??” “Indeed we will, lad!” “8-D”

Frodo Jr. ships his mom and dad almost as hard as his namesake did

InvisibleWashboard:

So Frodo-lad is not the little boy who is disappointed when he learns he can’t marry Rosie when he grows up, but was baby Elanor initially devastated when Rosie had to tell her, “You can’t marry Sam-dad love, he’s already married to me.”??

Me:

Oh my word I love that ahaha Elanor is 100% a daddy's girl

Windmill to the Stars:

In the epilogue she calls him "Sam-dad"

InvisibleWashboard:

Sam-dad and Rose-mum just absolutely freaking melts my heart every time I think about it. I don’t know why.

meg is me:

He loves his family so so much

Me:

See I know it says in the epilogue that Frodo Jr. is the spitting image of Sam, but part of me can’t help imagining that he looks like Elijah Wood’s Frodo… Brown curly hair and all that

meg is me:

Speaking of facts disproved by the appendices but true in my bones Merry and Pippin Gamgee are twins

Me:

oh my word I love that

InvisibleWashboard:

I like that this is true in your bones and not in your heart. Because the heart is fickle and can be changed by things like canon. Bones are more stubborn. Sometimes not even canon can break them.

meg is me:

I adore that they aren't named Meriadoc and Peregrin but rather Merry and Pippin Sam took his dad's advice to heart- if you give them a short name you don't need to worry about nicknames Guess old Gaffer learned from needing to shorten his son's names to Ham, Sam, etc

Me:

“I’m not giving my boys those fru-fru gentlehobbit names, they’ll have short names like sensible folk”

meg is me:

Pippin casually mentions to Sam if it's a boy maybe we'll name him Aragorn Strider Elessar, Gorn for short And sam is an inch away from taking custody of Pippin's unborn child

Me:

HAHAHA PIPPIN NO

Topic Two: Merry's Kids

InvisibleWashboard:

I head canon Merry being that way with his kids only he desperately wants a girl so he can name her Eowyn.

meg is me:

Merry has Boromir, Eomer, and like 3 other sons before baby Eowyn comes into the world

Me:

Would Merry even feel worthy of naming a son Theoden?? I feel like he’d want to, but…

meg is me:

Ok but bby Theo With his little curls

InvisibleWashboard:

Theodoc.

meg is me:

Theodocuments

Me:

THEODOC I LOVE IT NO LISTEN I AM 100% ADOPTING THEODOC INTO MY BELIEF SYSTEM ‘CAUSE IT JUST F I T S

Windmill to the Stars:

Part of me wants Merry to half-jokingly ship his daughter Eowyn with Faramir Took. Partially just so he and Pip can share grandkids

Me:

There’s no canon evidence that to disprove that some OTHER pair of their children ended up getting married! X-D

Topic Three: Pippin's Kids

meg is me:

I wrote a fic where Pip had a daughter named Sable because my best friend at the time was named Sable and the only place the word sable was found in lotr was in regards to Pip's tower guard uniform

Me:

That's so sweet oh my word

meg is me:

Pippin in many ways will never mature and I love him for it I'm still stuck on him and diamond naming their kids the most obscure things after Merry stole all the Friend Names besides Faramir The tooks already sound Outlandish

Pippin and diamond would be that couple who wants to choose Unique baby names but their friends keep reining them in "Let's name him TREEBEARD" "hmm and Enta for a girl" Sam: do you HEAR YOURSELVES

Windmill to the Stars:

What nickname would Pippin give to his son Faramir?

Kasey Gondor:

Furry

Me:

Progressively shortened more and more until it’s just “Ra”

InvisibleWashboard:

Faramir refuses any and all nicknames anyone attempts to give him ever.

Windmill to the Stars:

Faramir is "Me, an Intellectual" from an early age XD

meg is me:

He started "courting" lil Goldilocks at age 7 and Sam wants to be mad but it reminds him so much of him and Rosie that he lets Faramir Took pick the flowers from his garden to give to his daughter

Goldilocks: daddy fair-meer picked MY flowers! 😄 Sam: ....we planted those together, sweetheart Sam: beyond pleased for you, lass

Me:

Sam sitting down with little Faramir Took and having a Very Serious Talk that if he intends to court sweet little Goldilocks he’ll have to be very kind and good and generous to her and always look out for her good above his own even if it’s hard and it hurts

Faramir was like 9, and all Sam was concerned about was Faramir pushing her and pulling her hair and stealing the berries out of her picnic basket, but it stuck

Years later, after the wedding, Faramir tells Sam that he’s never forgotten that talk and it absolutely changed his life and Sam is like “wot” cuz he’d forgotten all about it

InvisibleWashboard:

NO STOP IT THAT IS TOO CUTE

Windmill to the Stars (re: nicknames):

Ferry to rhyme with Merry, and lil Faramir HATES it

meg is me:

THIS IS CANON TO ME STARTING NOW

InvisibleWashboard:

That is so good I adore it!

meg is me:

Pippin: "hop in the cart fam we're going to Buckland" everyone looks at faramir Faramir: "don't" Pippin: "We're gonna go on the FERRY"

Me:

EYYYYYY

Merry, meanwhile, calls him Master Faramir, and this is why Merry is his favorite uncle

meg is me:

perfection

Fatty Bolger has three daughters and no other kids

One is Athelas, nicknamed Addie

Addie got sick when she was young and lost most of her hearing

Addie is best friends with Prim Gamgee

Addie and Prim hang out all the time and, in addition to being fluent in SSL (Shire Sign Language), they also constantly make up their own nonsense signs so that no one else can understand them

Another Bolger daughter is Azalea, nicknamed Azzie

Azzie and Addie are very close in age

(Not sure if we reached a consensus on who's older, but I feel like Azzie is older)

Azzie is a natural storyteller; she gets it from her dad

Since she tells her stories with both her voice and her hands it's somehow more spellbinding

She discovered puppet shows at the age of 3 and a half and was instantly hooked

When she's older, she makes her own puppets

Puts on puppet shows for her family

They don't have any talking, just Action, and Addie loves the action best

She used to put on shows for Baby Heather before she was ambulatory and got quite offended once Heather was old enough to crawl away

The youngest Bolger daughter is Heather

Heather is a good deal younger than her sisters and is spoiled rotten but she's the sweetest thing

Heather is constantly hungry and always eating, and yet she stays Very Short

She's perfectly healthy and round, just Smol

Mental image: Four girl hobbits (Prim, Addie, Azzie, and Heather) in a blanket tent, signing rapidly to each other, and no words can be heard but an unending stream of giggles

They're having a sleepover and Fatty has to keep coming in to tell them to be quiet. Heather and Azzie promise they'll hush, but Prim and Addie don't realize how loud they're being and it just sets the other two off all over again.

Azzie hears the story of Beren and Luthien from Prim's dad (very important he is, he's the mayor, you know!), and she sews her own puppets and puts on a show of it

The Beren puppet has a hand that's held on by a button

Once (don't ask me how) Aragorn and Arwen get to watch Azzie's Beren and Luthien show

They have nothing but positive reviews

(Even if Baby Heather tried to eat the wolf puppet halfway through)

Arwen is delighted and wants to help Azzie make some beautiful blinged out elvish puppets with gems sewn into them

Azzie never uses them but they are kept in a glass box and TreasuredTM

Fatty likes to wrestle with his friends' sons, since he has no boys of his own

Addie, however, is a tomboy and WILL go at it with her father if given the chance

Addie and Frodo Gamgee got in a fight once. For fun. She's four years younger than Frodo, and bby Frodo had to suffer a lecture from his no-nonsense dad, but Addie got off easy and Frodo still holds a bit of a grudge lol

He still thinks she's cool tho

(To which I suggested: "ship??" and got at least one eyes emoji, so there's that)

Prim is neither the best friend who's always talking Addie down, nor the best friend who's constantly hyping her up, but the best friend who hangs back like "I won't stop you but you should NOT"

Secretly Prim likes tending wounds

She has a makeshift vet office in the backyard

Bby Bilbo brings her his dragon (it's a lizard named Smaug)

(I suggested the lizard actually be a skink but the jury's still out on that one)

The Gamgees do not have pets, as a rule, but many animals and pet bugs are either smuggled or wander in

Rosie like "where's my best pot??" too bad now it's the home of Pippin's grasshopper

The Tooks, on the other hand, have lots of pets and very absurd ones too

Real conversation between Goldilocks and Rosie: "But Ma, why can't I play with the snake?" "Because it's poisonous. If it bites you, you will die." "But Faramir has a pet snake." "Faramir has a what now"

When they're older, Faramir and Goldie end up being that super weird couple with exotic pets and no kids for a very long time

"Ma when we get married we'll have snakes" "No Goldi" "Ma Faramir said so" "SAM call off the marriage" "They're seven, love—" "Call it off"

Mental Image: Estella is a fantastic baker. She's in the kitchen at Crickhollow or Brandyhall with a mess of little girls—her nieces and daughter(s)—all around her, talking and signing instructions, and no one is listening to her, and there's flour EVERYWHERE, and she's getting exasperated but simultaneously loving it

Elanor, being the oldest of a TON of younger cousins/relatives, is sort of the de facto leader on play dates

Get all the Gamgees, Brandybucks, Tooks, and Bolgers together, and Elanor can be seen holding a stick over her head like a general's baton and leading this veritable army of hobbit children down to the Party Field

Elanor was pretty uninterested in romance when she was young—too busy doing other things to get fussed about boys, and her standards were too high for most of them anyway—until one day she met Fastred and she came home and said, "Ma, I've found him", and whaddya know she had

(Still undecided whether they met because Elanor was in Greenholm for some reason or Fastred came to Hobbiton on business with his father, but either way Elanor and Fastred didn't meet until towards the end of their tweens)

When Sam tells stories he adjusts them for the ears of kids

Merry does not

Not even a little bit

(Unless Estella is nearby in which case he's gonna get an earful)

"Hey, kids, wanna hear about the time I killed a demon??"

Estella from the other room: "MERRY NO"

He's a bad judge of what's too scary for kids

He tells the story of their adventure with no filter at all

Sam tries to teach the kids lessons through the stories and that love conquers all

Pippin adds his own little bits and pieces every time he tells it until his version and the OG are nothing alike

At one point Legolas had wings (when Gandalf asked him to bring down the sun on Caradhras) and Gimli ate rocks

Gimli has actually eaten rocks

It was on a dare and he doesn't want anyone to know

Pippin had no idea; it was just a lucky guess

One time the kids asked Gimli if he actually ate rocks and he's just nervously sweating and wondering how the heck they know that

Pippin is shocked to find out he was actually right about this when he was just talking out his butt

(Legolas has also eaten rocks on a dare but we all knew that already)

The oldest kids get together sometimes—Elanor, Frodo, Boromir, and Faramir—to talk about their parents and try to understand what they went through

Faramir Took talks about how sometimes his father refuses that he get near any sort of fire

He'll be playing in his home by firelight while Pippin watches from the doorway, muttering to himself I'd never, I'd never, so fiercely that little Faramir looks up in innocent surprise and asks what he's talking about

And Pippin has to leave the room before he starts to cry

(Deep down, Pippin is sure Denethor loved his son too)

(And the Palantir haunts him to this day)

Boromir Brandybuck confesses that he's heard his dad cry out in his sleep some nights and he's scared to ask his parents about it

Boromir: "My father is a Knight of Rohan and Master of Buckland, a brave Traveller. He's never afraid." Elanor: "...He might be." Boromir: "No."

Merry's laughing in the face of fear mentality has an unintended effect on Boromir in particular. He wants to be his father; he wants to be fearless; Dad makes it look so easy!

Estella overhears once and has to explain the difference between fear and cowardice

The first time young Faramir goes to Gondor with this family, and poor little Goldi doesn't go, Rosie is struck with the sense of waiting her baby must be feeling

"He's my best friend ma" "I know, love" "It's far"

Rosie thinks, well, at least Goldi knows where he's going and when he's coming home again

When Theodoc's AccidentTM happened—the one that broke his feet and crippled him—the doctors were all telling Merry that Theodoc will live. All the pony did when it fell on him was crush his legs.

But Merry thinks they're lying. No, he is SURE that they are lying, because that's just how Theoden died. Crushed beneath his horse. They were both destined to die this way.

He cursed his son the moment he decided to honor the king who was like a father to him.

There he is, having a panic attack right there while the doctor is in with Theo, like "I killed him, I killed him, I killed my son—"

(And Pippin is the one who comforts him; Pippin, the one who has nightmares sometimes about burning with his Faramir)

The Travellers all talk about Gandalf differently

Sam waxes eloquent about his fireworks

That's all he talks about

Pippin laughingly and affectionately exaggerates how cranky Gandalf always was

"Once I rode on a horse with him" "Ooooooo"

"Didn't he call you a fool of a Took?" "NO that is what he called Merry but he is always caught up in his wizardry that he sometimes forgets that Merry unfortunately isn't a Took"

(Cue the distant, insulted Brandybuck noises)

Merry is the only reliable source of information, but only if you catch him in the right mood; otherwise he'll only mention the smoke rings Gandalf would blow

Merry has a killer Gandalf impression. Chomping on the pipe and everything

Bby Bilbo gets all his Gandalf info from Merry and Sam is Very Offended

(However, Sam owns Bilbo Sr.'s book, so that earns Bilbo Jr.'s trust back)

Frodo has had it up to HERE with fireworks, so he flees with his little brother to listen to Uncle Merry

They ask about Gandalf, and Uncle Merry goes "ah yes, brilliant fellow, a real grump. gorgeous fireworks—" and Frodo about tears his own hair out

(Merry is doing this on purpose. He knows how Sam gets about the darn fireworks.)

Frodo: "We have one last option. We have to go to Uncle Pippin."

Bilbo: "Do you trust everything he says? He once said that Mr. Legolas had wings."

Bilbo: "Mr. Legolas doesn't have wings."

Frodo: "How do you know that?"

Bilbo: "I don't want to talk about it"

(Legolas loves being called Mr. Legolas, but only by little hobbits)

And then there's the one about the lullaby Sam uses for his kids, but I'm saving that for a future fanfic ;-)

CURRENT ROLL CALL

Brandybuck Kids: Theodoc (Theo/Trotter), Periadoc (Perry), Eomer (Merry?), Juniper, Madoc, Boromir (Rory), Eowyn (Wyn)

Took Kids: Faramir (Ferry), Simbelmyne (Minnie), Beregond (Berry), Sable

Bolger Kids: Athelas (Addie), Azalea (Azzie), Heather

Me:

Bilbo swiftly gets himself into a wrestling match with Gimli

InvisibleWashboard:

And Legolas and Gimli definitely take him on a mini adventure while they're visiting.

Writing Valkyrie:

He asks Gimli about his beard.

Me:

*Mean Girl voice* “Oh my GOSH, Bilbo, you can’t just ask people why they have beards!”

Writing Valkyrie:

He wants to know for when he has his own beard! Gimli is like, "Um, lad, I don't know if you'll have a beard." But still teaches him anyways..

Me:

Where’s that headcanon post about the Brandybucks being the only hobbits who can grow even a little bit of facial hair, and Merry is inordinately proud that he has three chin hairs he’s gotta shave every day??

InvisibleWashboard:

Estella absolutely makes fun of him relentlessly for this.

Writing Valkyrie:

He treats 'em with the same importance and respect as the three hairs Galadriel gave Gimli.

meg is me:

Little bilbo asks to see the map of The Mountain and the key and everything and Gimli is like.... here's a Gondor map? And bilbo is like YES but you gotta put a dragon on it and Gimli is like I borrowed this from aragorn I can't deface it and Legolas is like I personally will draw you a dragon little hobbit child

Legolas can't draw

InvisibleWashboard:

Legolas not being able to draw is giving me fits.

meg is me:

I imagine little Bilbo being adamant that he is BILBO And he wants Bilbo's adventure When he leaves the house he forgets his handkerchief on purpose just so he can say he forgot it 😂 He loves Gimli because Dwarves are essential to The Bilbo Story He hears Legolas is from Mirkwood and he is OVER THE MOON

Me:

This is 100% in keeping with Tolkien’s own epilogue (in which all the Gamgee kids are nearly carbon copies of their namesakes) (Except for Frodo Gamgee, who is a carbon copy of Sam)

Windmill to the Stars:

Frodo simply cannot be copied

meg is me:

Elanor is more like Frodo than her brother is

Me:

this is why she’s Frodo’s favorite in the Magnolia AU

meg is me:

Help i am becoming obsessed with autistic!Bilbo Gamgee

InvisibleWashboard:

No help, just encouragement in your obsession.

Windmill to the Stars:

Now we all have our favorite bbys XD

meg is me:

He can RECITE "there and back again" Or at least large portions of it

Bilbo jr wants to be a spider killer but Elanor hates killing things and he refuses to make his sister sad

"Dad" "Yes, lad?" "Dad i dont think I want to kill a spider" "You don't have to, son" "You did." does sam admit the spider might still be alive

Me:

no. that just makes it worse

Windmill to the Stars:

Bilbo gets to kill spiders once Elanor marries and leaves Bag End

chaosandwhatnot:

The days before her wedding, he would constantly look at the spiders with narrowed evil eyes and tell them that it is only a matter of time

meg is me:

Becomes a Ghostbuster

Spiderbuster

Me:

(I’m just curious how much of this is you ladies spitballing and how much is from personal experience, because I am 100% thinking of a particular family I know when I write these things LOL)

InvisibleWashboard:

.....I have a van window that is full of stickers.

Writing Valkyrie:

Hold on one sec...

Me:

Don’t you go revealing any license plates on the internet, Valkyrie X-D

Writing Valkyrie:

Oh, no worries 🤣

Just gotta get a picture of Missy

Me:

I LOVE IT HAHAHA

Windmill to the Stars:

Suddenly imagining the next generation in the Shire with Perry and Ferry and the Master of Buckland and the Thain (and idk if Frodo Gardner follows his dad in becoming the mayor of Hobbiton.)

Me:

Okay wait: Is Periadoc Merry’s first son, or is Theodoc?? This is very important to me

Kasey Gondor:

twins

InvisibleWashboard:

Theodoc is for sure the oldest, at least in my head.

Writing Valkyrie:

Theodoc born first by several minutes

Me:

I LOVE THIS TWINS HECK YEAH Poor Estella, her first pregnancy and it's twins LOL 🤣

Windmill to the Stars:

Technically she could have older daughters but yeah I think we said before his sons were first

InvisibleWashboard:

I've always imagined he had a set of twins, but it was the last two kids he had. Estella was like, "We've had a bunch of boys, let me try and give you your Eowyn. One more!" Then it ends up being twins, but they don't know. A boy is born first, and they're like, "Yay, another kid, but this is kind of a bummer because we REALLY wanted a girl." And then, BOOM. Surprise daughter! And Merry is just over the moon

Me:

ACK THAT'S SO CUTE

Windmill to the Stars:

How many sons total does Merry have now??

Me:

Yes X-D

Windmill to the Stars:

I mean he's not gonna beat Sam probably but still

Me:

He has yes amount of sons

Writing Valkyrie:

All of his sons are his.

Me:

This is true! Accurate statement!

InvisibleWashboard:

I have 6 sons, one daughter in my one-shot that I've written. A boatload of kids, but not a cruise ship like the Gamgee's.

Me:

cruise ship 🤣🤣

Writing Valkyrie:

He needs it. They'd sink a boat.

meg is me:

Which of Pippin or Merry's kids (her honorary cousins) do you headcanon Elanor is closest to?

[There was much discussion in response to this question, but I'm cutting most of it for the sake of time lol]

Windmill to the Stars:

Depending on how old Periadoc and Theodoc are they could be closer to Elanor

Theodoc seems like he should be a bit adventurous And Elanor as well, so maybe they bond over that

Elanor moving into the Tower Hills with her husband but they always welcome her favorite cousin Theodoc who brings them gifts from his adventures

Theodoc is borderline a Knight Errant

Theodoc rides horses and boats with equal ease, he has his own nickname in Bree

meg is me:

What is it

Windmill to the Stars:

. . . Good question

meg is me:

and can he ride barrels

InvisibleWashboard:

Yes, this is the important question.

Windmill to the Stars:

Of course he can!

meg is me:

Yisss

Writing Valkyrie:

He teaches little Bilbo how

Me:

Bilbo Jr. WOULD take up boating just to give his poor mother a heart attack

Windmill to the Stars:

Amendment: he has like 5 nicknames in Bree Theodoc becomes actual Trotter

Me:

Minus the wooden feet, I hope??

Windmill to the Stars:

Oooh yes, definitely! 😬

Me:

I mean…it wouldn’t be so bad if Theodoc was born disabled and still had an adventurous spirit. Kinda rad, actually.

Windmill to the Stars:

Ahhh that's true! New hc

[Bonus]

Windmill to the Stars:

I'm getting way carried away with this, Theodoc wasn't my idea

Me:

Theodoc is OUR idea Communism

Kasey Gondor: