Lord of the Rings Originally Planned To Kill off This Fan-Favorite Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings ending could have been a darker one instead of the hopeful one it originally had. Early drafts indicate that Tolkien once considered killing off one of his most beloved characters.

Pippin could have died in The Lord of the Rings

While The Lord of the Rings ultimately ends with all four Hobbits: Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin returning safely to the Shire, this perhaps was not Tolkien’s first plan. As per The Treason of Isengard, the seventh volume of The History of Middle-earth series, Tolkien initially imagined a version of the story where not every Hobbit made it home.

In early notes written after the Fellowship’s stay in Lothlórien, the author outlined several possible plot developments. It seems he was uncertain whether the Great Eagles would ultimately save Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom. He wrote, “Somehow or other Frodo and Sam must be found in Gorgoroth. Possibly by Merry and Pippin.” Then came the dark ending line: “If any one of the Hobbits is slain it must be the cowardly Pippin doing something brave. For instance—”

Tolkien never completed that sentence, leaving readers to wonder what heroic act might have sealed Pippin’s fate. A clue to what that tragic version might have looked like appears in The Return of the King. In the chapter “The Black Gate Opens,” Pippin heroically slays a massive troll to save his Gondorian comrade, Beregond. “Blackness and stench and crushing pain came upon Pippin, and his mind fell away into a great darkness.”

As he lost consciousness, Pippin’s final thoughts seemed like a farewell: “‘Bilbo!’ it said. ‘But no! That came in his tale, long, long ago. This is my tale, and it is ended now. Good-bye!’” Many readers believed this scene was originally meant for Pippin’s death.

In Tolkien’s final version, Gimli later discovers him alive beneath the troll’s corpse, but reported evidence shows the author once thought of leaving him there.

(via CBR)

Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net