The Lord of the Rings Almost Killed Off a Fan-Favorite Hobbit — And It Wasn’t the One You’d Expect
Middle-earth nearly got a far bleaker curtain call: early drafts show J.R.R. Tolkien considered killing Pippin, a twist that would have turned The Lord of the Rings finale from hopeful to heartbreaking.
Turns out The Lord of the Rings almost took a nastier turn. Tolkien seriously considered ending things with one fewer Hobbit making it home — and the target was Pippin. Yes, the cheerful one.
The darker fork in the road Tolkien sketched
The idea shows up in The Treason of Isengard — that’s volume seven of The History of Middle-earth — where Tolkien’s early notes, written after the Fellowship leaves Lothlorien, map out a rougher endgame. He was still undecided on how Frodo and Sam would get out of Mordor, even questioning whether the Great Eagles would rescue them from Mount Doom. One note floats the possibility that Merry and Pippin might be the ones to find the Ring-bearers on the ash plains of Gorgoroth:
"Somehow or other Frodo and Sam must be found in Gorgoroth. Possibly by Merry and Pippin."
Then comes the gut-punch line — the one that hints at a much bleaker finale for one Hobbit in particular:
"If any one of the Hobbits is slain it must be the cowardly Pippin doing something brave. For instance-"
He never finishes that sentence. Which is somehow worse. But you can see the shape of what he was thinking when you get to The Return of the King. In the chapter The Black Gate Opens, Pippin cuts down a massive troll to save his Gondorian friend Beregond. The price is immediate: blackness, stench, crushing weight — and a goodbye that reads like a curtain drop.
'Bilbo!' it said. 'But no! That came in his tale, long, long ago. This is my tale, and it is ended now. Good-bye!'
That absolutely plays like a death scene. In the published version we all know, Gimli later discovers Pippin alive under the troll’s body. But the draft material makes it pretty clear Tolkien once considered leaving him there.
It’s a fascinating what-if, especially given how warmly the saga actually lands — all four Hobbits back in the Shire, battered but breathing. Tolkien’s abandoned note paints a different exit for Pippin: the so-called coward earning a brave, tragic end.
Credit where it’s due: this nugget was highlighted by CBR and originally reported by Devanshi Basu at SuperHeroHype.