Meriadoc Brandybuck to be an actual phonetic transcription of the name in Tolkien's invented language of Westron, which Tolkien said he transliterated to English as follows: The nickname "Merry" represents his actual nickname "Kali" which meant "handsome, happy", and "Meriadoc" serves as a plausible name from which a nickname meaning "happy" could be derived. Alternately, "The Middle-Earth Encyclopedia" writes that Meriadoc means "joyful" or "cheerful," while Merry means "having high spirits." Théoden called Merry "Holdwine", and the Hobbit was thus known as such in the records of Rohan. It most probably derives from the Old English words "hold" and "wine", respectively meaning
John Gamgee John Gamgee John Gamgee (1831–1894) was a British veterinarian and inventor. Gamgee was born in Florence, the son of Joseph Gamgee (1801-1895), a Scottish veterinarian, and his wife, Mary Ann West (1799-1873). He was a sibling of Arthur Gamgee a biochemist and Dr Sampson Gamgee a surgeon and pioneer of aseptic surgery. Gamgee was educated at a number of institutions across Italy, Germany and Switzerland before graduating from the Royal Veterinary College in London. Appointed by the Privy Council to study a problem in cattle, he identified the threat of rinderpest from imported Baltic cows. He was the developer of