Peregrin Took as Merry, was his cousin; another good friend was Frodo Baggins. 'Peregrin' means 'traveller in strange countries'. Pippin indeed saw much more of Middle-earth than most Hobbits: he journeyed with Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring, and fought in the War of the Ring. Late in life he travelled again to the kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor. Pippin's hair colour is mentioned as "almost golden" in "The History of Middle-earth", vol. IX, "Sauron Defeated", through the eyes of Pippin Gamgee. In the later drafts of this same section Tolkien omitted this statement, leaving the reader to envisage Pippin's appearance.
Gamgee Tissue and "Brandywine" (an obvious English pun on the Elvish "Baranduin", 'justified' as translation of a similarly alcoholic pun in Westron). In this context we may suspect that the Professor is speaking tongue-in-cheek; the "Gamgee" entry is phrased such that it can be read as a poker-faced, academic way of pointing out that the joke is there, whether or not he intended it. Gamgee Tissue Gamgee Tissue is a surgical dressing invented by Dr. Joseph Sampson Gamgee in Birmingham, England, in 1880. Gamgee Tissue has a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze. It represents the