Brandybuck Clan Brandybuck Clan In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Brandybuck clan was a powerful Hobbit family. Like the other main aristocratic families, the Tooks and the Bolgers, they had a Fallohide strain, though they and the Bucklanders among whom they lived were at least partly of Stoor origin, and "by all accounts" had Bree blood as well. The family began as the Oldbuck clan, who named themselves such apparently after "Bucca of the Marish", the first Thain of the Shire. Eleven Oldbuck Thains followed, until "Gorhendad Oldbuck" crossed the Brandywine river into what would become Buckland. The
Old Forest of the Brandybucks during the War of the Ring was Meriadoc Brandybuck: Merry of the famous Fellowship of the Ring. He had been into the Old Forest "several times", and he had a key to the gate. On Merry's advice, Frodo Baggins (the bearer of the One Ring) decided to attempt a traversal of the dreadful forest in order to evade the pursuit of Black Riders: the forest was considered the lesser of two evils. The Old Forest experiences of Frodo, Merry and their companions Samwise Gamgee and Peregrin Took (and their ponies) are detailed in "The Fellowship of the