This cache is placed in Pace Bend Park, a Travis County Park located approximately 30 miles west of Austin on Lake Travis. The park is open 7 days a week from sunrise to 9pm for day-use visitors with overnight camping available. There is a fee to enter the park. Please be respectful of the posted signs and the other people using the park. This cache is placed in accordance with the guidelines for geocaches by the Travis County Park system.
The heroes in the story of the Lord of the Rings are so numerous but there are only nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. They are central to our story. Merry Brandybuck has many roles in our story as the companion of the ring bearer, esquire to King Theoden, and even stabs the Witch-King of Angmar. He is one of the keys to finding the One Ring.
Background
In The Lord of the Rings, Merry was often considered, and was described by Tolkien as, the most perceptive and intelligent of the hobbits: for example, even before Bilbo Baggins left The Shire, he knew of the One Ring and its power of invisibility. He guarded Bag End after Bilbo's party, protecting Frodo from the various and often unwanted guests. He has a knowing manner and a teasing sense of humour so obviously innocent and well-meaning that they are impossible to resent. (In one incident, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins accuses Frodo of being a Brandybuck and no true Baggins; Merry assures Frodo "It was a compliment; and so, of course, not true".)
Merry also was a force behind "the Conspiracy" of Sam, Pippin, Fredegar Bolger (more commonly known as "Fatty") and himself to help Frodo. Thus, at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, Merry was well prepared and organized — he assembled their packs and brought ponies. His shortcut through the Old Forest distanced them from the Black Riders for a time, though they had to be rescued from Old Man Willow by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil. At the Barrow-downs, he acquired his sword, actually a long dagger forged in the kingdom of Arnor.
At Bree, Merry was actually not present in the Prancing Pony when Frodo foolishly put on the Ring; instead, he was outside taking a walk, and was nearly overcome by a Nazgûl who arrived. At Rivendell, he was seen studying maps and plotting their path. His admission to the Fellowship came with only a little less reluctance than Pippin's; they were the two youngest members, and Elrond had planned on sending them back to the Shire.
At the entrance to Moria he asks Gandalf the meaning of the door inscription "Speak, friend, and enter". When Gandalf discovers the true interpretation he says "Merry, of all people, was on the right track".
At Amon Hen, he was captured, along with Pippin, by a band of Saruman's Uruk-hai, although he gave a good account of himself, and was valiantly defended by Boromir. Escaping with Pippin into Fangorn forest, Merry was found by Treebeard. Along with Pippin, he drank significant amounts of Ent-draught and gained height, despite being a fully-grown adult Hobbit. Accompanying Treebeard to the Entmoot and later to Isengard, he and Pippin took up residence in an Isengard gate-house. It was here that he first encountered King Théoden of Rohan, and was reunited with four of the remaining members of the Fellowship.
Separated from Pippin after his friend looked into the palantír and was whisked off to Gondor by Gandalf, Merry swore fealty to Théoden and became his esquire. Without permission from his liege, he rode to Gondor with a disguised Éowyn. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, while the Witch-king was preoccupied with Éowyn, Merry stabbed the Nazgûl in the sinew behind his knee. His sword was made by the Dúnedain of Arnor, and was made for combat against the Nazgûl. It left the Witch-king vulnerable to ordinary weapons, allowing Éowyn to finish him. This fulfilled an old prophecy (made by Glorfindel) that the Witch-king would not be slain by Man (a Woman and Hobbit destroyed him). Merry heard Théoden's last words, but was, as was seemingly common luck with hobbits, unnoticed by the honour escort of Riders and was found wandering in the city by Pippin. He was saved by the healing of Aragorn and recovered fully; more quickly than Éowyn.
For his bravery in battle, Merry was knighted by King Éomer as a Knight of the Mark. During the scouring of the Shire, he effectively led the hobbits in the Battle of Bywater, and personally slew the leader of the opposing forces.
Upon his return, he and Pippin were clearly seen to be the tallest of hobbits, taller even than the legendary Bullroarer Took (as Sam said at the Field of Cormallen, Merry was three inches taller than he ought to have been). Merry went on to marry Estella Bolger sometime after the end of the Third Age. He inherited the title Master of Buckland in year 11 of the Fourth Age. He retained his links with Rohan and became expert in Rohan's language and traditions, which he discovered to his surprise to have close affinity to the early history of the hobbits. Although he was not recorded as having any children within the family trees, he is noted as having at least one son. At the age of 102, he returned to Rohan and Gondor with Pippin, dying there around the year F.A. 64. After his death he and Pippin were laid with the Kings of Gondor in Rath Dínen.