Merry and Pippin

[Anne]

I was browsing through H2G2 and found they had a whole section on LOTR, including some character summaries.  However, the short snippets they had about Merry and Pippin seemed wrong to me.  Merry they had down as naive (stating that this was proved by him swearing fealty to Theoden without thought) and Pippin was a kid. 

Now I grant you that in the films those two don't come over very well compared with their book characters, but would you say that in the books they were naive and childish?  I don't think that myself.  Merry does most of the organising before Frodo's escape from the Shire (helped by Pippin) and does a lot to get them through the Old Forest.  And I don't think that either of them swear fealty to Gondor or Rohan without thought.

[Athelas]

  I'm trying to recall (without checking the source, mind you) what circumstances led up to Merry's oath to Theoden - I thought Merry had time to form an opinion. Pippin, on the other hand, swore fealty to Gondor and Denethor rather impulsively the 1st time he met the Steward.
  Both M and P were certainly alot younger than Frodo, and certainly were more representative of the innocence of hobbits compared to the other Free Peoples.

[Lessa]

They may be naive about the world outside of the Shire but I don't think that by the time they have reached Gondor and Rohan that they are childish. Like modern day teenagers (yes I know they are in their 20s but I equate this as hobbits being in their late teens) especially those 18 and over can have childish moments but also can be remarkably adult about things that mean a lot to them.

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