J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was quite a serious story. It dealt with heavy topics like war, death, and trauma, much of which was inspired by Tolkien’s own tumultuous life. But it was still a fantasy adventure, and it was a sequel to The Hobbit, which was a children’s story. As such, there was still fun and whimsy to be found in Middle-earth even as Sauron threatened to plunge it into darkness during the War of the Ring. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films did an excellent job of balancing these somber and lighthearted moments without making the tone of the trilogy feel inconsistent. Since the less serious sections of the films often did little to advance the overall plot, Jackson needed to cut some of them for the sake of time, but the later extended editions of the trilogy gave him the chance to reinsert them.

One such whimsical scene appeared early in the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. After Merry and Pippin met Treebeard but before the Entmoot — during which the Ents debated whether they should march against Isengard — the hobbits had some downtime to spend in Fangorn Forest. Now that they were no longer running from Nazgûl, navigating Orc-infested mines, or trying to escape from the clutches of the Uruk-hai, they were able to act much like their old selves from their days in the Shire, and unsurprisingly, that meant getting into some mischief. Though rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of The Lord of the Rings‘ story, this amusing scene led to Merry and Pippin making history in Middle-earth.

Merry and Pippin Transformed in Fangorn Forest

The scene began with Merry waking up in the morning. He heard a low, creaking sound like that which the Ents usually made, but it was coming from Pippin. He also noticed that Pippin was suddenly taller than he had been previously. Pippin tried to pretend that nothing unusual was going on: “I’ve always been taller than you. Please, Merry. You’re what? Three-foot-six? At the most? Whereas me, I’m pushing three-seven. Three-eight!” Hobbits typically stood between two and four feet tall, so this was a rather respectable height. Merry realized that Pippin was growing taller because he was drinking from a bowl of special water. Merry took some of the water for himself and ran off with it, which prompted Pippin to chase him through the forest. The scene took an alarming turn when the roots of a tree wrapped around the hobbits’ legs and trapped them. It slowly pulled them in until they were entirely buried within the roots of the tree.

Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd — the actors who portrayed Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, respectively — are close to the same height, each standing somewhere between five feet six inches and five feet seven inches.

Luckily, that was when Treebeard returned. He calmly said to the tree, “Away with you. You should not be waking. Eat earth. Dig deep. Drink water. Go to sleep. Away with you.” This caused the roots to loosen their grip and release the hobbits, who ceased their shenanigans. This scene combined two moments from The Lord of the Rings novel. The first was when Merry and Pippin drank the mysterious water, or Ent-draught as Tolkien called it, and the second was when Old Man Willow attacked the hobbits in the Old Forest. Most of Treebeard’s dialogue in this scene came straight from the novel, but there, it was instead spoken by Tom Bombadil. Jackson’s films did not explain the nature of the Ent-draught or the extent of its effects on Merry and Pippin, but the novel went into greater detail.

Merry and Pippin Broke a Record in the Shire

The Ent-draught appeared in the LEGO The Lord of the Rings video game; it caused characters’ heads to grow, and there was an achievement called “I’ve always been taller!” that players could unlock by using it on Pippin.
The “Tales of Middle-earth” set from Magic: The Gathering also included a card called “Ent-Draught Basin” that could increase another card’s Power and Toughness values.

In the film, the hobbits drank the Ent-draught without Treebeard’s knowledge, and Pippin even claimed — most likely untruthfully — that Treebeard had forbidden Merry from drinking it. In The Lord of the Rings novel, however, Treebeard encourages them to drink it, and they do so on multiple occasions. Each time, it tasted subtly different. They first tried it in the chapter “Treebeard” from The Two Towers. While they stayed at Treebeard’s house, Wellinghall, he poured them some Ent-draught that he had stored in stone jars. Tolkien wrote, “There was some scent or savour in it which they could not describe: it was faint, but it reminded them of the smell of a distant wood borne from afar by a cool breeze at night.” When they drank it again the next day, “it was earthier and richer, more sustaining and food-like, so to speak.” This strange property was similar to athelas, or kingsfoil, which seemed to carry a different scent each time Aragorn used it in the Houses of Healing.

Despite its changing flavor, the Ent-draught’s effects were always the same. It reinvigorated Merry and Pippin, causing their hair to stand on end. Like in the film, it made them grow taller as well, but it was a more drastic change. When the Fellowship finally reunited in the chapter “The Field of Cormallen” from The Return of the King, Sam was amazed at how much Merry and Pippin had grown. Gimli explained, “Mortals cannot go drinking ent-draughts and expect no more to come of them than of a pot of beer.” This was actually the first time that Tolkien named the Ent-draught; previously, it was an unknown Entish beverage. According to the novel’s prologue, after drinking the Ent-draughts, Merry and Pippin became the tallest hobbits in history. Tolkien did not state exactly how tall they were, but he provided some clues.

The Hobbits’ Height Reflected Their Character Arcs

The scene in the film was titled “Ent Draft,” which used the American spelling of the word rather than the British spelling that Tolkien preferred.
In the novel, Tolkien implied that Frodo was the tallest of the four main hobbits before Merry and Pippin drank the Ent-draught.
Ent-draughts most likely came from the waters of the Entwash, the river that flowed through Fangorn Forest.

Merry and Pippin must have been taller than four feet five inches after drinking the Ent-draught, as that was the height of the previous tallest hobbit, Bandobras “Bullroarer” Took. In the chapter “Minas Tirith” from The Return of the King, a Gondorian child named Bergil stated that he would “soon be five feet” but that he was already taller than Pippin. Pippin replied that he was “but four feet,” which seemingly contradicted the fact that he became taller than Bullroarer. However, there was an explanation for this. Merry and Pippin drank Ent-draughts once more before returning to the Shire, so they had one more growth spurt after Pippin’s conversation with Bergil. In the film, they only grew a few inches taller. Further, it was seemingly temporary, as when they reunited with Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, their comparative heights were roughly the same as they had been during the Council of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Since the Ent-draught scene was absent from the theatrical cut of the film, it was for the best that it did not affect other scenes, as that would have confused audiences.

The physical growth of Merry and Pippin reflected their internal growth throughout The Lord of the Rings. They were the youngest of the four main hobbits, and at the start of the story, they acted the most immaturely. But throughout the War of the Ring, they underwent mental, emotional, and spiritual development. Pippin’s experience serving Denethor and Merry’s experience fighting alongside the Rohirrim taught them important lessons about responsibility and made them more confident in their abilities. In the novel, Saruman conquered the Shire following his defeat at Isengard, and it was Merry and Pippin who led the hobbits in overthrowing him. They became renowned as leaders and war heroes. Tolkien often equated height with power, hence the Elves and Númenóreans being so much taller than ordinary Men, and Merry and Pippin proved that they were worthy of such stature.