Pippin&Denethor

[LePetitChoux]

I'm reading the 1st chapter of RotK (I've read it before, just re-reading), and I am completely stumped by the reasons for Pippin's sudden impulse to join Denethor's service.
As far as I can see it was pretty spontaneous, he hadn't had time to plan it beforehand... so why did he do it?

Does anyone have any ideas? Or has a topic on this been posted before?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

There are a few clues in what Pippin himself says:

Boromir... saved me in the snows of the North, and at the last he was slain defending me from many foes.
Little service can I offer..., but what I can do, I would do, remembering Boromir the brave.
I honour his memory... he died to save us.
Little service, no doubt, will so great a lord of Men think to find in a hobbit, a halfling from the northern Shire; yet such as it is, I will offer it, in payment of my debt.

I have the impression that Pippin offers himself to Denethor as a substitute for the son who died for his sake.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Had to be respect for Boromir.

[Bill Ferny]

I too think it was pretty spontaneous. I don’t have the book in front of me, but if I remember correctly, even Gandalf was surprised by Pippin’s action.

The thing about hobbits, is that even though they appear to be clumsy and bumbling, mere simpletons, on the surface, they possess a hidden wisdom and foreknowledge deep below their love of six meals a day, pipe weed, the hearth, and a good story or song. I suspect that Pippin had one of those moments of hobbit “Ah Ha!” and acted on it without consideration.

[Diamond18]

I agree it was basically because of respect for Boromir (and the fond memory of him) as the others have said.

But I also think it had a lot to do with Hobbit pride. Pippin had recently been through a lot of humiliating stuff on all different levels, from the Uruk-hai to the disdain of Saruman to the encounter with the Palantír and Sauron, etc. So he was itching to prove that he wasn't the wimpy little bumbling Hobbit everyone thought he was.

Then Pippin looked the old man in the eye, for pride stirred strangely within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in that cold voice.

And so Pippin (surprise of the ages! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ) acted compulsively. This is somewhat what Bill Ferny said...but I'd have to disagree about it being a result of the hidden wisdom and foreknowledge of Hobbits. It seems to me just to be youth speaking: "Oh yeah?? I'm no rag-tag-tagalong, and I'll prove it to you!"