Prediction 18. From my understanding of the Floral Alphabet rebus and the meaning of the letter P I had already concluded that Tolkien chose the name Pippin because it refers to the apple; Cox Pippin in the UK. In my theory of Tolkien’s True Stone symbolism Pippin represents Space (The Enemy), Merry represents Time. I then read a year later the following in a book I have owned for a number of years but have not read yet. HOME can’t remember which now.
| Peregrin (Pippin). The H. name was Razanul [> Razanur]. This was the name of a legendary traveller, and probably contains the C.S. elements raza ‘stranger’, razan ‘foreign’. I therefore chose Peregrin to represent it, though it does not fit quite so well. Of Peregrin, Pippin is I suppose a not impossible ‘pet-form’; but it is not so close to its original, as is Razal [> Razar] (a kind of small red apple) by which abbreviation Razanul Tuca [> Razanur Tuc] was almost inevitably known to his contemporaries.(35) [History of M-E Vol 12.] |
The note that the apple is red also agrees with my understanding that red letters in the floral alphabet indicate the Enemy, or specific encoded influences of the Enemy.