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Estella Bolger

Other Names:
Estella Brandybuck

Location(s):
Budgeford
Buckland

Race/Species: Hobbit

Title(s):
Mistress of Brandy Hall

Dates:
born III 2985 (1385 SR)
presumably died before IV 63 (1484 SR)

Parents:
father: Odovacar Bolger
mother: Rosamunda Took

Siblings:
Fredegar Bolger

Spouse:
Meriadoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland

Description:

Estella Bolger is the daughter of Odovacar Bolger and Rosamunda Took, the sister of Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger, and the wife of Meriadoc Brandybuck:
Estella is nowhere mentioned in the text of The Lord of the Rings, but in later editions she appears in the Family Trees for "Bolger of Budgeford", "Took of Great Smials", and "Brandybuck of Buckland" as the spouse of Meriadoc the Magnificent, with a birth date of 1385 in the Shire-reckoning.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, Family Trees

No explicit death date for Estella Bolger is given; however, it seems likely that she dies sometime before her ageing husband departs from the Shire forever:

In the spring of the year [1484 SR, or IV 63] a message came from Rohan... that King Éomer wished to see Master Holdwine once again. Meriadoc was then old (102) but still hale. He took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, The Tale of Years: Later Events Concerning the Members of the Fellowship of the Ring

Though direct evidence is lacking, we may infer much about Estella's origins from statements about her brother. Their branch of the Bolger family has an ancestral home in Budgeford; they are considered respectable by Hobbit standards; they are well-to-do and move in the upper social echelons of the Shire; and they descend from the illustrious Old Took.
[Fatty Bolger's] family came from the Eastfarthing, from Budgeford in Bridgefields in fact, but he had never been over the Brandywine Bridge.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

'If you mean the old bogey-stories Fatty's nurses used to tell him, about goblins and wolves and things of that sort, I should say [they are not true].'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 6, The Old Forest

[Frodo]... had a good many friends, especially among the younger hobbits (mostly descendants of the Old Took1) who had as children been fond of Bilbo and often in and out of Bag End. Folco Boffin and Fredegar Bolger were two of these....

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 2, The Shadow of the Past

The full list of their wealthier families is: Baggins, Boffin, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brandybuck, Burrowes, Chubb, Grubb, Hornblower, Proudfoot, Sackville, and Took.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Letter 25 to the editor of 'The Observer', 20 February 1938


Notes
1Estella and Fredegar's mother Rosamunda Took is the great-granddaughter of Gerontius, the Old Took, through his eighth son Hildibrand. In addition, their father Odovacar is the great-grandson of the Old Took through his tenth child and middle daughter, Donnamira.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, Family Trees

Contributors:
Lyllyn 19Jan03
Elena Tiriel 25Jan10

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