Carl ‘Nibs’ Cotton

The youngest of Tom Cotton’s children

Years of the TreesFirst AgeISecond AgeIIThird AgeIIIFourth AgeIV

Tolman 'Tom'
Cotton

Lily
Brown

Tolman 'Tom'
Cotton
(Junior)

Rose
Cotton

Wilcome
'Jolly'
Cotton

Bowman
'Nick'
Cotton

Carl
'Nibs'
Cotton

The fifth of Tolman Cotton's five children, with whom Sam Gamgee played as a child in Bywater Pool. At the time of the Scouring of the Shire he was no more than thirty years old (considered a young and irresponsible age by Hobbits, who did not come of age until thirty-three). When his father and brothers went to fight against Sharkey's Men, Carl was left to protect his mother and his sister. After the War of the Ring, he became Sam Gamgee's brother-in-law, when Sam married the same sister Carl had protected during the Battle of Bywater: Rosie Cotton.

Notes

The name Carl comes from Old English, referring to a specific low rank of freeman. The original form was Ceorl, and indeed that form of the name is recorded as being used among the Rohirrim. Both Carl and Ceorl represent translations of the characters' original names from the language of the Northmen, and given their common origins, the original (unrecorded) forms in Middle-earth would also presumably have been similar to one another.

Carl's nickname of 'Nibs' is not explained, though in common use, 'nibs' refers to a person with an inflated sense of their own importance (especially in an expression like 'his nibs'). Lacking a direct explanation of the name, it's impossible to say whether this modern sense was intended by Tolkien as any kind of insight into Carl's personality.

Carl ‘Nibs’ Cotton

The youngest of Tom Cotton’s children

Notes

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