The third child and second son of Holman the greenhanded. Holman was a Hobbiton gardener who would become one of Sam Gamgee's earliest known ancestors, though not through his son Hending's line. If Hending had any descendants of his own, they are not recorded, and from the evidence we have it seems likely that he died childless.
Notes
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Hending's name appears to come from the Old English for 'holding' or 'grasping'. The significance of this name is obscure, but it does occur in history: it was the name of the Anglo-Saxon author of a book of proverbs, and it may be that Tolkien was simply inspired by this real name to insert a 'Hending' into the ancestry of the Gamgees. |
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- Updated 18 April 2017
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