When Bilbo Baggins held his Farewell Party on 22 September III 3001, among the more important guests was the Master of Buckland at the time, Rorimac Brandybuck. Old Rory, as he was known, was accompanied by his two sons Saradoc and Merimac, and they by their sons - Rorimac's grandchildren - Meriadoc and Berilac Brandybuck. Berilac would have been twenty-one years old at the time of the Party, two years older than his cousin Meriadoc. The two would presumably have been raised together at Brandy Hall, the seat of the Masters of Buckland.
Though Meriadoc was the younger of the two cousins, he descended from the elder line, and so his father Saradoc became Master in turn, and Merry would eventually succeed to the Mastership himself. Though Meriadoc had gained fame through his part in the Company of the Ring and the recovery of the Shire from Sharkey, Berilac faded from history, and our only surviving record of him is as part of a genealogical chart of the Brandybuck family.
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The name Berilac is Celtic in origin (like many of the names of the Brandybucks) but its intended meaning, if indeed it has one, is unclear. It was perhaps influenced by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a medieval romance studied and translated by Tolkien. In that tale, the titular Green Knight is named Bertilak (with various alternative spellings such as Bercilak, though none exactly corresponding to Berilac). If this speculative connection is correct, then the name perhaps derives from a Celtic word for 'rogue' or 'churl'.
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- Updated 16 March 2025
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