[Diamond18]

It seemed to me that orc-draught, Miruvor and lembas all had temporary effects. Ent-draught is the only thing that stayed with the consumers enough to cause permanent change.

This is quite a fancy idea you had, Rimbaud! I like it for it's creativeness. But as a totally biased Pippin fan, I like to believe that he was simply growing up; growing wiser, stronger and coming into his own.

As for Merry and Pippin embellishing their tale to impress Frodo, I don't think so. Tolkien may have pretended that he was recording a history, but unlike real historical records, we can safely assume that everything he said was pure blessed fact. If he says Merry chopped off orc hands, then by gum Merry did chop off orc hands.