2879
III - 120 IV
Khâzad Dwarf
Father Glóin / Mother unknown
Other Names: "Elf-Friend"
Notable Quotes:
"Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!"
"Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!"
"There is chamber after chamber, Legolas; hall opening out of hall, dome after dome, stair beyond stair; and still the winding paths lead on into the mountains’ heart. Caves! The Caverns of Helm’s Deep! Happy was the chance that drove me there!"
"You rascals, you woolly-footed and wool-pated truants! A fine hunt you have led us! Two hundred leagues, through fen and forest, battle and death, to rescue you! And here we find you feasting and idling – and smoking! Smoking! Where did you come by the weed, you villains? Hammer and tongs! I am so torn between rage and joy, that if I do not burst, it will be a marvel!"
In The Return of the King, after Eomer admits that, in his opinion, Galadriel is not the fairest lady that lives, Gimli replies: "Then I must go for my axe."
"This is more to my liking. Ever my heart rises as we draw near the mountains. There is good rock here. This country has tough bones. I felt them in my feet as we came up from the dike. Give me a year and a hundred of my kin and I would make this a place that armies would break upon like water."
Biography:
Son of Glóin, he travelled from Rivendell with the Company of the Ring. After the breaking of the fellowship at Parth Galen, he hunted Orcs across Rohan with Aragorn and Legolas.
He fought at the Battle of the Hornburg, and at the Pelennor Fields. A self-proposed contest was held between he and his friend Legolas, determined by the number of Orcs they each slew. Separated from his friend Legolas at night, he emerged the next morning, head bandaged, with a winning count: forty-two. The last Orc had an iron collar on its neck, and so notched Gimli's axe. But he surpassed Legolas' score by one.
He is famed for his friendship with Legolas; some stories say that they sailed into the West together. If this were true, then Gimli was the first and only Dwarf to come to the Undying Lands.
He was also named "Elf-Friend" for his reverence and kind words for the Lady of the Golden Wood, Galadriel. At the parting from Lothlórien with the rest of the Fellowship, he made the boldest request a Dwarf has ever made of an Elf - to have three strands of her golden hair. She obliged.
Pictures:
We cannot achieve victory through arms
