Gimli (Middle-earth)

In the course of the adventure, Gimli aids the Ring-bearer Frodo Baggins, participates in the War of the Ring, and becomes close friends with Legolas, overcoming an ancient enmity of Dwarves and Elves.

[T 6] When the company is forced to enter the ancient underground Dwarf-realm, the Mines of Moria, Gimli is at first enthusiastic, hoping to find Balin there.

[T 8] Gimli's opinion of Elves changes when he meets Galadriel, co-ruler of Lothlórien: her beauty, kindness, and understanding impress him so much that, when given the opportunity to ask for whatever he wishes, he responds that being able to see her and hear her gentle words is gift enough.

[T 10] At Amon Hen, the company is divided, and Gimli joins Legolas and Aragorn in pursuing Merry and Pippin who have been captured by Orcs.

They build "great works" in Rohan and Gondor, and replace the ruined gate of Minas Tirith with one made of mithril and steel.

Here, the name belongs to an aged elf, a prisoner along with Beren in the kitchens of Tevildo, Prince of Cats (forerunner of Sauron).

[T 24] During the writing of The Lord of the Rings, as told in The Return of the Shadow, Gimli's character was first named Frar, then Burin, and he was the son of Balin.

Shippey comments that dwarvish heroism is expressed in their veiled speech, as seen also with King Dáin's stubborn replies to the messenger of Mordor.

He sees these examples as unified by "delight in the contrast between passionate interior and polite or rational expression; the weakness of the latter is an index of the strength of the former".

[3] In Njáls saga, Gunnarr's bowstring breaks in a desperate battle; he asks his wife Hallgerðr for two hairs to use as a replacement, but she refuses because he had once struck her, and he is killed.

[T 26][3] The scholars of international relations Abigail Ruane and Patrick James view Gimli as an exemplar of "neoliberal institutionalists" within the economy of Middle-earth, since his "people avidly pursue gold and treasure".

"[4] The Tolkien scholar John Miller writes that like the Elves, the Dwarves have withdrawn from history and become subject to "an increased aesthetic sensibility",[5] exemplified by Gimli's lyrical description of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond.

[5] He suggests that the dwarvish love of hand-crafted workmanship could be a pre-modern aesthetic, an immature or adolescent appreciation compared to that of Elves or Men.

Robbins defines this as "bewilderment or confusion that makes one so greedy for ... gold that one would rather starve to death [for] rather than give any of it up",[6] the fate that overwhelmed the Dwarf Thorin Oakenshield and the human Master of Laketown in The Hobbit.

[10] The New Zealand Herald quotes Rhys-Davies as saying of Gimli that "There is a gritty sort of fierce belligerence, and in the end I thought an almost Glasgow Scottish accent would serve the character.