The Friendship of Legolas and Gimli
Analysis of The Fellowship of the Ring — Book 2, Chapter 6: Lothlorien
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All citations are from The Fellowship of the Ring unless otherwise noted.
“Lothlorien” is a longish chapter that feels short, chronicling the Fellowship’s journey from the east gates of Moria to the elvish refuge of Lothlorien, where they will eventually meet the Lady Galadriel. The chapter serves as a rest beat after the intensity of “A Journey in the Dark” and “The Bridge of Khazad-dum,” granting both the Fellowship and the reader a chance to breathe before the action picks up once again. The chapter also serves to emphasize the divisions and difficulties facing the Free Peoples, and in particular drills in on the growing friendship between Gimli and Legolas to do so.
Prior to this point in the novel, we have had a reasonable amount of discussion of the mistrust and division between the different people opposed to Sauron, but little direct evidence of it. The elves have been generally indifferent toward hobbits, but not mistrustful, and Frodo’s band made friends with the human Aragorn fairly quickly, all things considered. During the Council of Elrond, Gandalf remarked that “in all the long wars with the Dark Tower treason has ever been our greatest foe,” and yet the Fellowship, made up of representatives of the Free Peoples, has been united thus far in its journey (245). But it isn’t until “Lothlorien” that we really begin to see this mistrust directly impact their journey. Boromir, for example, would prefer “a plain road, though it lead through a hedge of swords” to traveling in Lothlorien, since in Gondor the elves of that land are more feared than trusted (329).
The characters I wish to focus on, however, are Legolas and Gimli, and the way that their friendship has developed thus far, and continues to develop in this chapter. The two are largely mentioned together from the time they join the Fellowship onward, but they become more closely associated with one another in “A Journey in the Dark,” when the Fellowship arrives at the doors of Moria:
“[Gandalf said] ‘Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.’
‘It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned,’ said Gimli.
‘I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves,’ said Legolas.
‘I have heard both,’ said Gandalf; ‘and I will not give judgement now. But I beg you two, Legolas and Gimli, at least to be friends, and to help me. I need you both’” (295).
Immediately after this exchange, Legolas and Gimli help Gandalf to find the hidden doors of Moria. For much of the journey through Moria, Gimli walks with Gandalf at the front while Legolas is closer to the rear, but once they arrive at Balin’s tomb the two become more closely connected. When the sound of approaching orcs reach them, Legolas calls out “they are coming!” and Gimli responds “they are coming,” both quoting the book they had found chronicling Balin’s attempt to reclaim Moria (315). It’s a brief and small exchange, but feels like the sort of call-and-response that might emerge out of a friendship. During the fight with the orcs in the tomb, the pair are listed together, Legolas shooting “two [orcs] through the throat” while Gimli “[hews] the legs out from under another that had sprung upon Balin’s tomb” (317). This is more battle-detail than anybody except Sam receives, and by paying such detailed attention to the two of them Tolkien prompts the reader to consider the pair together. Most interestingly, when they flee from the tomb and Gimli “[lingers] by Balin’s tomb with his head bowed” it is Legolas who drags him away (317). Finally, when the Balrog appears, the two of them are the only ones other than Gandalf who know what it is, and both are terrified of it: the elf’s “arrow [slips] to the ground,” while Gimli lets “his axe fall” and covers his face (321).
Clearly, some fondness grows between Legolas and Gimli in Moria, born out of Gandalf’s urging them to be friends and their mutual recognition of the terror of the Balrog. Notice this exchange after they arrive on the borders of Lothlorien:
“‘I cannot sing any more,’ [Legolas] said. ‘That is but a part, for I have forgotten much. It is long and sad, for it tells how sorrow came upon Lothlorien, Lorien of the Blossom, when the Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains.’
‘But the Dwarves did not make the evil,’ said Gimli.
‘I said not so; yet evil came,’ answered Legolas sadly” (332).
Compare this conversation to the earlier discussion where Gandalf bid the two of them to be friends. There, both Gimli and Legolas spoke defensively of their people, and Gandalf intervened to make peace between them. Here, Gimli speaks defensively, but not as sharply as before: he doesn’t seek to absolve the dwarves for the end of the friendship, but only to clarify that the Balrog wasn’t their creation. Legolas, for his part, quickly agrees. It seems that the hardship of Moria, particularly facing down the exact evil in question, has softened both of their hearts.
When the Fellowship is brought into Lothlorien proper, their guide, Haldir, announces that they must blindfold Gimli because dwarves “are not permitted” since the “Dark Days” (334). Gimli, naturally, objects to being singled out, specifically citing that he is “no more likely to betray [Haldir] than Legolas, or any other of my companions” (338). Things nearly come to blows, and Legolas curses “Dwarves and their stiff necks!” before Aragorn comes up with a solution: everyone, including Legolas, will go blindfolded (338). At this suggestion Gimli laughs, and announces that he will be “content, if only Legolas here shares my blindness” (339). Although he grows “angry in his turn,” Legolas ultimately agrees to be blindfolded, and the Fellowship is able to pass further into Lothlorien (339). The pair’s interaction here is not precisely affectionate, but has a certain good-natured, almost-joking quality that, read in context of their other conversations, seems to point to a deepening friendship.
Worth noting, as well, is the way that Haldir handles the Fellowship’s entry into Lothlorien. He notes that while he does not “doubt” Gimli, the ban on dwarves is Lothlorien’s law, and as Haldir is “not the master of the law” he “cannot set it aside” (338). The elf of Lothlorien, like Legolas, laments the “folly” that sees a group of “enemies of the one Enemy” at odds and mistrustful of one another, and calls the “estrangement” between the various Free Peoples a clear demonstration of “the power of the Dark Lord” (339). He also acknowledges that he has “done much in letting [Gimli] set foot” across the river and into Lothlorien (338). Clearly, Haldir feels he has some room to maneuver within the laws of Lothlorien here, and clearly within that space he has decided to trust the Fellowship. Partially that is due to the “messengers of Elrond”* who passed through the forest earlier bringing news of the Fellowship (334). But even given that news, Haldir could have held firm to the law of the land and not allowed Gimli into Lothlorien. Instead, he trusted in his own judgement, choosing to hazard trust rather than hide behind rules.
The risk of betrayal is ever forefront on our protagonists’ minds, but to act as if every encounter will, definitively, end in treason is to preemptively ensure that the result of the treason occurs. In Haldir’s loose reading of the laws of Lothlorien, and in Legolas and Gimli’s developing friendship, we see deliberate efforts to undo the mistrust sown by Sauron among his enemies.
*Likely Elrond’s sons, Elladan and Elrohir, who “made a great journey” before the Fellowship set out, “passing down the Silverlode into a strange country” (267). The Silverlode is the river that the Fellowship follows down from Moria into Lothlorien.
Work Cited
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994.
