Schlagwort: tolkien things

tiranasgoldfish:

ugh Gimli’s love for Galadriel is so sweet and is so well earned by Galadriel like Gimli didn’t just look at Galadriel and think “wow she’s pretty” there’s so much more to it than that

I mean you have Gimli, and he’s just gotten out of Moria, where he saw his kinsmen dead and the halls of his forefathers defiled and falling into ruin. He’s just lost Gandalf, who of everyone in the fellowship is the one person who Gimli knows best and who understands best Gimli’s feelings and motivations. He’s grieving for so many things, heritage, family, and friends among them.

Then the fellowship gets to Lothlorien and even though Aragorn and Legolas and Frodo all speak for him the elves are basically treating him like scum. Literally they single him out in a nasty way and say that while the rest of the fellowship can go free, Gimli (and only Gimli) must wear a blindfold. They’re basically saying he’s not as good as the rest of the fellowship. Which, by the way, serious points to Aragorn for taking charge and saying they either all wear the blindfold or none, because they are all one fellowship.

A little while later word comes from Galadriel to take off the party’s blindfolds. Gimli just figures they either got their heads out of their asses or realized how dumb blindfolding everyone is so he doesn’t pay it too much attention. 

But then there’s the meeting with the council of Celeborn and Galadriel.

And Celeborn is just awful. He doesn’t mean to be, but he is. He talks about how sad and foolish it was of the fellowship and specifically Gandalf that they went through Moria when a darkness like the Balrog dwelled underneath. He laments that the dwarves stirred up such a terrible evil (and brings up that this isn’t even the first time). Celeborn basically carelessly insults Gimli and all of dwarfkind while he’s seriously in a bad place because of the shit he has just been through, not to mention calling Gandalf foolish.

But Galadriel, bless her, Galadriel speaks up.

Galadriel gets what Gimli is going through. She gets the longing for his ancestral home. She gets why he wanted to pass through and points out to Celeborn that any elf in Gimli’s place would have wanted to do the same were it Caras Galadhon. And most importantly of all, she mourns the loss of such a beautiful and treasured dwarven heritage and she does it honestly, respectfully, and using the dwarven name. Galadriel even uses the dwarven name Kibil-nala for the Celebrant which runs right through the elven land of Lothlorien.

So Gimli looks up at her and sees she really understands. That she honestly has compassion for the awful shit he’s just been through and for his losses both personal and cultural. Galadriel respects his grief and she cares.

And that’s when Gimli thinks,

“Lady Galadriel is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth.”

excerpts-from-tolkien:

“Yet in truth, Saruman’s spying and great secrecy had not in the beginning any evil purpose, but was no more than a folly born of pride. Small matters, unworthy it would seem to be reported, may yet prove of great moment ere the end. Now truth to tell, observing Gandalf’s love of the herb that he called ‘pipe-weed’ (for which, he said, if for nothing else, the Little People should be honoured), Saruman had affected to scoff at it, but in private he made trial of it, and soon began to use it; and for this reason the Shire remained important to him. Yet he dreaded lest this should be discovered, and his own mockery turned against him, so that he would be laughed at for imitating Gandalf, and scorned for doing so by stealth. This then was the reason for his great secrecy in all his dealings with the Shire….

But Gandalf knew of these visits, and guessed their object, and he laughed, thinking this the most harmless of Saruman’s secrets; but he said nothing to others, for it was never his wish that any one should be put to shame.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, Unfinished Tales, “The Hunt for the Ring”