The Lord of the Rings: 5 Things That Still Make No Sense About Gimli & the Other Dwarves

Although he begins as a rather grumpy, even conceited character, Gimli ultimately becomes one of the best characters in The Lord of the Rings. In the movies, in fact, Gimli often serves as the comedic relief, making scathing remarks or having hilarious unexpected responses (like his terror over the Army of the Dead in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). He’s also a major player in all three original movies.

Dwarves—though not Gimli—are also a central part of the trilogy of movies based on The Hobbit, which means that, across all six movies, dwarves are key to the story. Despite that prominence, there are still several things that don’t make sense about Gimli and the other dwarves.

Gimli Has No Idea What Happened In Moria

One of the most significant moments in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is when the titular fellowship is forced to go through the Mines of Moria. In addition to some harrowing battles with every member of the fellowship and an army of orcs (and a massive troll who stabs Frodo nearly to death), this is when Gandalf faces the Balrog and seems to die.

Because so much happens during these scenes, it’s easy to brush off how completely Gimli has misunderstood the current state of Moria. He believes they are about to be greeted by warm fires and delicious food, whereas they’re actually met with the—very, very dead—corpses of every dwarf who lived there. Particularly the level of decay of those bodies suggests this happened a very long time ago. Sure, this wasn’t Gimli’s home, but how did he have no idea that such tragedy had befallen Moria, particularly so long ago?

Gimli Wanted Galadriel’s Hair

Galadriel is an undeniable beauty, and both the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and Prime Video’s series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power have demonstrated just how powerful an effect she had on others of all races in Middle-earth. That doesn’t make it any less weird that Gimli wanted a strand of Galadriel’s hair in The Fellowship of the Ring.

In addition to the obvious creepiness of this exchange (although Galadriel graciously obliges and even gives him three as opposed to the one he requested), what makes this really confusing is what exactly Gimli wanted to do with her hair. Presumably, he just wanted to take a piece of her with him, but why? For one, dwarves are well known for hating elves—even stunningly beautiful ones. More importantly, though, the fellowship was on a life-threatening journey. It’s unclear how he even intended to keep track of the single strand he wanted.

Gimli Seems To No Nothing About The Events Of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson’s trilogy of movies based on The Hobbit wasn’t nearly as popular as his original trilogy of movies, but they nevertheless did provide a lot more information on Bilbo’s backstory, including how he acquired the One Ring and the bonds he built with many dwarves, although certainly Thorin Oakenshield most of all. Also among those dwarves was Gimli’s own father, Glóin.

In fact, in addition to Glóin meeting Bilbo, he interacts with Legolas and even shows Legolas an image of little Gimli. Despite that history, there is absolutely no acknowledgment from Gimli that he knows Bilbo, Legolas, or anything that transpired on that journey—at least, not in any of Peter Jackson’s movies. (And, it’s worth noting, Legolas wasn’t in Tolkien’s book The Hobbit).

Dwarf Women Aren’t Indistinguishable From The Men

There’s a charming little scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in which Aragorn, Gimli, and Éowyn discuss dwarf women, which in part serves to further the romantic tensions between Aragorn and Éowyn (at least from Éowyn’s point of view). In it, Gimli explains that there is a general belief that there are no dwarf women because dwarf men and dwarf women are so alike in voice and appearance, that the women are often mistaken for men.

However, The Rings of Power introduced Princess Disa, making it clear that this was a major exaggeration. Although that is hardly The Two Towers’ fault, as The Rings of Power came long after that movie and introduced this character, it nevertheless makes this scene and Gimli’s words make very little sense.

Gimli Travels To The Undying Lands

Finally, although a beautiful detail in Gimli’s story, it makes very little sense that he was ultimately able to go to the Undying Lands, as that was never meant to be an option for dwarves. Nevertheless, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, that is how Gimli’s story ends. It seems as though Legolas was able to make the case for Gimli being allowed in, no doubt tied to all that Gimli had done for Middle-earth (which is a very sweet aspect of their story).

Even so, this isn’t really explained, despite how significant a departure from the norm this was. In the end, though, it’s really just nice to know that the friendship Legolas and Gimli build up over the course of the original trilogy becomes an actual lifelong (and beyond) bond.

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