Anna Daniels
Ah, Gimli, son of Glóin. The dwarf is the only member of his race to grace the ranks of the Fellowship, and he does so in style. From wise-cracking to ax-swinging, Gimli always lets his presence be known. Perhaps the dwarf’s best “power moment” comes during the Battle of the Hornburg when he and Legolas have a violently friendly competition to see who can kill the most enemies. While Legolas starts with the massive advantage of emptying an entire quiver of arrows with deadly elvish skill, Gimli still manages to rack up 42 kills on the ground, besting his companion by a single Uruk-hai.
However, there are a few cracks in Gimli’s armor that push him further down the rankings. For one thing, he does have some physical limitations. For instance, he can’t manage to keep up with Aragorn and Legolas when they chase the hobbits across Rohan, in spite of the famous hardihood of his race. In addition, while he’s certainly the son of a famous dwarvish hero and aristocrat, as far as we know, Gimli doesn’t have much political power to speak of until later on in life.
Eventually, he does set up a dwarvish colony on the edge of Rohan and becomes “the Lord of the Glittering Caves,” but this doesn’t happen until much later. To top it all off, the fellow can’t even hold his own in a drinking contest. While he’s an incredible warrior, his lack of other accomplishments pushes Gimli near the bottom of the Fellowship.
Written by: Looper
