After the War of the Ring ends, for the most part, kingdoms and individuals find peace. Much of this is shown in The Lord of the Rings, especially at the end of Return of the King.
Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and reunited with Arwen. They get married and later have a son. The hobbits return to the Shire, where Sam gets married to Rosie, and Merry and Pippin inherit leadership roles within the Shire. Éomer becomes King of Rohan and announces the marriage of his sister Éowyn to Faramir. Gandalf, Bilbo, and Frodo join the elves in venturing to Valinor. But the one thing that isn’t shown in The Lord of the Rings is what Gimli does after the war, or even where he goes.
But just because it isn’t shown where Gimli ends up in the films, doesn’t mean his adventure ends with the conclusion of the war. As detailed in the Appendix for The Lord of the Rings, Gimli is probably one of the members of the original fellowship that accomplished the most during the Fourth Age of Middle Earth.
Gimli And Legolas Travel Middle Earth Together
Throughout the course of The Lord of the Rings, Gimli and Legolas form an unbreakable bond. They become extremely close friends and even talk about what they’ll do after the war, assuming they survive. One of those things is to travel Middle Earth with each other. They would often talk about their homes and places they wanted to travel, which led them to promise that if they both survived the war, they would travel together afterward.
As luck would have it, both did survive the war, so they made good on their promise to each other. Gimli took the time to travel around Middle Earth with Legolas, visiting places both had talked about. They visited both their homes (the Blue Mountains and the Woodland Realm), the Glittering Caves near Rohan, and Fangorn Forest. Legolas even notes to Gimli that he must keep his word and visit places of the Ents.
Now by Fangorn’s leave I will visit the deep places of the Entwood and see such trees as are nowhere else to be found in Middle-earth. You shall come with me and keep your word; and thus we will journey on together to our own lands in Mirkwood and beyond.
Gimli Becomes Lord Of His Own Realm
While traveling with Legolas, it wasn’t the first time Gimli had stumbled upon the Glittering Caves of Rohan.
In The Two Towers book, Gimli was actually forced to fall back into the caves with Éomer during the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Although a bit preoccupied at the time with a battle, Gimli was astounded by the beauty of the caves, hence the reason he wanted to travel there again with Legolas. He even remarks to Legolas just how beautiful the caves are.
No, you do not understand. No dwarf could be unmoved by such loveliness. None of Durin’s race would mine these caves for stones or ore, not if diamonds and gold could be got there. Do you cut down groves of blossoming trees in the springtime for firewood? We would tend these glades of flowering stone, not quarry them.
The Glittering Caves, located behind Helm’s Deep, ran deep under the White Mountains. The name of the caves comes from the polished walls, which are adorned with crystals, gems, and ore, making the caves quite literally glitter. It was this location that Gimli decided he wanted to settle after the War of the Ring.
Gimli led a group of dwarves from Erebor back to the caves where he became Lord of the Glittering Caves. It became an extremely successful Dwarven realm, especially since Gimli and the other dwarves were able to use their mining skills to make the realm even bigger by creating new walkways and chambers. Here the dwarves would also help repair Rohan and much of Gondor since both kingdoms endured much damage during the War of the Ring. One of the dwarves’ greatest feats was the repair of the Great Gate of Minas Tirith, which they rebuilt using mithril and steel.
Legolas Invites Gimli To Valinor
For over a century, Gimli continued to rule the Glittering Caves and spent time with his dear friend, Legolas. But Gimli’s story doesn’t end with the Glittering Caves, instead, he has one final adventure with Legolas.
After Aragorn passed away, Legolas concluded that his business of repairing and rebuilding Middle Earth was finished. As one of the last remaining Elves in Middle Earth, it was time for Legolas to finally venture to the Undying Lands to be with his kin. However, it was extremely hard for him to part with Gimli. Instead, he decided not to leave his friend and invited Gimli to join him in Valinor. This would make Gimli the first dwarf to ever see the Undying Lands.
We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli, Glóin's son, with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf... But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter.
Of course, it was extremely uncommon for races besides Elves to sail to the Undying Lands (except for Gandalf and ring-bearers). After all, no dwarf had ever done so before. Although Tolkien doesn’t elaborate on the details of Gimli joining Legolas in Valinor in The Lord of the Rings, it can be assumed that a major exception was made for Gimli. After all, he was granted the high honor of receiving the title Elf-Friend, which is bestowed to other races for providing special aid and being an exceptional ally to the Elves
- Created by
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Current Series
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- Where to watch
- HBO Max
- Movie(s)
- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Video Game(s)
- The Lord of the Rings Online (dupe), LEGO Lord of the Rings, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most iconic names in entertainment. The franchise started with novels from J. R. R. Tolkien before being adapted onto the big screen by Peter Jackson in one of the most critically-acclaimed film trilogies of all time. There have also been numerous The Lord of the Rings video games of varying quality.
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