Gimli

GIMLI ~ son of Gloin born 2879. Named Elf-friend for his close and rare friendship with Legolas Greenleaf, and also for his devotion to the lady Galadriel of Lothlorien. Nothing is know of Gimli's past, saving that his father Gloin had taken part in Bilbo's adventures against the dragon Smaug with Gandalf many years before. Gimli arrived with his father at the council of Elrond in 3018, where he became a member of the Fellowship of the Ring and met Legolas, son of Elven King Thranduil of Mirkwood. (Indeed, there existed an uneasy sort of family history between Legolas and Gimli, for although the two had not hitherto met, their fathers had. During Bilbo's quest Thranduil briefly clapped Gloin and his fellow Dwarves into Mirkwood's dungeons for trespassing. Later the Dwarves nearly came to open warfare with Thranduil's Elves and the Men of Lake-town, when the two factions clashed over the hoard of the vanquished dragon Smaug. As odd fate had it, an evil army of Orcs, wolves and bats abruptly redrew the lines of conflict, and the Battle of Five Armies resulted in a happier and more fruitful alliance.) Upon formation of the Fellowship Gimli remained, together with Legolas, in the company of Aragorn and shared all his adventures, including walking the perilous Paths of the Dead and the seizing of the fleet of corsairs at Pelargir on the Anduin River. Gimli fought at Helm's Deep and the Pelannor Fields, and also rode with Aragorn's seven thousand to the Black Gates of Barad-dыr in Mordor, where one last, desperate stand would be made, and the black tide would lap highest. After the War of the Ring he was present for Aragorn's crowning and marriage to Arwen Evenstar, and still later he brought many of his Dwarf folk south from Erebor to the caverns of Helm's Deep, where he became Lord of the Glittering Caves. He and his Dwarven people did many fine works in both Gondor and Rohan, perfecting buildings and avenues of stone such as no hand of Men could achieve. Legend tells that when Aragorn at last gave up his life, in the 120th year of the Fourth Age, Legolas answered the yearning of his Elvish heart and sailed into the West, taking with him his devoted friend, Gimli. Blessed indeed was he, and friend to the powerful of the Blessed Realm, for Gimli Gloin's son would be the first and only Dwarf to make that voyage. His fate thereafter is not written.