Galadriel: And for you, Legolas, I give this bow of Lothlorien. Do me a favor and after the war show it to your father so he can see what real elvish crafts look like.
If you’ve read the Silmarillion, you know who Fëanor was. If you don’t, Fëanor was the dickhead who created the Silmarils: three indescribably beautiful and magical jewels that contained the light and essence of the world before it became flawed. They were the catalyst for basically every important thing that happened in the First Age of Middle Earth.
It is thought that the inspiration for the Silmarils came to Fëanor from the sight of Galadriel’s shining, silver-gold hair.
He begged her three times for single strand of her beautiful hair. And every time, Galadriel refused him. Even when she was young, Galadriel’s ability to see into other’s hearts was very strong, and she knew that Fëanor was filled with nothing but fire and greed.
Fast forward to the end of the Third Age.
Gimli, visiting Lorien, is also struck by Galadriel’s beauty. During the scene where she’s passing out her parting gifts to the Fellowship, Galadriel stops empty-handed in front of Gimli, because she doesn’t know what to offer a Dwarf. Gimli tells her: no gold, no treasure… just a single strand of hair to remember her beauty by.
She gives him three. Three.
And this is why Gimli gets to be an Elf Friend, people. Because Galadriel looks at him and thinks he deserves what she refused the greatest Elf who ever lived—- and then twice that. And because he has no idea of the significance of what she’s just given him, but he’s going to treasure it the rest of his life anyway.
Just look at that smile on Legolas’s face in the last panel. He gets it. He knows the backstory. And I’m pretty sure this is the moment he reconsiders whether Elves and Dwarves can’t be friends after all.
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Not to mention that Gimli is super polite and bashful about it. He’s all “I’m not expecting you to give it, my lady, but you asked me to name what my heart desires, and I’d like one hair from your golden head but srsly, not expecting you to give it to me~” and like he’s just so sweet and adorable and shy and honestly I love that scene so much!!!
OOOH YES, I haven’t seen much written about this! That’s a really, really good point, Nonnie. The only two elves in the films with hair that even approaches the stated length are Tauriel and Galadriel. Huh.
Elrond, Legolas, Celeborn, Lindir, Haldir, Thrandy, even Arwen – ALL the rest are extremely short-haired, for elves. No bowstrings are gonna come out of THOSE heads!
Perhaps it’s a fashion trend of the Third Age? Perhaps it’s the Elven equivalent of a mohawk dyed pink – Middle-Earth punk rockers?
idk, but I feel and understand your annoyance on this one, Nonnie! *hugs* i am a ball of festering resentment over certain movie things as well, after all 🙂
Aw Yiss 