thranduil sleeps calmer knowing even if his son married a dwarf at least he married The Supermodel dwarf and singlehandedly crushed the hopes of single dwarves and dwarrowdams everywhere
this is my headcanon and you will never take it from me.
listen, just Listen for a second, okay.
Gimli Gloinul is from the line of Durin okay, he’s from the line of KINGS, his bloodline stands up against Legolas’ perfectly, if the elves and dwarves got their shit together for a hot second they would be like “YES, PERFECT, A DIPLOMATIC MARRIAGE TO BIND OUR HOUSES TOGETHER AND NEVER SHALL THE TWAIN THROW ONE ANOTHER TO DRAGONS…again.” because you have a king’s son and a king’s nephew which, well, I love Dain but he’s not an EREBOR KING and GIMLI IS FROM THE FAMILY OF EREBOR KINGS.
And Gimli acts like he’s from the line of Erebor kings, too, okay, he’s a diplomat and a warrior and a nobleman, he’s the sort of person who SAYS things like ‘faithless is he who says fairwell when the road darkens’ and stares down Elrond Peredhil in his own home when his strength and faith are questioned. And he’s the kind of person who swears his allegiance to people he barely knows because it’s Right and Good and Gimli knows it.
And Thorin Oakenshield was handsome, and his sister the lady Dis is beautiful, and Gimli’s cousins Fili and Kili were fine young dwarrows, and Gimli’s mother is a great beauty.
Basically my point here is that Gimli, proud strong gimli with his firebeard hair and bold laugh and mithril tongue and clever fingers, broke the hearts of everyone in Erebor and not a few people outside of Erebor when he married a goddamn elf. Like. Not even Arwen Undomiel (WHO MARRIED A GODDAMN HUMAN, it’s been a weird couple of years in Middle-Earth, everyone wonders strongly if they’ve been drinking too much). Like he’s not even marrying a great beauty of the elves, Legolas isn’t ugly by elvish standards but also he’s nothing particularly special, and he’s not a great diplomat, and he’s BARELY a king’s son because everyone knows that Mirkwood elves are…a little odd. Legolas is a big cheerful hunter who sings songs he doesn’t remember all of, who chatters to trees and has no sense of the right thing to say even if he’s developed enough self-preservation to know the wrong thing to say, and FOR THE LOVE OF MAHAL HE FIGHTS WITH A BOW.
“GIMLI” Gloin bellows “YOU TURNED DOWN THIRTY-TWO SUITORS FROM FINE DWARVISH LINES FOR THIS”
“Ignore him, amrâlime, he’ll get over it” Gimli says in amusement as he beckons Legolas over to his forge, where he’s carefully smithing mithril-inlaid gold marriage clasps that will grip fine elvish hair. It’s too hot in the forge to wear shirts, if you’re working. Every dwarf in twenty feet stops what they’re doing to watch Gimli’s biceps flex as he holds up a jewel for Legolas’ inspection.
“YOU COULD HAVE HAD A HAREM” Gloin wails from down the hall.
#a headcanon I never knew I needed until this very moment
I love the art but now I love the headcanon just as much
okay but dwarves put SO much effort into their tombs already, carving perfect stone and inscriptions and making records to bury kin with kin and everything, let alone for Gimli son of Gloin Lord of the Glittering Caves.
The years of planning and amounts of paperwork and arrangements for the tomb of Gimli son of Gloin Lord of the Glittering Caves one of the Nine of the Fellowship one of the Heroes of Arda the Elf-friend and sturdy and possessor of the three hairs of Galadriel would be IMMENSE
and then Legolas rocks up in Gimli’s final days of life like: ok so I built this boat
thinking about how Gimli says that he respects the trees for their worth but doesn’t love them but he started off respecting Legolas for his worth and now he loves him and that’s not the same because the love Gimli feels for Legolas is REAL love and Tolkien knew that when he wrote the parallels god
Meet me in the Mirkwood Doob CubeTM in 45 minutes to share a side by side hallucinogenic journey
A ficlet about how wood-elves do recreational drugs ‘cause they’re the rowdy party boys in the elf family. I’m pretty sure that this was born from the proposition that Thorin and Co. didn’t actually get lost in Mirkwood; they just ate some whack ass mushrooms and Thranduil locked them up because they were belligerently high off their asses. But I don’t quite remember because this is from last July haha.
Anyway, content warning for drugs, but it’s a nice experience for Gimli. :)
**
“I see it’s settled in,” Legolas says in an amused tone.
Gimli has hardly noticed, the dizziness crept in on him so slowly - but now he is newly aware of how time buzzes around him, expanding outwards and outwards like a bubble that will not burst, stretching up towards the imitation constellations in the pinhole-ceiling, and yet despite its enormous size never seems to fill the room. Legolas’ body is soft beside him, hips canted in an enticing landscape of peaks and valleys among the rolling hills of Rohan that are the velvet cushions they lay back on. His hair spills liquid lightning down his shoulders, waterfalls into the valley.
“I think it has,” Gimli agrees, somehow, around a syrupy tongue. His limbs are heavy and he is pinned beneath Legolas’ gaze, safe in his care, an offering to a husband who is also larger beyond fathom, towering above him and bending to pluck him from the tablecloth like a stray grape at a feast.
He tastes the lips, soft and yielding, and supposes that their tongues are wine-tart and dark, that kissing Legolas is a critical step of the vintner’s art. He winds his heavy arms around Legolas’ waist, strong iron rings of a fine oak barrel. Legolas’ hands alight on his cheeks gently, sipping with his soft mouth, pushing in and pulling out - then pulling away to say something that might be Westron, but comes out as little fizzing starbursts that escape like fireflies up to the stars above them. Gimli isn’t afraid of these creatures. Legolas’ eyes are so big and brown, sparkling as if lit from within, lit by those words. They are beautiful, but Gimli decides that his husband has let plenty of them go tonight, decides that he wants to keep them, keep them for himself to light his path through Mirkwood. So he presses them back into the elf’s mouth, and Legolas sighs, content to receive them home.
Time at once moves very slowly and very fast. Gimli feels as though he has been kissing Legolas for days when his lips retreat, when his golden head cranes a bit forward - skyward? - and he says into the air: “No, he’s doing well the way he’s going.”
Something moves, shifts, passes. An elf, a dark shape passing under his boat in the warm, dark water.
But it is still water, glasslike and mirrored, not ocean water - never a threat, and yet when the elf leaves Gimli releases a gusty breath.
“Tell me how you’re feeling, Gimli,” Legolas speaks against his mouth. Gimli would try to chase the hidden wine-tongue again, but he understands that this is a transaction, of sorts, so he does his best to focus all of his attention in his wandering mind. He feels like the depth of his emotion for life has been kept secret until this very moment in time, like a curtain has been pulled back to reveal a feeling too bright for him to look directly at, but one he will gladly be blinded by.
“I feel like I love you,” Gimli says into the crook of Legolas’ neck. “Like I was made to fit against you just as we are.”
Smouldering embers chuckle indulgently. “Made from the same clay?” Legolas whispers.
Legolas is not made from clay - he is made of soft leaf-litter and spicy autumn smells. He is painted with the pink and yellow hues of sunrise on fresh snow. He is a secret den of newborn kits, waiting patiently for their mother out in the woods.
“No,” Gimli answers. “No, not from clay. But I was made for you, all the same.” He feels the words with an intensity so strong he knows it is an ultimate truth, chiseled into the back of his skull by Mahal himself so that he might never forget. Gimli leans in, occupies his mouth once more with the slow meal of his husband.
Welcome back, friends, to a new episode here at Dwarf Telenovela Central. Durin has arrived. She hasn’t brought much luggage but she seems determined to stay. Same dwarrow time, same dwarrow tunnel! Keep those cards and letters coming, friends!
Uploaded a 11 image fanpack of the lotr art I’ve made the past month or so. it’s all on my twitters already but if you’d like to print stuff for at home or you’d like to yeet me a couple bucks you can buy the pack here https://gumroad.com/mto
Depending on what year you end up seeing this post it might not be available anymore.
Omg, it’s done!! Everyone who likes Legolas x Gimli and warm gentle post-war fics will like this, I feel. :) Gimli has been watching Legolas struggle with the sea longing, and finds a roundabout way to ask him a question. ❤️
here’s ten of my favourite under 15k recs for those just getting into this pairing! i made this for @lyndeth-halfelven but it’s here for anyone who wants it.
gimli x legolas is so good because its like. its about finding hope and love in the darkest times and places, its about the inherent tragedy of falling for a mortal when you yourself are not, but its worth it, its about the parallels with beren and luthien, its about having the most important person in your life be another unmarried man, so much so that you break all the rules of reality to go to heaven together in a book published in the 50s, its about cultural sharing and overcoming prejudice and opening doors and making better choices than your ancestors. and its also about braiding each others hair and feeling really weird bc your companion wont stop brushing up against you when you ride a horse together.
Yes, exactly! Tolkien might not have known he was writing an epic gay romance, but boy did that not stop him from doing it. They’re forever my lotr otp.
I know it’s probably been said before, but Gimli would be SO popular in Valinor:
- He’s Legolas’ best friend, obviously, and Legolas won’t let you forget it—he’s constantly telling people about Gimli’s accomplishments in the War of the Ring, and how they met, and how they became friends, and their adorable Middle-earth road trip
- He’s Frodo’s and Sam’s friend, and Bilbo went on the quest of Erebor with Gimli’s father, so Bilbo would obviously dote on him—basically all three Ringbearers adore him
- Galadriel absolutely loves him, obviously, and she’d probably take him everywhere with her, and help him feel at ease in an unfamiliar land, and if Gimli ever started feeling homesick, she would talk to him about the starlight on Kheled-zâram; she understands missing Middle-earth
- Aulë would be SO EXCITED TO MEET HIM! He hasn’t seen a Dwarf in who knows how long—let him spend time with his child!!!!!!!!! They would have so much in common, they could go exploring caves in the Pelóri together and talk about how pretty the rocks are
- Celebrimbor also hasn’t seen a Dwarf in ages—he’d be excited to meet him! They’d have so much to talk about! Gimli would get to hear stories about Narvi and what Khazad-dûm was like at its height! They could compose new verses to Gimli’s song about it
- Finrod would be obsessed with him, like, can you even imagine? Finrod was such close friends with the Dwarves that they gave him a name in Khuzdul, and this Dwarf specifically is friends with his sister AND fought against Sauron in the War of the Ring? He’d be jumping for joy! Plus Finrod also loves caves, so they’d have a great time talking about the ideal cave city
- Literally everybody would be fighting over who gets to hang out with Gimli
- Legolas is over in the corner like, hello, he’s MY best friend, let ME spend time with him!
You know… I’ve said a lot before about Thorin’s company mistaking Thranduil for Thingol. Blah blah blah, information is hard to come by, it’s not like they could Google it. One elfking must seem very alike to another.
But. Glorfindel has got me thinking. What if the dwarves know that Thingol died? What if they just also think that elves - all elves - come back from death to middle earth, give or take a little time? It’s not such a big leap when you think about it.
If they think Thranduil is literally Thingol-resurrected, back and with a hell of a grudge against dwarves, no wonder they didn’t want to talk to him.
Thranduil sends over a letter that’s like “I can’t make it to the meeting so i’m sending my son :) be nice to him and give him snacks.” and they’re like oh fuck holy shit fuck oh no ok WHAT do we expect here
and then it’s
its legolas.
Omg.Yes. They’re pouring frantically through old histories being like ???? Did Luthien have a brother? Is it Daeron?? And someone figures, okay, if he’s back from the dead he can probably have more kids, right? Also this means that Melian is back too. They might not know what to expect, but Luthien’s the baseline so you know it’s gonna be wild.
Then Legolas shows up in understated green and brown with leaves in his hair like. Hi. :)
Legolas shows up after the war engaged to Gimli and is very confused by the dwarf who just throws up her hands and goes “oh of course you are!” And storms off. Many comments are made about keeping up with a sister??? He’s completely lost.
