"An Unexpected Friendship"
This is a written account of the feelings concerning the friendship between Legolas son of Thranduil, a prince of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood, and Gimli son of Gloin, one of the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. It has been recorded by Frodo Baggins, as told to him by Legolas himself, sometime after the Great War of the Ring.
Three words that are not used together
Are dwarves and elves and friendship. Not since times
Of old have these been friends. And still,
It is said our friendship's greater than
Those few of Elder Days. Today, when we
Are seen together we are met with much
Confusion. No one can see how we can
Be friends. In truth, we don't see how ourselves.
The only thing I know is how it started.
The dwarf called Gimli, as well as I, was
To be a member of the Fellowship
To help the hobbit called Frodo on his
Quest to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron and
Destroy the One Ring from within Mount Doom.
I understood the great importance of
The task, but did not want to travel with
A dwarf. I would pay him no mind, and would
Converse with him directly only when
I had to. When it happened that we did
Talk, we would always end up arguing.
What else could you expect from elves and dwarves?
Aside from that, his father had once been
Imprisoned by my father, so he had
No love for me, and less still for my kind.
Mithrandir, Pilgrim Grey, our leader and
Great friend, upset by our reluctance to
Be kind to one another, often tried
To convince us to get along. He said
That he would need us both. For him,
It would be better if at least the two
Of us, out of our kinds, attempted to
Be friends. Of course, we would not listen to
His words and would not even think about
Complying at the time. The thing to make
Us change our minds occurred soon afterwards.
Ai! Ai! The loud cries of our group as we
Beheld in fear a sight of what had been,
'Till now, thought pure myth, echoed through the caves
Of Moria. I shall not soon forget
The feelings of pure terror as we gazed
Upon the mighty demon, who is called
By dwarves, Durin's Bane. He who slaughtered or
Chased off them that once dwelt in Moria.
The Balrog! Even I was terrified!
In fear I dropped the arrow from my hands.
We ran to safety, trying to escape.
Mithrandir stayed behind to fight him off.
We halted to try to help him, despite
Our fear. He yelled at us to keep on going.
He sent the Balrog off the cliff, but the
Fire whip in the demon's hands wrapped around
His body and pulled him down, off the cliff.
We ran out, panicked, and with heavy hearts.
Our friend was dead! What would we do without him?!
I then recalled his words about myself
And Gimli. Truly, how bad would it be
To just try to be nicer to him? We
Would not be friends, but we could still be kind.
Mithrandir would have wanted this of us.
I asked Gimli what he thought of a truce.
For Mithrandir he would agree with me;
He would make every effort to be kind.
What happened after that amazes us.
We somehow had become real friends, in spite
Of our dislike, because of the attempt
To just be nice to one another. Soon
Our group came to the elvish forest of
Lothlorien, and I spent little time
With anybody else, except the elves.
That was expected; after all I was
Among my kin. But, when I went about
The land, I would often take Gimli with me.
My kin, and the rest of the group, were shocked
By such a change in me, and they would ask
Quite often how this came about. For how
Did Gimli, with his firm dislike of elves,
And I, with my own fierce dislike of dwarves,
Become such friends that we are nearly kin?
Indeed, so close have we become that we
Are almost brothers, kin in everything
But blood. It was accidental, but I
Can not regret it. He is a good friend,
And I will be much saddened when he breathes
No more. I think I shall invite him to
Adventure with me for eternity
Once I depart at last for my final
Home, among my kin, in the Grey Havens.