The White Council

I'd have to agree with Matin Read

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: The talk of the LOTR movie has spurred me of late to re-read LOTR for the umpteenth time, and this time with more attention to the detail. While doing so, I came across what appears to be a remarkable inconsistency in the text -- how I missed it before, I've no idea.

: Gimli, of course, took part in the brief battle in the Chamber of Mazarbul in the final stages of the Fellowship's journey through Moria, and slew at least one orc. Zoom forward to a sequence we all know well, Gimli's competition with Legolas for slaying orcs at the Battle of Helm's Deep. Gimli follows Aragorn and Eomer out to stave off another assault by the Uruk-hai, and decapitates two orcs who surprise Eomer. Eomer thanks him: "I shall not find it easy to repay you." Gimli replies:

: "There may be a chance ere the night is over," laughed the dwarf. "But I am content. Till now I have hewn naught but wood since I left Moria."

: [From the First Ballentine Books edition of "The Two Towers," Eightieth printing, July 1985 (paperback), p. 177]

: But I came across this passage from the first chapter in The Two Towers, "The Departure of Boromir." Legolas and Gimli come upon Aragorn kneeling over Boromir's body. Legolas speaks:

: "Alas!" said Legolas, coming to Aragorn's side. "We have hunted and slain many Orcs in the woods, but we should have been of more use here. We came when we heard the horn--but too late, it seems. I fear you have taken deadly hurt."

: Unless I'm missing something, it appears that Tolkien was mistaken when he had Gimli remark that he had "hewn naught but wood since Moria." Legolas clearly says "we," so both Legolas and Gimli slew some orcs at Amon Hen. It would have been more correct to say "since Amon Hen." A small inconsistency, and one which doesn't much diminish Gimli's frustration at having chased the Uruk-hai across the length of Rohan without engaging any orcs.

: Anyone else catch this? If this has come up on this board, my apologies.

: Oberon

Legolas probably meant "we" as in "we as a whole group" like Matin Read said. Don't get me wrong; the other explanations are perfectly plausible, but I'd have to lean toward Read's.