During the 2001 film adaptation of the Lord of the Rings, Elrond invites several esteemed members of every race to join in his council in Rivendell, to discuss the fate of the One Ring of power, and whether it should be hidden out of reach of the dark lord, or destroyed altogether. Among the company are Boromir and Aragorn, two men of Gondor, Gandalf the wizard, Legolas the High-elf of Mirkwood, and Gimli, son of Gloin, a dwarf.
It is quickly decided that there is no place they can store the ring that it won’t make its way back to its master, or taint the land and those who dwell there irreparably. So the only solution is to destroy the ring and rid Sauron of his powers once and for all. However, Boromir suggests that this is folly, and that “One cannot simply walk into Mordor” so how on earth are they to destroy the evil object. At this point, Gimli comes striding forward and slams his unbreakable axe down upon the ring. The axe explodes in a glitter of shards and splinters, and the dwarf is thrown backward by the impact. It is clear that the ring cannot be defeated by any other means than throwing it into the fire where it was first forged, against the will and knowledge of Celebrimbor, who made the other dwarven rings, as well as many of the elven doors and passages of Middle Earth.
Frodo, the brave hobbit from The Shire volunteers himself to take the ring to Mordor and cast it into the flame. Aragorn swears his sword, Legolas swears his bow, and Gimli swears his axe. But if his axe has just been torn asunder, what axe does he swear to abide by the fellowship with and battle in all of the great battles that are to come with? The answer lies further down their journey. For the fellowship must take many difficult paths and many perilous journeys, and one of which proves to be the most dangerous is the decision to turn back from the evil mountains of Caradhras, where they are pelted with snow and almost forced off of the steep and treacherous cliffside. Instead, they opt to take the underground root through the Mines of Moria, an ancient dwarven settlement that has long been abandoned since the dwarves dug too deep for Mithril and awoke an ancient evil from the past.
Gandalf the grey leads the company in the dark, with as keen a sense of direction as Queen Beruthiels crafty cats, and they make it all the way through the mines to the chamber of Balin, Gimli’s father’s cousin. Here they find a tomb, in which Balin has been placed, and a record has been kept of an orc invasion that wiped out half of the new settlement. Gimli is horror-struck at the fate of his people and grieves the loss of his family members sorely.
When the comrades become trapped in the chamber by attacking orcs wielding a giant cave troll, they all must fight to escape with their lives. It is at this point that Gimli grasps the hilt of an axe in the burial chambers, Balin’s old axe to be precise. This is the axe that becomes his staple weapon throughout the rest of the trilogy, bringing him good fortune, keeping him safe, and paying homage to those he has lost along the way.
The group manages to find their way out of the tomb, only to lose Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad Dum, at the hands of the Balrog. Unbeknownst to them, he will later come back stronger, as Gandalf the White, but at the time the fellowship flee to the safe ground of Lothlorien, where they hope to be offered rest and nourishment by Queen Galadriel, the lady of the wood. But when they arrive at the borders, the elves don’t take too kindly to Gimli as a dwarf, and forbid him entrance unless he agrees to continue blindfolded and weaponless. He takes great offense at this, and a contributing factor maybe because he doesn’t want to part with the axe he has just claimed, due to its sentimental heritage.
Nonetheless, the group agrees to go blindfolded alongside him, and their blindfolds are removed once they meet the lady herself. From this point onwards, he uses the axe to fight against the Haradrim, keeping a competitive count with his friend Legolas, and at the Battle of the Black Gate in a last attempt to distract the eye of the enemy from Frodo and his brave companion Sam, who are entering under subterfuge from the opposite direction.
When Gimli sails to the Undying Lands, in a place of high honor, never before awarded to a dwarf, the only worldly possession he takes with him is his axe, both because he swore it in service to always protect the Ringbearer, and because it reminds him of the long and remarkable lives lead by him and those who came before.