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Gimli
Legolas, the cheerful and tireless son of the elf king of Mirkwood, has keen eyesight and a strong connection with trees and animals. As one of the Three Hunters, he accompanies Aragorn and Gimli to recover Merry and Pippin from the orc company that kidnapped them. Though they initially mistrust each other, Legolas becomes Gimli’s staunchest defender and closest friend. During the battle of Helm’s Deep, they make a contest out of how many orcs they can kill and later plan to travel together to their favorite places on Middle-earth.
Legolas Quotes in The Two Towers
The The Two Towers quotes below are all either spoken by Legolas or refer to Legolas. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes
‘Let me think!’ said Aragorn. ‘And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day!’ He stood silent for a moment. ‘I will follow the Orcs,’ he said at last. ‘I would have guided Frodo into Mordor and gone with him to the end; but if I seek him now in the wilderness, I must abandon the captives to torment and death. My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left. Come! We will go now. Leave all that can be spared behind! We will press on by day and dark!’
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Book 3, Chapter 2 Quotes
‘It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?’
‘As he has ever judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.’
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Book 3, Chapter 5 Quotes
‘You have not said what you know or guess, Aragorn, my friend,’ he said quietly. ‘Poor Boromir! I could not see what happened to him. It was a sore trial for such a man: a warrior, and a lord of men. Galadriel told me that he was in peril. But he escaped in the end. I am glad. It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir’s sake.’
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‘I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory. War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory. It fills me with great sorrow and great fear: for much shall be destroyed and all may be lost. I am Gandalf, Gandalf the White, but Black is mightier still.’
He rose and gazed out eastward, shading his eyes, as if he saw things far away that none of them could see. Then he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said in a soft voice, ‘it has gone beyond our reach. Of that at least let us be glad. We can no longer be tempted to use the Ring. We must go down to face a peril near despair, yet that deadly peril is removed.’
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Get the entire The Two Towers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Legolas Character Timeline in The Two Towers
The timeline below shows where the character Legolas appears in The Two Towers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 3, Chapter 1
...searching for the hobbits, mourns the collapse of the Fellowship and weeps over Boromir’s body. Legolas and Gimli find him there, also summoned—too late—by the sound of Boromir’s horn. The three...
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...believed that the boat bore him all the way to the Great Sea. Aragorn and Legolas sing a lament for Boromir, asking the West, South, and North Winds for news of...
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...to their deaths and decided that he must take the Ring to Mount Doom himself. Legolas wonders if it was the orcs that led him to flee so quickly, but Aragorn...
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Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli must now decide whether to follow Frodo and Sam across the river or...
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...Boromir died. The orcs are quick and tireless, trampling down anything in their way. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli must follow them on foot. They resolve to press on through the day...
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Book 3, Chapter 2
...shortest path possible through the lands of Rohan. As Aragorn searches the ground for clues, Legolas discovers that what they’d thought were boulders are actually the bodies of five of the...
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Legolas sees an eagle far above them headed north and Aragorn wonders if it’s the same...
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...and risk missing further signs of the hobbits or to rest and risk falling behind. Legolas and Gimli leave the difficult choice to Aragorn, who feels as though all his recent...
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...the sun rises. The orcs didn’t rest in the night and are out of even Legolas’s keen sight. Aragorn presses his ear to the ground to track the sound of their...
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...of his heart, and guesses that some foe is hindering them while aiding the orcs. Legolas agrees that there is some ill will ahead of them—Saruman. Nonetheless, Aragorn refuses to turn...
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Legolas wakes up Aragorn and Gimli, claiming that something strange awaits them by the forest and...
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...listen to the earth and tells his companions that riders on swift horses are approaching. Legolas, with his elven eyesight, agrees and adds that “there are one hundred and five. Yellow...
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...Three Hunters along the same trail that the orcs were taking the other way, but Legolas can’t see any hobbits among them. Though Gimli is wary of being attacked by the...
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...the mention of Galadriel, then accuses them of being sorcerers and asks why Gimli and Legolas don’t speak for themselves.
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...to cut off Gimli’s head if he only stood “a little higher from the ground.” Legolas is quick to defend Gimli, fitting an arrow in his bow. Éomer raises his sword,...
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...Isildur and demands, “Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” To Gimli and Legolas, watching amazed, Aragorn seems to have grown in stature before their eyes. In Aragorn’s face...
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...they gather, the tree above them seems to bend and take comfort in the warmth. Legolas recalls that Celeborn warned them not to go too far into Fangorn, which is old...
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Book 3, Chapter 5
...the old man they saw the previous night was Saruman, but Aragorn is less convinced. Legolas heard the horses when they bolted, and he believes they seemed excited rather than scared,...
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...As they follow the trail to the bank of the Entwash and farther into Fangorn, Legolas remarks that the forest doesn’t seem evil, despite what the stories say, though it does...
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From the top of the hill, Legolas sees a bent old man wearing gray rags and leaning on a staff. Gimli suddenly...
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...wishes to speak with them, and begins to climb up the hill. Gimli again urges Legolas to shoot, but Legolas drops his bow when the old man tells him to put...
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...away, and Gimli’s axe is pulled from his hand. Aragorn’s sword blazes with fire and Legolas cries “Mithrandir!” The three companions are stunned into silence until Aragorn finally says, “What veil...
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...and didn’t know they’d been taken by orcs until an eagle told him—the same eagle Legolas saw three days before. Gandalf knows some of what happened while he was gone, but...
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...tells them that the hobbits are with the ents, to the amazement of Aragorn and Legolas, who know the ents as an ancient legend. Treebeard is the oldest ent and the...
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...Aragorn says that though Mordor has Nine Riders, they have One White Rider, Gandalf. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli agree to follow him to Rohan.
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Before they depart, Legolas and Gimli ask what happened to Gandalf after they parted. He tells his story: he...
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...advises him that the “Dead watch the road that leads to the Sea.” She warns Legolas that if he hears a seagull cry, his heart will no longer rest in the...
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...the house of Théoden. They ride as the sun sets towards the Gap of Rohan. Legolas sees smoke blocking the sun and asks what it might be. Gandalf replies, “battle and...
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Book 3, Chapter 6
...while Gandalf stands watch and wake up to ride again before sunrise. In the dawn, Legolas can see the mead hall of Théoden, called the Meduseld, and other settlements around it....
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...warning the guard not to touch it. Háma is amazed by the legendary weapons that Legolas, Aragorn, and Gandalf leave with him. Gandalf refuses to go in without his staff, claiming...
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...until his quest is complete. They all look to the east, thinking of Frodo, and Legolas thinks he can see a tiny red flame in the distance.
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...Théoden will ride to war rather than lead the women away to safety, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli will accompany him.
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...Gandalf chooses Shadowfax, whom Théoden gives him happily, along with armor for Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas.
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...their previous argument about Galadriel and invites Gimli to ride with him. Gimli agrees, if Legolas can ride beside them. Gandalf calls Shadowfax and throws back his grey cloak, revealing his...
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Book 3, Chapter 7
...then stops for five hours to make camp before setting off again. Ahead, towards Isengard, Legolas can see darkness, and shapes moving near the river, but no details. There is a...
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...behind the Deeping Wall, a twenty-foot battlement set with slits for shooting through. Gimli and Legolas stand on top of the wall and anticipate the battle to come, wishing for more...
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...Éomer thanks Gimli for his aid. Returning to his place on the wall, Gimli gives Legolas the count of his kills: “two!” Legolas replies that he’s killed at least twenty with...
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...when the orcs gain entry through the culvert where the stream flows out. Gimli and Legolas leap down to meet them. Together with the men of Westfold, they press the orcs...
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...at the bottom of the stairs leading towards the back gate with the help of Legolas, who eventually calls Aragorn inside once everyone gets safely within the Hornburg, the stronghold of...
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...his horn. The men of Rohan at the Dike cheer for him, and Aragorn and Legolas call out to Gandalf. Théoden rides down out of the Dike and Erkenbrand charges down...
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Book 3, Chapter 8
That morning, Théoden and Gandalf reunite, along with Aragorn, Legolas, and Erkenbrand. Éomer and Gimli, who had been driven back into the Deep, emerge also,...
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...one will ever know what happened to the orcs when they ran into the forest. Legolas wants to talk to the trees; he senses wrath from them, but only towards orcs....
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As they pass out from beneath the trees, Legolas turns back to look and notices strange eyes watching them from the branches. Ents emerge...
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Book 3, Chapter 9
Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas remain behind with the hobbits, who lead the way into Saruman’s guard-house for lunch. Aragorn...
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They smoke in silence for a while until Legolas prompts the hobbits to tell the story of everything that’s happened to them since they...
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...but the hobbits gathered that there was a great battle happening and worried about Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Later that night led by Treebeard, the ents broke the dams and poured...
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Book 3, Chapter 10
...ally. Gandalf meets with Treebeard one more time and introduces him to the Three Hunters. Legolas praises Fangorn forest and asks permission to bring Gimli there. Treebeard is wary of a...
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