Hi. I actually started a thread on this topic some time ago, so obviously I'm not the only one who has thought of it.
I still think Gimli is the *logical* Ringbearer, and I am not so sure he wouldn't have been given the job if he'd volunteered. The quarrel, in any case, is mostly between the forest elves and the dwarves, rather than the likes of Elrond. But it would have been a different Fellowship that set out. Would the hobbits have gone at all? I don't know. And who would have accompanied him to Mordor? Legolas didn't make friends with him till Lothlorien. The others had their own problems. I suspect he would have strangled Gollum five minutes after they met - that, or reluctantly made an alliance, but would have kept more of an eye on him than Frodo and Sam. Shelob wouldn't have stung Gimli, thank you - indeed, chances are she would have been minus a few legs by the time his axe had gone into action. I keep having this vision of him tossing the Ring into the Cracks of Doom, dusting his hands off (after tossing Gollum in after the Ring) and saying, "Right! Let's go kill some Orcs before Aragorn gets them all." (g)
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