Quote:
Originally Posted by Mugwump
Because of who Gimli's father was, I would still be greatly surprised if Saruman didn't already know him by sight. Conversely, Saruman's calling him by name at that time could easily have been to show off his knowledge. I'm sure he used the Palantir and his other spies to scope out as much information about Gandalf and his companions as possible.
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Yes, but here we go - only after Gimli became the part of the Fellowship. Glóin was really not important AT ALL for somebody like Saruman, cf. what I have posted earlier on this thread. Thorin was the only one of the original bunch (and later maybe Balin when he initiated the departure to Moria) who could have really been of any interest to Saruman. Saruman was also becoming already "powerblind" in this stage, this typical trait of bad guys in Middle-Earth (like Sauron ignoring the Hobbits), I think with his ideology he would just shrug off the Dwarves as unimportant, skilful but doomed to rot in their voluntarily chosen foolish stagnation underground. So indeed even Erebor and Dáin would mean for him only a strategic piece on the map blocking the Easterlings, and a number in his economic calculations if he was getting a trade from there.