I was only in the past few years that I noticed that the Dwarf Gimli is (I think) the only point-of view character in The Lord of the Rings who is not a Hobbit.
For all the rest of the book, when there is direct report of the consciousness of a character, it is always Frodo, Sam, Merry or Pippin.
But for just a couple of pages it is Gimli. No other character is given such a distinction.
The Gimili perspective passage is near the end of the chapter "The Passing of the Grey Company", and describes the Dwarf's inner reactions, especially his almost paralysing fear, as he walks the Paths of the Dead inside the Dwimorberg - the Haunted Mountain.
I think the Gimli POV passage is easily missed, because it is short and seamlessly bracketed by the normal third person narrative. It begins just after :
And there stood Gimli the Dwarf left all alone. His knees shook, and he was wroth with himself.
The report of Gimli's inner narrative starts with: "it seemed to him that he dragged his feet like lead over the threshold; and at once a blindness came upon him...".
And we continue revisiting Gimli's inner reactions until: "the Dwarf saw before his face the glitter in the Elf's bright eyes."
After which we hear no more of Gimli's stream of consciousness.
I find this a fascinating exception to Tolkien's self-imposed rule throughout LotR to "see" the events of Middle Earth and the story through the mediating consciousness of a Hobbit.
Indeed, it seems that Gimli is here taking the role of a "surrogate Hobbit" - presumably because there are no Hobbits present, and perhaps Gimli's mind is in some ways the most suitable for the job.
But why is Gimli most suitable?
Well the alternatives among characters of the Fellowship present at this time; are Legolas and Aragorn.
Legolas is perhaps regarded as too strange, too much a part of the "high" and enchanted phenomena of Middle Earth to be a suitable mediator. As an Elf, Legolas is not scared by the atmosphere of the Paths of the Dead, nor by the presence of the ghosts of Men.
And much the same applies to Aragorn, at this point and in this context. Aragorn a Numenorean, partly elish; and has chosen to take the Paths and is leader of the Company; and he does so by ancient right and prophecy.
Therefore the reader cannot readily identify with Aragorn's point of view - at least not at this particular point of the narrative.
Gimli is chosen, I believe; because, although of a different race than Men, we can in this situation easily identify with him.
He is terrified by the experience, as we also would be if we found ourselves in the same situation.
And probably also because Gimli is established by this point as a likeable and realistically-flawed character - a "rough diamond" whose emotions run close to the surface, and are less tightly disciplined than those of Aragorn and Legolas.
Anyway; it seems that the Gimli-focused passage works well enough to do the job of putting the reader emotionally into the situation in the absence of any Hobbit; and without drawing attention to itself as breaking Tolkien's own rules about a Hobbit-centric story.
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