November 13, 2002

Gimli and Balin
Brett C.

[I'm just in an article frenzy at the moment.]

To the best of my knowledge Balin's brother is Dwalin, not Gloin [whose brother was Oin and was also killed in Moria]. I believe PJ used the term cousin by Gloin to set up a relationship in the viewer's minds straight away between Gimli and Moria. Of course, Dwarf family realations being what they were, with so few Dwarf women, it is not impossible that Gimli and Balin were somehow very distantly related, and cousin might therefore be rationalized as a convenient euphamism.