No matter how much it’s been memed, that “Oath” moment in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can’t help but give me chills. If you think about it, the loyalty that Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas pledge to Frodo by offering him their weapons is not just an expression of their cause, but a sign of respect. And according to Gimli himself, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deserves that respect as much as Frodo.
Actor John Rhys-Davies made the comments in a recent interview with Empire Magazine. In this interview, The Fellowship of the Ring cast members gather to discuss the film’s 25th anniversary. Sitting down with Legolas, aka Orlando Bloom, Rhys-Davies was asked where Gimli’s movie props are now, a quarter of a century after they first appeared on screen.
“I won’t tell you where the ax is,” said the Indiana Jones icon, “or I’ll have a visitor. Gimli’s original helmet is gone. I had to buy another one to wear for the odd interview. I’d like the waiter to make me a replica axe, because… you went to Ukraine to meet Zelenskiy, right?”
Co-star Bloom, most famous for sharing great on-screen chemistry with his orc-slaying dwarf friend in the trilogy, admitted that he met the President of Ukraine.
“I would like to give him Gimli’s axe,” Rhys-Davies continued.
Although it was a beautiful gesture, Bloom told his co-stars that President Zelenskiy could not actually accept the gift.
“Actually, he’s not allowed to accept something like that. I was going to do something similar. It’s a political thing,” the Pirates of the Caribbean star said.
Political or not, in our loud and often un-Middle-earth language, it’s very pretty that two of the three Hunters would pledge arms to a real-life leader. Somebody call Viggo Mortensen.
The Lord of the Rings movies are streaming on HBO Max. For more behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the trilogy, here’s the C2E2 2025 cast reunion.
