The Middle Earth Popularity Cup

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Have you ever wondered who's the most popular Middle Earth character here on the downs? What better way to find out than by a silly popularity-game?

I've arranged a tournament grid of 32 main characters of JRRT's books which here follows (sorry if I forgot someone significant; Edit: I did, so Celeborn is out Sam in):



Frodo (5) vs. The Gaffer (1)
Beleg Strongbow (5) vs. Farmer Maggot (4)
Peregrin Took (2) vs. Mim the Petty Dwarf (5)
Sauron (5) vs. Tuor (5)

Bilbo (5) vs. Maedhros (6)
Glaurung (6) vs. Thorin Oakenshield (5)
Boromir (9) vs. Beren (3)
Saruman (9) vs. Gollum (4)

Gandalf (10) vs. Tom Bombadil (8)
Elrond (7) vs. Eowyn (7)
Meriadoc Brandybuck (6) vs. Luthien (7)
Fëanor (5) vs. Galadriel (9)

Aragorn (6) vs. Thingol (2)
Legolas (3) vs. Samwise (9)
Gimli (8) vs. Turin (8)
Faramir (6) vs. Beorn (8)

The winner of each tie will be decided by voting. The first character of each match-up to receive five votes from five different users advances to the next round, where he or she will face off against the winner of the tie below.

You don't have to motivate your choices but it would be nice

Voting rules revised:
The voting will now be allowed to continue for approx. 24 hours until a deadline set at 12.00 AM board time. This means the voting will not be stopped if a character reaches 5 before the deadline. If none of the characters has reached 5 when the deadline expires the voting will continue until one does. If the score is tied at 5 or higher when the deadline passes (this is new!) anyone may vote again and the first to do so decides the contest in sudden death fashion