Dwarven Women: Beards or no Beards?

[Tsyr]

Beards.

Reminds me of one of the few halfway good lines from the DnD movie... "What you need is a nice 250 pound dwarven woman, with some hair on her chin that ye kin hang on ta!"

Or something like that...

 

[Bagpuss]

While possible it's culturally unexceptable for a dwarven female to shave during pregnancy. Most dwarven females are proud of their beards, a healthy beard points to a healthy child. There are traditions about if it curly it will be a boy and straight it will be a girl (or visa versa depending on the clan).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

(Sets down soapbox, stands on same.)
The whole bearded female dwarf question predates gaming by a bit.
The Norse dwarfs you see had no women at all. None. When fandom started asking itself: 'Then how does the species propigate' some wag answered: 'Easy, the dwarfen women have beards! To non-dwarfs they look just like the males!'
Now, three or four generations of fandom down the road the answer has become the question, a perfect fandom koan.

The Auld Grump, putting away his soapbox...

 

[Tuerny]

I am not looking for an answer to it, by the way. Gads, I really don't want to think about it.

Well I will give you the luxury, since you are playing the elf in my game, to decide that.

 

[UD]

Consult the official fantasy refrence (Terry Pratchett) who says something along the lines of:
The majority of the dwarfen mating ritual consists of trying to find out what sex the dwarf under their beard is.

Quotes:

All dwarfs have beards and wear up to twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)


All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!" and axing their legs off at the knee.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)


And now some dwarf poetry:
Gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold.

Gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold,
gold, gold, gold, gold.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Dwarven women without beards are like Halflings without hairy bare feet. Rediculous!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Dwarven women without beards are like Halflings without hairy bare feet. Rediculous!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Dwarven women without beards are like Halflings without hairy bare feet. Rediculous!

 

[Luddite]

(Sets down soapbox, stands on same.)
The whole bearded female dwarf question predates gaming by a bit.
The Norse dwarfs you see had no women at all. None. When fandom started asking itself: 'Then how does the species propigate' some wag answered: 'Easy, the dwarfen women have beards! To non-dwarfs they look just like the males!'
Now, three or four generations of fandom down the road the answer has become the question, a perfect fandom koan.

The Auld Grump, putting away his soapbox...

I am going to have to side with the Grump. "Do dwarf women have beards?" To which my reply is "There are dwarf women?"

Alot depends on the world. In old Greyhawk, then dwarf women have beards. In the 3E Greyhawk, they are a little more open minded about the issue.

In a world were Dwarfs and Elves are both Fey, then there are no female Dwarfs. The Fey do not propagate like humans. Castle Falkenstien had an interesting solution. Dwarfs and Nymph's mated with each other. If the child was male it was a Dwarf and raised by his father. If the child was female, it was a Nymph and rasied by her mother. But both were still different "species" of Fey.

I would like to know where Tolkien talks about the procreation habbits of the Dwarfs. And what he says about the nature of female Dwarfs.

-The Luddite

 

[Deedlit]

Luddite, it's in the RotK appendix.