D&D General Should Bearded Female Dwarves be the Default?

[Eis]

after playing Dragon Age Inquisition and encountering that adorable Scout Harding I will not stand for a world that doesn't include an option for dwarf women to go beardless

 

[Urriak Uruk]

after playing Dragon Age Inquisition and encountering that adorable Scout Harding I will not stand for a world that doesn't include an option for dwarf women to go beardless

I mean... you can always shave?

 

[Eis]

I mean... you can always shave?

yep that's an option

 

[Charlaquin]

To respond to the OP, I believe that in Lord of the Rings dwarf women have beards (unless that's just a thing from the films).

No dwarf women actually appear in the books, any Tolkien made only a vague statement that they are very similar in appearance to dwarf men, but didn’t specify if that meant they grew beards or not. In the Peter Jackson films, though no dwarf women appear, there is an explicit, of off-hand statement that they don’t have beards. In Two Towers (might have been in the extended cut, I don’t remember because it’s been so long since I’ve watched the theatrical cut) Gimli says to Eowyn “You don’t see a lot of dwarf women, and even when you do, they are so alike in size and appearance, they’re often mistaken for dwarf men,” then the camera cuts to Aragorn mouthing “it’s the beards.”

...It just now occurs to me that this could be interpreted to mean “it’s the beards that make them hard to tell apart” rather than “it’s the beards that give away the difference” as I interpreted it.

Never mind, ignore me.

 

[Charlaquin]

after playing Dragon Age Inquisition and encountering that adorable Scout Harding I will not stand for a world that doesn't include an option for dwarf women to go beardless

Harding and Dagna are both so damn cute in that game.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm not down with defining any species as intentionally counter to modern perceptions of cool. It tends to turn the whole species into a joke.

That being said, cool is in the eye of the beholder, and is something for consideration by the worldbuilder. If someone wants to pitch this as something other than a joke in their own setting, then it's up to them to sell it.

Yeah, I don’t see bearded dwarf women as at all counter to “modern perceptions of cool.”

 

[Parmandur]

No dwarf women actually appear in the books, any Tolkien made only a vague statement that they are very similar in appearance to dwarf men, but didn’t specify if that meant they grew beards or not. In the Peter Jackson films, though no dwarf women appear, there is an explicit, of off-hand statement that they don’t have beards. In Two Towers (might have been in the extended cut, I don’t remember because it’s been so long since I’ve watched the theatrical cut) Gimli says to Eowyn “You don’t see a lot of dwarf women, and even when you do, they are so alike in size and appearance, they’re often mistaken for dwarf men,” then the camera cuts to Aragorn mouthing “it’s the beards.”

...It just now occurs to me that this could be interpreted to mean “it’s the beards that make them hard to tell apart” rather than “it’s the beards that give away the difference” as I interpreted it.

Never mind, ignore me.

I see to recall an implication in the corpus somewhere that some of Thorin's companions in the Hobbit were female, unbeknownst to non-Dwarves...

 

[Charlaquin]

I see to recall an implication in the corpus somewhere that some of Thorin's companions in the Hobbit were female, unbeknownst to non-Dwarves...

Possibly? Despite being a know-it-all, I’m not that well-versed in Tolkien lore.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Right, I misspoke. Just saying, the 4E Dragonborn...thing...just gets weirder and weirder when thought about with any sort of critical approach.

Dragonborn are actually Pangolinfolk.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I see to recall an implication in the corpus somewhere that some of Thorin's companions in the Hobbit were female, unbeknownst to non-Dwarves...

Not sure which ones that would be since there were three pairs of brothers (Fili and Kili, Oin and Gloin, and Balin and Dwalin) And a trio of male cousins (Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur), so just leaves Ori, Nori, and Dori, who I can't remember if they were directly related to each other or just similarly named. And I am pretty sure Ori is referred to as male, as he went on the failed attempt to retake Moria. So that leaves just Dori and Nori and I can't remember if there are any specific references to them as "he".

And yes, if we think of "The Hobbit" being written from Bilbo's point of view, they would all seem male because they all have beards and are not referred to in any other way by the other dwarves or Gandalf, but I cannot remember if there are non-story references from the appendices or another book where Tolkien calls them all male.

Here is a video that includes the film scene from LotR mentioned earlier. It also includes footage from the film version of The Hobbit showing beardless Dwarf women:



Edit: Okay, there are these two quotes from Tolkien's writing:

They are in voice and appearance, and in garb [clothes] if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart.

...no Man nor Elf has ever seen a beardless Dwarf - unless he were shaven in mockery, and would then be more like to die of shame... For the Naugrim have beards from the beginning of their lives, male and female alike...

I need to track down the exact book and page for that second one to verify it, as that one is pretty clear.

Edit 2: found it. The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11, Part 2, Ch 13, Concerning the Dwarves

Meaning it is from manuscripts not published til after JRR Tolkien's death. Now I can see the confusion about this topic, since while it did get into a published work, it was not in something he had published while still alive.