Since the story is from the perspective of four Hobbits, and taking into consideration the androgynous beauty of the Elves, for all we know, they could have assumed that all the Elves they dealt with were male! That is a possibility. And especially if there are any tomboy female Elves (like my poor, delusioned grand-daughter Aredhel), they could have easily mistaken them, in male garb, for male Elves.
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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