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Originally Posted by Thinlómien
My only theory is that the height is there to emphasise the person's importance and high rank, and to sort him out of the rest.
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That's a good point, and most likely Tolkien's intention, but there is one other thing to consider (at least from my perspective).
Being "tall" is a rather subjective meassure. "Taller than the rest" is not much better. Suppose that a person is tall but not exessively so yet this person has a very dominant character, strong demeanor and good leadership skills. It is likely that the "primitive" part of our brains will tell us "this person is mighty, thus he must be more intimidating than us... he's tall, probably taller than us"
On the other hand, we have someone just as tall but this person is very shy and introverted. Always hunching over, sitting on the dark corner and trying to avoid others. The caveman inside us will say "this person is not scary, as a matter of fact I'm probably more intimidating... I must be taller"
Of course this is rather subjective and you are free to disagree, but it's a likely scenario. Either that or being tall is needed to be a good leader =P Perhaps people won't follow short leaders (except Napoleon)