Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
I was aware that there could have been exceptions, but as "offshoots" of Men, in general neither drūgs nor Hobbits were known for growing facial hair.
By the same token, the fact that we aren't told of any Orcs having beards is no proof that there were none. However, I am disinclined to believe that the shared smooth-faced characteristics of the three groups was necessarily meaningless.
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Beardedness seems to vary amoungs the mannish groups. The Numenorians (and by extension, Gondorians and Arnorians) are notably beardless, though whethere they actually don't usually grow beards or if it's just that beards have never been fashionable is a bit unclear to me (the Numernorians do have some elvish blood in them (at least the royal line does) so they may have the elvish beard expression (i.e not growing facial hair till they are quite elderly, possibly not until and age far in excess of what they live to). The fuzzyness of the other free mannish races is not much mentioned, though the fact that note is made of the fact that the Near Haradrim are bearded by those that fight them seems to indicate that beards may not be a common sight in the free lands (though you have to weigh this agaisnt the fact that most of the people who are fighting the Haradrim are Gondorian, who as previously noted, don't usually wear beards) The The Ishtari are of course bearded, but since common men tend to think of them (at least to think of Gandalf, and presumably Saruman) as possibly being part elf or dwarf anyway their beardeness may or may not have been a remarkable trait.