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Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
It's entirely possible that the House of Hurin was descended from one or more royal princesses, but one gets the decided impression that in the Realms in Exile (unlike Numenor) the royal succession was Salic.
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Well in times of war it is understandable want a military leader to be your king. A man even with the elves was more likely to be a fighter. Pelandur does claim that Gondor and even Arnor have Salic succession. I am not sure if this was true, but by saying that he would have removed any claim his House had to the throne.
The thing is we are told after the Civil War many of the Great Houses are wiped out completely. Even after the House of Hurin have ruled Gondor for around a thousand years, they are not even the second greatest House (after the Princes of Dol Amroth). In fact from Aragorn's words I get the impression there were a few Houses still in higher esteem. This leads me to believe that until later years they were not descendants of Elendil.
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OTOH, there are the implications of "pure enough blood," as if there was some notion that descendents of Elendil and of "lesser" Men were somehow tainted and ineligible, a rather distasteful position, IMO, and the sort of thing which has (wrongly) associated JRRT in some minds with white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
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I think it's certain that some of the Gondor nobility believed in blood supremacy. The whole reason the Civil War happens, is because they did not want a King with mixed ancestry. I am sure certain parties would be determined to stop anyone of 'lesser blood' inherit the throne.
This is not Tolkien's view though. His only distinction for High Men and Low Men is their relationship with the elves.