About dwarf women

[A_Brandybuck]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Hmmm. What might have inspired or prompted Tolkien to imagine or create bearded dwarven women?

Maybe he wanted to express the strange creation of the Dwarves by Aule. The Dwarves didn't come normally into being like Elves and Men, who were created by Ilúvatar. The Dwarves were made in a revolutionary way against the 'law' of Ilúvatar. Although Ilúvatar adopted them. But he didn't create them. Aule created them, because he couldn't wait for the Coming of the Children of Ilúvatar. But he created them straight from his memory of the vision, which was not very clear.
Maybe Aule couldn't remember this little detail, that male and female differ in the face. Consequently he gave both a beard.

In every case I have the meaning, that Tolkien wanted to express that Dwarves are different from the other Children of Ilúvatar. And this theory fits well with the reasons of Aule creating the Dwarves (and his lacking memory of the vision.)

[davem]

Originally Posted by A_Brandybuck

Maybe Aule couldn't remember this little detail, that male and female differ in the face. Consequently he gave both a beard.

In every case I have the meaning, that Tolkien wanted to express that Dwarves are different from the other Children of Ilúvatar. And this theory fits well with the reasons of Aule creating the Dwarves (and his lacking memory of the vision.)

But hadn't the Valar already taken male & female forms by then? I wonder if the 'female' Valar were as ignorant as Aule. Yavanna with a beard & mustache?

EDIT: Just found this. Relevant part (possibly) is the story of the chain made by the Dwarves to restrain the Wolf Fenris:

The Gods kept and fed the wolf at home. Tyr was the only one who was brave enough to feed him. But when the Gods saw how fast the wolf grew, and as for all prophesies foretold that he would harm them, the Gods decided to make a strong fetter for Fenrir called "Læðing". They took the fetter to Fenrir and asked him to try to break it, Fenrir did that without any trouble. The Gods then made the fetter called "Drómi" and asked the wolf to break that one. Fenrir thought to himself as he hadn´t had any trouble braking the "læðing" why should he not be able to break this one as well. Fenrir told the Gods to put the fetter around his neck, he then broke the fetter easily. The Gods then became scared that there would be no way to contain the wolf. Odin then sent a messenger of Frey called Skirnir down into the world of the Swart Alfs, below the earth, to meet some Dwarves. The Dwarves make the fetter called "Gleipnir". Gleipnir was made of six things: the boom of the cat, the beard of the woman, the roots of the mountains, the sinews of the bears, the breath of the fish and the spit of the birds. You might think there are no such things but this story shows why women don't grow beards, why the cat makes no sound and why the mountains have no roots.

We must assume that it was in a later age that the Dwarves made Gleipnir & that from thenceforward Dwarf women were beardless.

At least, this seems to be where Tolkien got the idea for Dwarf Women having beards. 'Unless, of course, you know different....'