r/Showerthoughts 1d ago

Speculation Since dwarven women have beards, Gimli would have thought that Galadrial would be even hotter if she had a beard.

1.0k Upvotes

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383

u/Mantzy81 1d ago

Not necessarily. We aren't all subject to the whims of our species programming. I'd imagine that's the same with dwarves.

152

u/ang_mo_uncle 1d ago

So you're suggesting Gimli was a bit of a freaky fella with a thing for clean shaven women?

64

u/skimpleg 1d ago

Bush vs no bush: lotr edition

19

u/Alienhaslanded 1d ago

Same way I'm more attracted to chaotic hot-headed women that have completely the opposite of my personality.

3

u/Universeintheflesh 1d ago

Plus magical influence in this case.

1

u/staefrostae 1d ago

I, for one, have succumbed to the dwarven species programing and think that Galadriel would be even hotter with a beard.

1

u/GiveMeTheTape 22h ago

But it's the dwarves that go swimming, with little hairy women...

76

u/Leafan101 1d ago

I don't recall there being any passage actually written by Tolkien where dwarf women are described as having beards. And in the movies, isn't it just a joke made by somebody? (I haven't seen The Hobbit movies).

39

u/JesusStarbox 1d ago

They don't have beards in Rings of Power.

Only Pratchett dwarves do as far as I can tell.

18

u/mr_fucknoodle 1d ago

They do, actually! Disa has light and wispy sideburns. It's hard to see in the scenes because it's so dark in the caves, but they're really visible on the poster

3

u/SonofBeckett 22h ago

Cheery Longbottom is one of my favorite characters in Discworld.

5

u/Kragevalgt_Ullrson 1d ago

Its in the footnotes. So not a passage per se but still the original source.

23

u/ElJanitorFrank 1d ago

Gimli says dwarf women have beards in The Two Towers (film, not book) as they are marching to Helm's Deep, and he does sound quite earnest when he explains it. No idea of anything coming from Tolkein, though.

22

u/Leafan101 1d ago

If has been a long time since I saw the movies and I only remembered the joke from Aragorn saying quietly aside "it's the beards" but I didn't remember Gimli saying it himself.

8

u/ElJanitorFrank 1d ago

Ah you know I think you're right - though Gimli was talking about how people had a hard time distinguishing dwarf women from men to the point that they didn't think dwarf women exist, and given that beards are so prominent on dwarves it probably wouldn't make sense otherwise.

8

u/tyderian 1d ago

The History of Middle-Earth: The War of the Jewels confirms male and female dwarves are bearded.

3

u/Xywzel 1d ago

Given how that book was formed, being almost as much about the work done to collect and complete unpublished stories from J.R.R. than it is these stories, it likely matters where and how this statement is made in that book. But it has always been something seems right for that world.

4

u/pdxaroo 1d ago

It is emphasized in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings - Durin's Folk

6

u/pdxaroo 1d ago

All dwarves, male and female, are bearded. Tolkien stated this explicitly in his Letters (#133, 144, 153)

It is also emphasized in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings

89

u/Supergraham339 1d ago

Human women have armpit hair, yet most men don’t find them hotter when they do. Dunno if I buy this one OP

10

u/pdxaroo 1d ago

That's cultural training. 1 generation of women not shaving their pits, and that would change. And is, in fact, changing.

32

u/sygnathid 1d ago

Gimli admired the beauty in all of creation, often composing songs/poems about it. He didn't need to think that Galadriel was hot to admire her beauty.

10

u/EvilPersonXXIV 1d ago

That was a throwaway line that was only in the movies (and even then, we don't know if he meant that in a joking manner or not).

8

u/thewyred 1d ago

Tolkien does not mention female dwarves in middle earth...

8

u/pdxaroo 1d ago

Incorrect.

“It is said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, but they are in every way like to the dwarf-men, and in voice and appearance and in garb, if they must go on a journey, so that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart. For they are in face and form like to the dwarf-men, and they have beards.”
(The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, “Durin’s Folk”)

And he also specifically stated in in some of his letters.

5

u/thewyred 1d ago

Fair enough, I was thinking in the text of the stories.

3

u/heeden 7h ago

Which edition did you copy that from? Mine says this -

"It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other people cannot tell them apart."

The only other source I can think of is an excerpt of a letter in Nature of Middle-earth where Tolkien specifies that, in his mind, all male dwarves have beards.

5

u/OctopusGrift 1d ago

My favorite part of Gimli liking Galadrial is that the power of him simping for her made him immune to other people mind controlling him.

4

u/ChicagoDash 1d ago

“Can you hold this pile of moss under you chin for a minute?”

4

u/wybenga 1d ago

When he asked for three hairs from her head, he didn’t mean from the top of her head.

8

u/gunghoun 1d ago

It's why he didn't think it was a weird thing to ask. Clearly she has given away lots of her hair.

1

u/Bjarki56 1d ago

Ha, ha!

2

u/Doctor__Hammer 1d ago

Imagine how much hair she could’ve given him…

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

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