How much time have you spent thinking about which of J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters have beards? I don’t just mean the endless do-dwarven-women-have-beards debate. I mean thinking about Aragorn’s chin hairs. Considering the hairless faces of elves. That sort of thing.
Viggo Mortensen’s turn as Aragorn virtually guaranteed that for some people, Aragorn absolutely has a beard. But he didn’t. Tolkien confirmed this in the 1970s—in response to a fan letter that was written in Elvish.
As Alex Perry shared on Twitter, a letter her mother wrote to Tolkien in the 1970s is “cited regularly in Tolkien scholarship, due to him answering her question about whether Aragorn canonically has a beard or not (he does not).”
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I recently discovered that a fan letter my mum sent Tolkien when she was 15 is cited regularly in Tolkien scholarship, due to him answering her question about whether Aragorn canonically has a beard or not (he does not)
— Alex Perry (@Sneakachu25) February 28, 2022
In a brief thread, Perry goes on to explain that their mother believed Tolkien replied to her letter because it was written in Elvish—sort of:
I just asked her and she says she doesn't think it was properly Sindarin or Quenya – she thinks she cheated and transcribed English in Elvish letters. If she gets milkshake ducked over this, it's my fault: I shall take the ducking in her stead
— Alex Perry (@Sneakachu25) March 1, 2022
Perry’s mother, Patricia Finney, is also a writer herself, sometimes under the pen name P.F. Chisholm.
The question of beards has apparently been plaguing Tolkien fans in the wake of the trailer for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Some are angry about the aforementioned beardless dwarf women. Some are still angry that Aragorn and Boromir had beards in Peter Jackson’s films. And someone did their homework, and wrote a thread on r/LOTR_on_Prime detailing what Tolkien actually said about beards.
One quote from this thread directly repeats what Tolkien told Perry’s mother about Aragorn’s beardless face: In The Nature of Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote: “Men normally had them when full-grown, hence Eomer, Theoden and all others named. But not Denethor, Boromir, Faramir, Aragorn, Isildur, or other Numenorean chieftans.”
Personally this leaves me unclear as to whether these men simply did not grow hair on their faces, or if it was a cultural thing to shave regularly, in which case I also have questions about how they kept up their grooming routines while the Fellowship was on the road. As long as no one takes it into their head to digitally erase Aragorn’s beard—thus subjecting us to a disconcerting face like Henry Cavill’s in Justice League—everything will be fine.
I would assume that being Numenorean and thus at least partially Elven, they would share the genetic beardlessness of full blooded Elves. At best they might have scanty or downy beards, not “manly” enough to be worth keeping up.
I definitely the impression from Nature of Middle Earth (which I think also quotes this letter or something like that) that beardlessness is mostly genetic for elves. Some VERY old Elves in later ‘cycles’ of life may have them (eg, Cirdan) but it’s rare.
That said, what a freaking awesome family heirloom.
The elven genes in the Numenoreans would have been pretty diluted by the Third Age. More likely that, admiring elves, they would remain clean-shaven in imitation of them.
I have never heard anyone complain about Aragorn and Boromir having beards. Never.
Both Aragon and most of non-royal Numenoreans are rather far removed from Elves, genetically. So it would have to be one major genetic trait to keep thru centuries. Consider this, even if Elves are immortal and lived for thousands of years, Aragon died at “only” 210 years of age, what does it say about chances of his beard?
Most likely that Numenoreans modeled themselves on Elves, as they envied and imitated them and tried to become greater than them. Plus founder of Numenor and its royal line was half-elven thus beardless genetically. This also added to the fashion trend/tradition. Additionally, regular Numenoreans might have chosen to be clean shaven to show their “civilized” difference from regular “wild” humans left on the continent. After destruction of Numenor, it looks like Elendil brought that fashion trend to Middle-Earth, where most noble folk who claimed descent from Numenor, kept up the beardless fashion of Numenoreans. For Aragan it’s also because he imitated Elves, mostly because he was raised and influenced by Elrond among elves of Rivendell and Lothlorien.
Whether it is canon or not, I always wanted the Numenoreans to be beardless with short hair.
In my mind, Gondor is like Byzantium, the long-lasting reminent of an enormous legendary empire. The Byzantines considered themselves Romans, even though much of the culture had changed due to the local (Greek) influences.
I would have liked the people of Gondor to be more distinctive from Rohan and other Men to reflect their heritage. Hair and beards would have been a good shorthand (but not togas, those are just for fraterity parties).
Just a pet peeve, that this article broght to mind..
I’d’ve sworn Aragorn was described as bearded. Memory must have tricked me.
@@.-@, Radagast, Likewise.
@7, i have a lot of complaints about Radagast in the movies, but him having a beard or not was the least of them.
@6, Looking into The Lord of the Rings, Chapter 9 of Book I says Strider has “a shaggy head”, and Chapter 2 of Book II says of Boromir “his locks were shorn about his shoulders.” So canon fails to meet up to your desires.
@8 ragnarredbeard, To clarify, I was agreeing with commentator #4, who signed off as “Radagast,” not commenting on that character’s depiction in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films. (Although I do agree Jackson’s version of Radagast was awful.)
I remember that clean shaven Aragorn in the Rankin Bass RotK was seen as a major anomaly, but I guess we just want our kings to have beards. For good or ill, RB got quite a bit right.
@10, good catch. I totally missed that.
@5 Aragorn is actually a royal Numenorean by descent from the Lords of Andunie, who were descended from Silmariën, eldest daughter of the 4th king, Tar-Elendil,* who would have herself been Ruling Queen but for the royal house not yet having adopted absolute primogeniture.
*(Which may explain the persistence of that name in the line of Andunie.)
With respect to beards, the Elvish descent being pretty thin even in the royal line by the time the Numenorean exiles fled to Middle Earth. I suspect beardlessness was a cultural preference. I can even picture that, in the latter days of Numenor, some of the King’s Men, rejecting Elvish ways, may have allowed their beards to grow while some of the Faithful remained beardless. I’d bet that Ar-Pharazon the Golden, the last king, was blonde and full bearded.
When he was out as Strider, Aragorn may have not had frequent opportunities to shave and thus had some beard growth, which would match with his being described as “shaggy.” But when he cleaned up, such as when at Rivendell or after he was crowned, off with the facial hair.
I remain deeply, deeply amused that so many readers & fans keep assuming that heredity on Middle-Earth has anything to do with genes (Especially when it comes to the elves, who are in some ways more luminous beings than Earthly flesh).
Also, it’s nice to know that Fantasy fans still understand the importance of a Mighty Beard the the genre! (-;
Nature of Middle Earth supports the concept that Numenoreans, at least of the royal line, would be beardless. Listen to Corey Olsen’s recent podcast on the topic of adaptations where he notes that Tolkien NEVER said that Dwarvish women had beards; the language used was more along the lines that “people thought this” rather than speaking definitively.
And I agree, don’t we have bigger fish to fry than spending all the energy people do on beards? Hashtag-Tauriel Hashtag-Balrog-Wild-Wings Hashtag-Gimli-as-comic-relief
@15 – You are correct, Tolkien never directly stated that dwarven women had beards. His explanation of why no outsiders have knowingly seen a female dwarf in ages heavily implies that they do, given that all dwarves are described with full beards. I expect Tolkien’s tongue was thoroughly in his cheek when he wrote that in the appendices.
There is a line in Fellowship- when they are om the Anduin- where Tolkien describes Aragorn as having a beard.
I remember this distinctly because I had to revise my mental image of him at the time- since this clearly came long after Aragorn’s introduction.
Tolkien may have said that he had no beard in a letter or in person, but he also gave contradictory names and stories for the two blue wizards. His opinion is not reliable.
I’m just tickled to find out that Patricia Finney was enough of a Tolkien fangirl as a teen to write him a letter transliterated into Tengwar. I’m a big fan of her work as P.F. Chisholm.
@17
I have heard of unreliable narrators. Now we have unreliable authors. Oh my gothmog!
But the letter specifically says that beardlessness was a genetic characteristic! From pp. 187–8 of The Nature of Middle-earth:
And for that matter, Tolkien did specifically say that female Dwarves had beards. From p. 205 of The War of the Jewels:
Of course, much depends on what you consider to be canon. If The Lord of the Rings does somewhere describe Aragorn as bearded, that would indeed take precedence over any extra-textual statement on Tolkien’s part; but it would require a specific citation. I’ve just looked through the chapter “The Great River” and I can’t find any such passage.
While having no problem with Viggo Mortenson’s manly stubble the Book Aragorn who exists quite independently in my mind is clean shaven. It’s not a point I’ll fight to the death over.
I am now going to claim that my inability to grow a beard is down to my elvish descent, thanks!
The subject line of the 3/3/22 email from Tor.com is “Beards of Middle-earth and …” I was expecting a story about the women who cover for the gay men of Middle-earth, alas!
It’s not that hard to shave while out in the field. When I was in the military we were required to shave every day even if we were out on exercise. It may not be pleasant, but it is possible. I doubt Aragorn lacked for a sharp knife, which is all you actually need. Everything else is just modern convenience, and mostly marketing rather than necessity.
@13
Your last comment touches on my favourite whimsically puzzling question about film-Aragorn: why is it that when he’s out adventuring in the wilds, marching many leagues a day, getting attacked by orcs and worse all the time, he finds the time to shave every 3-4 days in order to always sport the perfect designer stubble; yet when he is finally crowned and at his leisure, with (I presume) a valet ready, willing and able to shave him every morning, he says “nah, I’ll just grow a full beard…”?
As they pass the Argonath, Frodo sees “…Strider, and yet not Strider; the weatherworn Ranger was no longer there. . . . his dark hair was blowing in the wind…” So unless Drew interprets “weatherworn” and hair long enough to blow in the wind as including a beard, I agree with Steve Morrison: I don’t find any mention of Aragorn having a beard while they’re on the Anduin.
@23 I had the same expectations… alas, it was not to be!
Hmm..First reading in the mid-sixties. At least 3 or 4 times since, most recently last year. I never thought about the beard question but I think I always assumed he was clean shaven. I have no evidence pro or con to present. <g>
@17. Drew: It may be more accurate (and is certainly more kind) to say that the Good Professor’s ideas on the subject changed over time and that his conception of the characters evolved with them. (-:
It’s funny, I never thought of movie Aragorn as having a beard through most of it. Just rather aggressive “been roughing it in the bush for a long time” stubble. He does have a beard in the coronation scene, I’ll admit.
I suspect the deviations from canon were a deliberate director’s choice – Aragorn to make the character more ‘manly’ and female dwarfs to increase the number of obviously female roles. As others have said, it never bothered me enough to notice when I watched it.
@18 Agree wholeheartedly. Whether as Finney or Chisholm . . . fantastic storyteller. Remarkably under-rated.
@25 – LOL!! I thought maybe he had an inability to grow a beard. My Dad, brother and nephews all try and it takes them forever to get something remotely resembling a beard. Like months!
I take back my suggestion that growing or not growing a beard might be a shibboleth distinguishing the King’s Men from the Faithful, given that the leaders of both parties were generally of the royal Numenorean line. Also, too obvious; the Faithful at the end depended on not being able to be distinguished from their King’s Men relations (cf. Amandil’s boyhood friendship with Ar-Pharazon when they were young). It would have been too easy thereby for Sauron as high priest of Morgoth to point at a beardless man and say “Aha, one of the Faithful! To the sacrificial pyre with him!”
The comic Rat Quuens runs with Tolkien’s trope on female dwarves. Violet Blackforge, one of the team, is a rebel against dwarvish tradition, as a warrior who goes out into the world, and one of her signs of rebellion is shaving her beard.