The links you supply are sufficient evidence for me, at least, to believe that
JRRT really did mean that Dwarf women have beards. Perhaps that's because Aule
added women as an afterthought, and he only made minimal differences between
the sexes. Which gives rise to some thoughts that are really not suitable for a
family board, so I'll stop right there. :-)
For the rest, I can add little to Narf's excellent responses. I'm intrigued by
the snippet that it "would of course be impossible" to force a dwarf woman to
marry against her will. Presumably their women are just as strong as their men,
since they look so similar - perhaps stronger. Dwarves obviously take marriage
very seriously.
It's interesting, too, that Dwarves "take only one wife or husband each in
their lives". Does this reflect their fierce loyalty, their reluctance to
change, or perhaps their ideas about their own afterlife - do they think their
marriages continue after death? What about the reincarnated Durin? Was his wife
reincarnated? If not, was he considered to have more than one
wife?
_____________________________________________
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
