Ok, I know they're pictures in the books and all but does it ever actually say if female dwarves have beards or no?
And yes I noticed the horrible auto correct that my phone did to me.
In Golarion canon, they don't. See the illustration of any female dwarf in any Paizo product.
Armed mainly wiht that line, Dragon Magazine writer and editor Roger E. Moore included bearded dwarven women in his 1982 article "The Dwarven Point of View" in Dragon #58. There was an illustration of a bearded female dwarf in the same issue. As Dragon articles were considered AD&D canon by many, bearded dwarven women became a farily common thing in-game.
As far as I recall, TSR stopped making references to bearded dwarven women after AD&D 2nd Edition was released in 1989, and never published art of bearded dwarven women after that.
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Interestingly, the movies show that it was a joke as far as they were concerned, since we have female dwarves with no beards running from Smaug as he attacks the Lonely Mountain in the beginning of the Hobbit. Most 2nd Ed to 5th Ed editions of D&D don't have dwarven women with beards, for any number of reasons ranging from eliminating offense, a somewhat common trope, etc. For an awesome example of dwarven women with beards who then shave them and some great stories, check out the Rat Queens comic by Image. Dwarven women start shaving their beards as a protest against traditional male dwarven standards of beauty and it eventually becomes a hipster tradition like man-buns are now. The dwarven smiths also use their younger daughters to model armor they have finished forging, and a bunch of other stuff. It's a great post-modern take on traditional dwarves.
The art books for the Hobbit trilogy and Kili's comments at Rivendell show the females with beards. There is a clearly picture of one of the actress in full costume with Wolverine level mutton chops.
Sighting movies I understand and dwarven females without beards would be seen to help non-fantasy goers to understand who it is they're looking at. But where in the text of the books does it say they either have or do not have said facial hair?
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For an awesome example of dwarven women with beards who then shave them and some great stories, check out the Rat Queens comic by Image. Dwarven women start shaving their beards as a protest against traditional male dwarven standards of beauty and it eventually becomes a hipster tradition like man-buns are now. The dwarven smiths also use their younger daughters to model armor they have finished forging, and a bunch of other stuff. It's a great post-modern take on traditional dwarves.
Rat Queens is awesome!
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Sorry James, Sir Terry is still a higher authority and I'm maintaining my love of Dwarven beards.
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Sorry James, Sir Terry is still a higher authority and I'm maintaining my love of Dwarven beards.
Actually in Golarion James is the higher authority than Sir Terry.
Female dwarves don't exist in the first place...
Ruyan.
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The whole "dwarven women have beards" thing is from one line from J.R.R. Tolkein's The Two Towers, where Gimli is talking/boasting about dwarven works to Eowyn, and Legolas makes a snide side-comment. It's not fully clear from the text, but I always took the line to be a joke they are trying to pull on Eowyn. (I don't have a copy of The Two Towers with me, so I can't cite the reference.)
There is no such line in the book. The discussion of the issue in the movies was invented by the script writers.
That being said, yes Tolkien's female Dwarves had beards. This is confirmed by both the appendixes and a separate note in one of his developmental texts;
"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 peoples cannot tell them apart."
Return of the King, 360 (Appendix A)
"...no Man nor Elf has ever seen a beardless Dwarf - unless he were shaven in mockery, and would then be more like to die of shame... For the Naugrim have beards from the beginning of their lives, male and female alike..."
The War of the Jewels ("The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Naugrim and the Edain")
As to Golarion, JJ stated above that female dwarves on Golarion do NOT have beards.
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The whole "dwarven women have beards" thing is from one line from J.R.R. Tolkein's The Two Towers, where Gimli is talking/boasting about dwarven works to Eowyn, and Legolas makes a snide side-comment. It's not fully clear from the text, but I always took the line to be a joke they are trying to pull on Eowyn. (I don't have a copy of The Two Towers with me, so I can't cite the reference.)There is no such line in the book. The discussion of the issue in the movies was invented by the script writers.
But was, indeed, based on the very quotation you've provided from Tolkien's Appendices in Return of the King. So, while the script writers did create the scene, the material was written by the good doctor.
2E complete book of dwarves I think was the best version. Females dwarves could grow beards... and some chose to be clean shaven.
Really the best of both worlds. If you want a bearded female because it's a bit more fantastical and makes dwarves more it's own race and less 'short humans'... you have them. If you're a woman and don't want to roleplay such a tropey thing as bearded lady.... You don't have to.
Everyone wins :D
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As far as Golarion goes, like James said, no they don't have beards. As far as The Hobbit films were concerned...kind of. Basically like LizardMage said, dwarf women have "beards" in the form of very long sideburns, some long enough that they can be styled with braids and stuff, but nothing like goatees or mustaches. And as far as Sir Terry Pratchett was concerned, yes, they do.
And as far as the average gamer's concerned? Whatever your GM decides. That's the beauty of it!
In my own home-brew variations of both Golarion and the Forgotten Realms I decided that it was a matter of bloodlines. Some families produced female dwarves with beards, some did not - and there was no social stigma in either case.
Similarly, I ruled that the same applied to elven men - some could grow beards, some were "naturally clean-shaven".
Basically, a player could choose which option applied to his/her character.