The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has only been streaming for less than a day and already controversy has reared its ugly head. But it’s not (in this case anyway) a matter regarding the volumes of arcane lore that author J.R.R. Tolkien generated while creating the mythical realm of Middle-earth. This issue is almost entirely cosmetic. Namely, why the heck don’t dwarf ladies have beards?
It was established in the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers that dwarves are often mistaken for unisex people due to the fact that both men and women traditionally have facial hair. Tolkien traditionalists and Peter Jackson fans alike have therefore been giving the new series a fair amount of side-eye since the trailer that aired during the Super Bowl this year appeared to show lady dwarves sans whiskers. Specifically the character Princess Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete.
The premiere of the series has reignited many fans’ furor over the supposed canon of “Whoops! All beards!” regardless of gender and many have predictably taken to the internet with many gnashings of teeth and tearing of…well, perhaps no tearing of beards.
The angry pro-beard faction does have some canon in its favor. In The War of the Jewels, Christopher Tolkien’s analysis of his father’s manuscripts, he states that all dwarves have beards. However, in The Nature of Middle-earth, compiled from texts originally written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the author does not mention female Dwarves when listing characters he imagined with or without beards, only stating that all male dwarves have beards.
So the answer isn’t strictly a matter of canon and could easily be open to interpretation. And showrunner Patrick McKay has stated that the series isn’t going to be slavish in devotion to either Tolkien’s writings or Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films. “Anyone approaching Lord of the Rings on screen would be wrong not to think about how wonderfully right [Jackson] got so much of it. But we’re admirers from afar, that’s it. The Rings of Power doesn’t try to compete with him,” McKay told Digital Spy.
In any case, Disa — while not the imaginary dwarf princess many had imagined prior to the series — does have facial hair, albeit styled in a way much less pronounced than Gimli in LOTR or her husband Durin. According to Digital Spy, executive producer Lindsey Weber told an audience at San Diego Comic Con, “I can confirm that I have facial hair. Yes, I was there at three o’clock in the morning as each hair was lovingly applied one by one to make them regal and glorious. Can’t wait for you to see more of it…”
So, for the time being, at least, fans will have to content themselves with Disa’s more subtle beard. Or try to make their own TV show.
