[MatthewM]

Do you suppose that the beardless features of Tolkien's Elves and Numenoreans have anything to do with the fact that he himself was beardless? In pictures and videos of the Professor it does not seem like he needed to shave, unless he did it everyday.

I find that beards are usually given to characters of less nobility, or of mixed blood, or of less stature. I can't explain that for say, Gandalf and Cirdan (the only known Elf with a beard I believe), and I can't recall off the top of my head who else is said to have a beard but Gimli and Theoden, but do you get the same feeling here? Many of the common folk were bearded, I think, unless I am going off my own mind and no fact.

We know that the Elves we meet in The Lord of the Rings did not have beards (except in extreme old age, like Cirdan I suspect), and we know that most likely neither did Aragorn, Faramir, Denethor, Boromir (although left to opinion), Imrahil, and all of the Hobbits (I know a certain race of Hobbits had beards, but not the one's we meet.)

So what's the deal here? Was Tolkien biased towards the beardless? Any opinions?