Quote:
The passes further south are too far away, and were all guarded years ago - they lead straight into the country of the [Beardless Men Mani Aroman >] Horsemen.
|
As far as I was able to understand it, the quote states that the Rohirrim are beardless. This in my opinion doesn't mean that the men were unable to grow beards but rather that the fashion was to be clean-shaven. At least I interpret it this way.
Concerning the other quote, I think greybeards is just another name for the elders of Gondor and if they are referred to as "greybeards", it is somehow logic to me that they have beards.
The subject is really confusing (and very interesting too). Tolkien often contradicts himself. I think I'll search my e-books again, this time to see how many bearded characters I find, this subject really arose my interest
All quotes are from HoME, I'll check later in which volumes I found them, when I get home