Of Eorl: The line thought broken

[Huinesoron]

Interestingly, the Gondorians came down closer to Urwen's view; Faramir tells us this:

Originally Posted by The Two Towers

...they remind us of the youth of Men, as they were in the Elder Days. Indeed it is said by our lore-masters that they have from of old this affinity with us that they are come from those same Three Houses of Men as were the Númenoreans in their beginning; not from Hador the Goldenhaired, the Elf-friend, maybe, yet from such of his sons and people as went not over Sea into the West, refusing the call.

On which point Tolkien rather scathingly says:

Originally Posted by HoME XII

With regard to Middle Men Faramir spoke mainly of the Rohirrim, the only people of this sort well-known in Gondor in his time, and attributed to them actual direct descent from the Folk of Hador in the First Age. This was a general belief in Gondor at that time, and was held to explain (to the comfort of Numenorean pride) the surrender of so large a part of the Kingdom to the people of Eorl.

So yeah, the idea that they were actual Beleriandic Hadorians, rather than just relatives from east of the mountains, was a bit of Gondorian snobbery.

To the specific idea that only Hador's line had his characteristic blondness, Tolkien also gives us this:

Originally Posted by HoME XII"

The Folk of Hador were ever the greatest in numbers of the Atani, and in renown (save only Beren son of Barahir descendant of Beor). For the most part they were tall people, with flaxen or golden hair and blue-grey eyes, but there were not a few among them that had dark hair, though all were fair-skinned.

hS