Title: Naked
Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: G
Length: 300
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zana, Morgynleri & Icka for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: Dwarves are as much a mystery unclothed



Naked, Mannish, Hobbitish and Elven bodies are for the most part clearly either male or female, all having been patterned after the same fundamental template of Eru's intent. Of course there are exceptions, and the question of gender is separate from the matter of form, but generally, telling an unclothed Woman of Men from a similarly bare Man of Men is a matter of observation.

Dwarves, however are another matter entirely. Aulë had a notion of the outer seeming of the First and Secondborn, recalled from the Song, but of other details rather less. And so his Children are not so divided. First of all, they generally have a great deal of hair, such that one might not consider them naked at all. For another, at a glance, each and every one of them has a hammer, many have chests shaped in such a manner that might be breasts or muscle or merely fat (and a thatch of hair to rival that below, in every case, even if there is skin to be seen between), and of bollocks there is no sign, so where they keep them is a mystery, as is who might have them. They speak of them easily enough — though they call them stones, or gem-caskets, occasionally coin-purses. Just as they use gendered terms in the mannish and elvish languages, each and every one refers to themselves as 'he' and 'him' in those tongues. Those few who have learned the language Dwarves speak among themselves do not say what they know of it, so there is no knowing what sorts of pronouns they might use privately, but to all outer appearance, they would indeed all seem to be male, leaving the question of Dwarf women quite open. As well as how and from whence come new Dwarves.

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Image found here.