Sapkowski's elves are modeled to a degree after Tolkien's elves. Among Tolkien's elves, Círdan the Shipwright was known to have a beard. But apparently only older elves had it. Not sure how much Sapkowski thought any of this through. As he himself said, a lot of things he didn't 
Círdan by kimberly80
Círdan by kimberly80
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Hi,
its kinda cliche of many fantasy materials
Wizards are always old, wise, with white beard, have some sort of magic wand;
warriors have many scars, usually on places that are not critical, but where it shows both personality of character and the ways they fight;
e.g. scar over eye can be interpreted as metaphor of "character tries to watch all over surroundings and orient in fight, but if the fight gets intense, eye is the first that is hurt"; basically that warrior tries to use eye as battle weapon, so instead of damaged sword, his eye is damaged.
Elves are meant to be wise, cultural, more advanced race to humans, so their appearance, should suggest that.
That's why I think they are all clean, shaved, tall, noble, etc...
Being shaved suggests that they are cultural, they have other values than just fight; that they are intelligent.
Their height suggest that they are "above" humans, and so on, you get the point
But I agree, that's kinda overused.
If you are watching movie and some old man comes to scene, you know that he is smart and so on
its kinda cliche of many fantasy materials
Wizards are always old, wise, with white beard, have some sort of magic wand;
warriors have many scars, usually on places that are not critical, but where it shows both personality of character and the ways they fight;
e.g. scar over eye can be interpreted as metaphor of "character tries to watch all over surroundings and orient in fight, but if the fight gets intense, eye is the first that is hurt"; basically that warrior tries to use eye as battle weapon, so instead of damaged sword, his eye is damaged.
Elves are meant to be wise, cultural, more advanced race to humans, so their appearance, should suggest that.
That's why I think they are all clean, shaved, tall, noble, etc...
Being shaved suggests that they are cultural, they have other values than just fight; that they are intelligent.
Their height suggest that they are "above" humans, and so on, you get the point
But I agree, that's kinda overused.
If you are watching movie and some old man comes to scene, you know that he is smart and so on
Still, rather a rare anomaly.Benzenzimmern;n9742821 said:
But the real question is, who the Devil ever dreamt up the idea of female dwarves having beards?!
Somehow, I rather doubt he was behind this one. . .ooodrin;n9744591 said:
However, you get a REDpoint for the Lord Flashheart reference.
Here's the journal entry on that: "A bearded elven woman is an exceptional sight, even if the beard is false. When there were no crowds, Ilona made ends meet by running a food shop."Benzenzimmern;n9742821 said:Of course they have beards! Sometimes...
From that, I always assumed that the beard was some sort of magical illusion/conjuration rather than a natural one. Either that or the sudden absurdity of the situation was meant to be funny due to shock value. Is she the only example out of the entire game series? Are there no male elves with beards? I can't recall one.
it's a common belief and agreement with fantasy lovers that only really old and ancient elves grow beards. (We're talking elves well into the 10,000 life span). Since Elves lorically in most fantasy live extremely long lives (Of course not all fantsay, such as Witcher, or Dragon Age), but more old school Fantasy like Lord of the Rings, see elves living extreme lengths of time.
The reason then that you don't see elves with beards is.. well ALOT can happen in 10,000 years, and the likelihood of even an elf dieing of old age is one if I could quote gimli, a thing almost unheard of. When an Elf does reach that extreme age, they tend to go back to the land of the elves, which nobody but elves are allowed to go. So you never get to see elves with beards.
This has lent to the other fantasy stories almost always adopting elves without beards as part of the lore.
The reason then that you don't see elves with beards is.. well ALOT can happen in 10,000 years, and the likelihood of even an elf dieing of old age is one if I could quote gimli, a thing almost unheard of. When an Elf does reach that extreme age, they tend to go back to the land of the elves, which nobody but elves are allowed to go. So you never get to see elves with beards.
This has lent to the other fantasy stories almost always adopting elves without beards as part of the lore.