Friday, February 29, 2008

Age?

There is talk about how old Tom is and how old Treebeard is, but how old do you think Gandalf is? He seems to have been around forever too. I mean you can't even kill the guy. He reminds me of a Dr. Who character that continues to exist. Never in the book do they mention that Gandalf is human. When they mention the humans in the company they name Borimir and Aragorn.

While we are at it, how old do you think Aragorn is? The books talk about things that he done 38 years ago. Is Aragorn 50 plus years old when all of this is taking place? This reminds me of Beowulf fighting a dragon at age 70. Aragorn could be 70 too. How long exactly does a Numenorian live?

8 comments:

becky said...

Well, when questioning age I always think about how "old" Frodo and friends are in comparison to our years. In yester-year, people lived for very different lengths of times. Reading Genesis is very interesting, I just took a quick look and Jared lived 800 years and many lived multiple hundreds of years. On the other hand, King Tut started his reign when he was just around a teen, and died typically around 30 years of age. The hobits are in their fifties. Gandalf is a wizard and it seems that none of the different 'races' are patterned similar to our typical familiarity of human years.

dustin said...

well, the other day I was watching the two towers and Aragron was talking to King Theoden's daughter or niece and she asked him how old he was. She guessed 40, 50, 60, and I'm pretty sure that he said was he was like 87. I know its from the movie, but I don't know if the books ever say. The way that Tolkien identifies man, elves, hobbits, dwarves, and wizards; its almost like the wizards are there own seperate race. doesn't it???

David Le said...

ya in the movie he said he was 87 and as a fellow member of the dunedein clan apparently he has a special gene in him to actually prolong his life. Also he lived with the elves who are nearly immortal so he must of had some kind of food spiked in it when he ate with the elves. I don't know its kind of strange, but if he is a man how can he have a special trait that slows down his aging capabilities unless something on the lines of evolution caused this defect in his body. so was this the birthright he was given with or is it how his predecessor isuldur became king?

ashley F. said...

In my view I feel that one of Gandalf traits is to be inmortal. I think b/c of this factor,this is why Gandalf age is never adressed in the book. No mortal individual survives what he did, even the hobits figured he had died. I dunno i just think that the hobits need Gandalf and b/c of this he will forever survive and also I want him to survive b/c he is my favorite character!!!

Emily said...

I thought I'd just give my two cents on the ages of the characters. I also recall in the movie how Aragorn said he was 87. Gandalf is much older than him, so I figure he is probably approaching the upper hundreds, almost 200 hundred. Doesn't Bilbo celebrate his 101st birthday? So I figure that hobbits live long lives too, although I think that the having the ring extended his lfe. As for the races, I think that the wizards are there own people, as are the men, hobbits, dwarves, and elves. It seems that they all seem to live a long time though.

Megan Becker said...

Bilbo lives celebrates his 111th birthday early in the first book, and is still lively and healthy. They do say how the ring affected his life, because he still acts as young as a man in his fifties. They also say that the average hobbit lives to be in their 130's. Gandalf I think defies age, as it isn't important because it doesn't affect him. As for Aragorn, I have no explanation on why he is as old as he is. Maybe it's just good genes :)

joe donaldson said...

I remember seeing an interview from Ian McKellen on his Gandalf performance and he said the character was nearly 7,000 years old though I have no idea where his sources came from, but he should know I guess. 87 sounds right for Aragorn- its that elf blood that keeps him so young, but he'll die eventually as all elves do- they only think they're immortal ;)

Michael Widner said...

Gandalf is one of the Istari, who are indeed a separate race from men. They were sent by the elder powers to aid Middle Earth. They first appear when Sauron begins to return in Mirkwood, which seems to already be well under way during the time The Hobbit takes place. Since we can probably assume that Gandalf appeared (or was) old by human standards, he'd be at least close to a century older than Bilbo. I get the impression, however, that he, unlike the elves, was not created in Middle-Earth, but sent from the supernatural realm. That means he could be effectively immortal or millenia old, at least.

If you want more detail about who might have created them (Tolkien creates a hierarchy of greater deities in his creation myth), you should read The Silmarillion. I suspect it was Illuvatar, who also created the elves and men.

Also, remember that Gandalf is also a ringbearer. He wears one of the three Elvish rings. So, I don't think there's any way to tell how old he is.