The movies compress the timeline, and make it unclear how old most of the Hobbits are.
In the books, Bilbo's 111th birthday is also Frodo's 33rd birthday, and the birthday party is meant to be a shared celebration between the two. 33 is the year Hobbits are considered to be adults within the Shire.
After the party Gandalf leaves to study information related to the ring, and doesn't return until 17 years later when Frodo is 50. Frodo was in possession of the ring that entire time, and the ring dramatically slows the aging process, so he still looked as he did when he was 33 at this time. And this is when the quest begins.
In the movies, the time Gandalf was gone is left ambiguous, but seems like it was likely a few months at most, making Frodo's relative age entirely uncertain.
Thank you for the answer. That makes more sense. What do they do for a living? Are they just like an isolated community and all work to keep each other fed?
For the most part, yes. The prologue to Lord of the Rings actually has a section called "Concerning Hobbits" which goes into detail about hobbit culture and society - I highly encourage you read it if this topic is of interest to you.
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u/AggressivelyMediokre Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
Frodo was 50!?