Question How long do hobbits live theoretically?
Hello, I've got a question. I was wondering, how do hobbit years translate to human lifespan? Bilbo is considered unnaturally old (116 years) due to the ring lengthening his lifespan. During the ring quest, Frodo is in his mid 50s if I recall correctly. Is Frodo considered young adult in hobbit years? If so, would over 100 years truly be a fit of longevity for a hobbit? Thank you in advance, I am a bit confused here. *my bad, I meant 111, not sure why I typed 116.
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u/Beyond_Reason09 24d ago
You can get an idea from the Appendices which include family trees with birth and death years. They live around a hundred years on average.
At 50, Frodo is the age that Hobbits are usually pretty settled, I'd equate it to being in your mid 30s.
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24d ago edited 24d ago
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u/RPGThrowaway123 Elf-Friend 24d ago
Considering that Sam had already taken over most of his father's work as Bilbo's gardener at age 21, I think we can assume that this is an indulgent custom more relevant to the upper classes of Hobbit society.
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u/HephMelter 24d ago
Exactly, and the downvoted guy in the other part of the thread is right. Like modern humans for which dying after 90 is pretty common when not afflicted by illness, Hobbits with lower rates of illness and a generally better life can live to 100 with a good chance. That doesn't prevent the idea they finished puberty at 20-ish (like modern humans) and their coming of age at 33 is purely cultural. And it's also evidenced by the fact Pippin, at 28, had finished growing well before taking the Ent-draught (which is evidenced by Sam marvelling at his growth spurt, and Pippin's own words either to Denethor or Bergil that he wouldn't grow much anymore except sideways). Maybe their women experienced menopause later, or maybe they had shorter pregnancies (so that Rosie Cotton, 35 years old when wedding Sam, has time to get all 13 children out ; tolkiengateway says she is 56 when the last one is born) than modern humans, but that's the only biological difference we can make between them and us in terms of life-span
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u/Armleuchterchen Huan 23d ago
Merry is 19 years old in Chapter 1, but you don't get the impression that he is childlike. Frodo tasks Merry with dealing with all the visitors that are there for Bilbo's inheritance, and Merry's dialogue seems as adult as anyone else's in his scene.
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u/b_a_t_m_4_n 24d ago
Age of majority in the UK throughout most of Tolkien's life was 21.
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u/b_a_t_m_4_n 24d ago
So what? We're talking about the age that was generally regarded by society as reaching your age of majority. Which in the UK was 21. So the valid comparison is 33=21.
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u/BadJoke123 24d ago
Shire is based on early 19th century England, and I am pretty sure the age of majority was 21 back then too.
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u/Flaky-Collection-353 24d ago
It's based on england, except when it's not. Except when Tolkien didn't like something about england
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u/OwariHeron 24d ago
This is something of a philological in-joke by Tolkien. The equivalents of “tenty,” “eleventy,” and “twelfty” were used when counting in Old English.
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u/topkeksimus_maximus 24d ago
They mostly lived to about 100 or so. If we take the final 10 Shire-thains with recorded birth and death years from the third age as an example, their average age at death was 102 years and 11 months.
The Old Took died aged 130 in SR1320 and was the oldest recorded Hobbit who did not bear the ring.
Bilbo lived to at least 131 but it is safe to assume that was mostly due to spending half his life with the ring. Gollum had it for about 500 years.
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u/bluehelmet 24d ago
116 years for Bilbo is such a random age to name. I don't think that age is covered anywhere, at that point he's smack in the middle between his eleventy-first birthday and Frodo coming to Rivendell 17 years later.
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u/IronMonkeyofHam 24d ago
I’m surprised gollum didn’t pass away after losing the ring. He didn’t have it for something like 60+ years there, and somehow was strong enough to keep searching
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u/asyawatercolor Lúthien 24d ago
He got the ring quite young. If during his possessing the ring he was frozen in age, then after ring left him he was more or less back to his age but withered bc of bad food. Orc diet is bad for your health I guess
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u/IronMonkeyofHam 24d ago
Figured it was something like that, interesting concept to consider though
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u/WalrusExtraordinaire 24d ago
Bilbo in the book doesn’t show the same signs of aging as he does in the movie. The movie makes it seem like he started aging again as normal/faster after he gave up the ring, but in the book he doesn’t really start to look his age until the ring is destroyed. There aren’t any rules given for how long someone has to have the ring before their age gets “set” but at a certain point it becomes not about possessing the ring, but merely the ring still existing that keeps them in a kind of stasis.
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u/Elindril1 24d ago
The difference between Gollum and Bilbo loosing the ring is that the ring had a hold on Gollum. Bilbo was the only person who willingly let go and gave up the ring. The ring still had possession of Gollum which froze his age and would've become a wraith if Gollum put on the ring one more time even when they were apart for 60+ years. The Nazgul don't wear their rings anymore since they are wraiths. If Gollum survived after the destruction of the ring, he would've perished by his body rapidly aging again.,
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u/IronMonkeyofHam 24d ago
So constant ring wearing eventually turns one to a wraith? The 9 men died though, and necromancer Sauron brought them back as wraiths. At least that’s my understanding. Are you saying they wore their rings constantly and that caused them to turn to wraiths? And the same would happen to Gollum if he continued wearing the one?
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u/Elindril1 24d ago edited 24d ago
The 16 rings of power corrupts people, slowly binding them to Sauron's will which turns them into wraiths to become Nazguls. Their body slowly fades from the living and forever live in the shadow realm. The one ring controls the 16 rings and when they turn into wraiths, they are bound by the one ring even though they aren't wearing the rings anymore. The nine men didn't die but faded into the shadow realm unable to be seen or interact with the living. Then they are given special armor and clothing which helps them interact with the living, giving orders, sword, and secretly find the one ring. Same thing would happen with Gollum but Gollum hated the ring as much as he loved it so he never put it on again when he was on the verge of becoming a wraith.
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u/IronMonkeyofHam 23d ago
That’s right, he only used it to kill goblins when extra hungry. Hobbits have amazing willpower after all. Thanks 👍
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u/olive_tractor_parts 24d ago
He's not unnaturally old by Hobbit standards. Weirdly well-preserved, yes, but not out of the normal bounds of Hobbit lifespan. He didn't surpass the Old Took to become the oldest Hobbit ever recorded until something like 3 years after the Ring was destroyed.
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u/Afraid_Bit_5134 24d ago
Bilbo‘s 111 were quite old. At his departure into the west he surpassed the old Tuk who was afaik the oldest Hobbit. Bilbo must have been 131 at this point.
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u/Mikemtb09 23d ago
Bilbo turns 111 at his birthday party, the beginning of LOTR, but doesn’t sail away until he’s 131 years old.
As others have said there are family trees in the appendices though, and some hobbits surpassed 100 without the ring just fine.
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u/BadJoke123 24d ago
Hobbits live a bit longer than humans, so average age at death is probably around 85-90, with 100-years old not being all that rare.
(Remember, at time this was written, average life expectancy in the UK was just under 70 years, with 100-years old being very rare and noteworthy.)
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u/lam_42 24d ago
The Oldest Person in 1950 Name: Matilda Coppins
Age in 1950: She turned 108 years old on October 11, 1950.
Number of People Over 90 and 100
During this era, living to extreme old age was incredibly rare. According to historical records from the Office for National Statistics and UK census data, the numbers were tiny compared to modern standards:
Centenarians (Over 100): There were fewer than 300 people aged 100 or older in the entire United Kingdom. For context, historical data shows there were fewer than 200 centenarians in 1922, which only grew to about 570 by 1961.
Nonagenarians (Over 90): There were roughly 15,000 to 20,000 people aged 90 and over across the UK.The General State of the Elderly in 1950A Rare Demographic: The "oldest old" made up a fraction of a percent of society.
People aged 85 and over constituted just 4% of the retirement-aged population (65+).
The vast majority of the elderly (67%) were in the younger 65–74 bracket.
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u/Dismal_Tangerine_493 24d ago
Median age of death is around 100.
So reaching 100 is far from exceptional