Birthdate Character Age in LOTR
241 Arwen 2778
After 1981 1 Legolas 800-500
2879 Gimli 140
2890 Bilbo 129
2930 2 Denethor 89
2931 2 Aragorn 88
2948 3 Théoden 71
2968 Frodo 51
2978 2 Boromir and 3 Théodred 41
2982 Merry 37
2983 2 Faramir and 4 Sam 36
2990 Pippin 29
2991 Éomer 28
2995 Éowyn 24
3019 Gandalf the White 0

Ages of the characters in
The Lord of the Rings

The Third Age began when the Ring was cut from Sauron's hand. So the dates I'm giving are the number of years since the beginning of the Third Age. The Fellowship set out from Rivendell on Dec. 25 of T.A. 3018, and everything after that takes place in 3019, so I am giving the "current ages" of the characters at the end of LOTR.

1 Tolkien never gives a birthdate or age for Legolas. The movie invented one for him, but their figure, 2931, is actually Aragorn's birthdate! See my article or Michael Martinez's "Speaking of Legolas", listed in its bibliography, for the reasoning behind the age given above.

2 People with Númenorian blood age more slowly: that's Faramir, Aragorn, and Boromir. Denethor spent too much time meddling with something he shouldn't and was prematurely aged.

3 The movie seems to have made Théoden and his son about 20 years younger than in the books.

4 A rare slip from Tolkien: the birth-date given for Sam in his family tree is 2980, but in the Tale of Years it's 2983. So he might be three years older than Faramir.

We don't know when many of the Elves were born. High-elves lived in Valinor before the First Age began, so Galadriel and Glorfindel are well over 7,000 years old. Sindar, including Celeborn and Legolas' father, lived in Doriath before it fell, so they have to be older than 6500 years. Elrond, born near the end of the First Age, is about 6500 years old.

 

Re: Gandalf — Yes, yes, I'm pulling your leg. Gandalf the Sparkly White is new, but he's been around in some form or other since the world began.


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