Nevertheless, it's interesting that Thorin Oakenshield is older during the events of The Hobbit than Gimli was during The Lord of the Rings.Movies ‘The Lord of the Rings’ cast will reunite in lockdown this weekendĮlijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and other stars from “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy are reuniting Sunday for Josh Gad’s “Reunited Apart” chat series. This is counter to Gimli's curmudgeonly and set-in-his-ways nature, although these could be considered traits of Tolkien's Dwarves in general. Dwarves typically live between two and three hundred years, which casts Gimli in a relatively young light at 139. Although Eru decrees that he had already foreseen the creation of the Dwarves and therefore permitted their existence, the race would not be granted the same immortality as the Elves, but nor would they suffer the same short lives as men, as they needed to endure the dark influence of Morgoth. In Middle Earth lore, Dwarves are set apart from Elves and Men in the sense that they were created by Aulë, a Vala, rather than Eru, the God. Considering all the evidence, Legolas is most likely somewhere between 20 years old, although there's plenty of leeway on either side of this estimation.ĭwarves are canonically more straightforward than Elves, so it is fitting that Gimli's age in The Lord of the Rings is much clearer than that of his pointy-eared rival. On the other hand, Legolas also describes 500 years in fleeting, flippant terms. The fact that Legolas never visited Lórien as his eleven ancestors in The Lord of the Rings often would, and isn't mentioned to have fought in the original battle against Sauron at the end of the Second Age, hints that Legolas is one of the more junior Elves.
Legolas refers to his fellow Fellowship members (except Gandalf, of course) as children, suggesting he's much older than any of them. Related: How The Hobbit Changed The Ringwraith Origins For Desolation of SmaugĬlues within the text are conflicting, which doesn't help to backdate proceedings here. It's equally possible that Legolas was born some time within the Third Age, which could put him at "only" a few hundred years old. As the Elves are timeless and Legolas' father was born in the First Age, Legolas could've conceivably been born as early as the Second Age, over 3000 years before The Fellowship of the Ring.
Apart from Gandalf and Legolas who are known to be extremely old, Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir all feel like gruff, middle-aged adults compared to the fresh-faced youthfulness of the Hobbits.Įven more so than Gandalf, Legolas' age is very hard to pin down, and the elf is one of the few main Lord of the Rings characters that Tolkien doesn't date specifically.
In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, the portrayals of most characters match the actors' real-life ages by necessity. Nevertheless, each character makes a strong impression that not only continues throughout the trilogy itself but also etches into the history of Middle-earth, ushering in the dawn of a brand new age. The Fellowship of the Ring doesn't last especially long, however, breaking up before the end of the first book, due to ideological differences and the death of Boromir.
Tolkien's Middle-earth is full of fascinating entities throughout its long fictional history, the main focus naturally falls upon the nine members of the Fellowship who are tasked with carrying the One Ring from Rivendell to the fiery Mount Doom in Mordor. Despite containing numerous ancient characters, it is still possible to trace how old each member of the Fellowship is in The Lord of the Rings.