# How old do hobbits look in their teens, tweens, 33, 50?



## Diabless (Feb 22, 2002)

Yes!
I have already asked this in the Hall of Fire but I did not get the answer I was looking for and I think people forgot aout it.

1)We know the coming of age of a hobbit is 33?
But how old do they look at 33?

12 years old?
16?
33?

2) How old does Frodo *look* at age 50?

Peter Jackson made him look young? (does he look like he would at 33 because he is well kept)

3) In ROTK Pippin is still in his tweens.

Does he look like a child?

4) How old does Sam look?
(Let me remind you, I am not asking how old the hobbits are BUT how old they look (in terms of human years))


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## aragil (Feb 22, 2002)

If Hobbits live for 100 year, and humans live for 75 years, then it would make sense that a 100 year-old-hobbit would look like a 75 year-old human. If that were the case, then a 33 year-old hobbit would probably look like a ~24 year-old human, while a 50 year-old hobbit would look like a ~38 year-old human. Of course, Frodo didn't appear to age after he got the ring, so he would look like a ~24 year-old, about the age of Elijah Woods. I think Mike B (MikeB?) has already done this math on another thread.


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## Greenwood (Feb 22, 2002)

First, in terms of how he should look, Frodo acquires the Ring at age 33 which then nearly stops the aging process so he should look like a 33 year old hobbit (whatever a 33 year old hobbit looks like). Now as to how old that would appear to us, I believe it was Mike B (I hope I am not giving the credit to the wrong person) who back in December on the movie section did a bit of mathematical analysis showing that if you took the normal average lifespan of a hobbit (which is longer than humans) and assume a proportional aging rate, a 33 year old hobbit should look to be in his early 20's. That is the best I can give you.


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## aragil (Feb 22, 2002)

Heh-heh. Beat you through the ether again!


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## Diabless (Feb 22, 2002)

*Thanks*

Thanks You guys! I'll e-mail Mike B about his thread!


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## Greenwood (Feb 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by aragil _
> *Heh-heh. Beat you through the ether again! *



GRRRRRR! Curses!! Signs off, mumbling unprintable words.  




(What's even worse is that I didn't notice until hours later.  )


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## daisy (Feb 22, 2002)

I always took it as a hobbit 'coming of age' closely mirrored the human coming of age milestone of eighteenish - so a thirty-three in hobbit years is like an eighteen years in human age.

And at fifty, Frodo would be like a thiry year old, but because of the ring, perhaps he didn't age - although don't you have to wear the ring not to age?and Frodo didn't wear the ring all those years...


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## aragil (Feb 22, 2002)

daisy- I think it pretty explicitly stated that Frodo didn't appear to age during the 17 year that he owned the ring. It's in the chapter the 'Shadow From the Past'.
As for whether or not Frodo used the ring in that time, that's a different thread.


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## daisy (Feb 22, 2002)

Gee, Aragil, sorry I missed something so explicit.I also think there is no harm in posing questions that may pop up in other threads?
But I did say correct me if I'm wrong so I should have known!


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## menchu (Feb 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by aragil _
> *If Hobbits live for 100 year, and humans live for 75 years, then it would make sense that a 100 year-old-hobbit would look like a 75 year-old human. If that were the case, then a 33 year-old hobbit would probably look like a ~24 year-old human, while a 50 year-old hobbit would look like a ~38 year-old human. Of course, Frodo didn't appear to age after he got the ring, so he would look like a ~24 year-old, about the age of Elijah Woods. I think Mike B (MikeB?) has already done this math on another thread. *



To be extremely approximate, you can take the same method used in Physics with the Celsius-Fahrenheit scales.

*Whoah! Frodo looks 43ºC!!


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## Crumpled Stars (Feb 25, 2002)

Don't forget that when Tolkien was writing his books, the life expectancy of his day was generally lower than it is now. That must also be taken into consideration.


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## Quercus (Feb 27, 2002)

*How Old do Hobbits look*

About the only real clue we have to go by is that a Hobbit 'comes of age' at 33. When do humans 'come of age'? I guess it depends on the culture, but I would assume that Tolkein had something like 18 or 21 years of age in mind. I guess this would mean that Pippin would look to be 16 or 17 years old when he was in Minas Tirith. So how old would a 50 year old Hobbit look? My guess would be something like a 35 to 40 year old human. Frodo, although he was well preserved at 50, did have some grey hairs. I have to admit that altough I think Elijah Wood fits the description of Frodo quite well, I was a little surprised that Frodo appeared so young. I expected someone a little older looking.


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## Greenwood (Feb 27, 2002)

Quercus

But the Ring stopped Frodo's aging at 33 when he received it.


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## Quercus (Feb 27, 2002)

Frodo always seems to be so wise and mature, I guess it makes it hard for me to picture him so young. It wasn't until I saw the movie that I came to the realization that Frodo didn't look as old as he behaved. But the book says he was well preserved so I guess I've just had the wrong image all these years.


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## Diabless (Feb 27, 2002)

Quercus,
I belive it is a book before a movie therefore you could never have the wrong image. Is is a book which your imaginationcan do whatever it wants with


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## Greenwood (Feb 28, 2002)

Quercus

I also wouldn't characterize your mental image as "wrong". I also always pictured Frodo as older than Elijah Wood. In fact when I first saw a picture of him on a book cover for the Fellowship of the Rings a couple of months before the movie, I thought "Uh oh! They've miscast the part!" When I saw the movie I thought well, Wood did a pretty good job, but he still looks too young. Then I saw the calculation on aging here on the Forum and I realized a case could be made for Frodo looking that young. One just has to remember we are not dealing with our world, but a different one with different creatures from our experience. I always pictured Aragorn as older than Viggo Mortensen, but the same sort of calculation can be done for Aragorn's character. Remember, in the book Aragorn is in his late 80s chronologically, but I doubt any of us ever pictured him as any nearly 90 year old we ever met!


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