# What is a dwarf's life span?



## Rushlight

How long does a dwarf live? According to the Sil, when Aule created the dwarves ".....and they suffer toil and hunger and hurt of body more hardily than all other speaking peoples; and they live long, far beyond the span of Men, yet not for ever." 

Approximately how long is that? A few hundred years?

Right now in the Sil I'm on "Of the return of the Noldor". I'm sure eventually I might find the answer...then again, I might miss it. In the meantime, I'm just a bit curious.

Rushlight


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## Bill the Pony

I looked it up in the encyclopedia of Arda recently because I wanted to know my age in dwarf-years. They say the average lifespan is about 250 years.


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## Mormegil

Dwarves usually lived to about 250 years old. 
Unless they were killed earlier, eg. in battle, of course.


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## Rushlight

*Thanks for the info!*

So Bill the Pony, just how old are you in dwarf years? I might have to look up my age too. 250 years life span....that's a good long time.  Better dwarf years than dog years, I guess!

Rushlight


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## Beleg Strongbow

*Re: Thanks for the info!*



> _Originally posted by Rushlight _
> *So Bill the Pony, just how old are you in dwarf years? I might have to look up my age too. 250 years life span....that's a good long time.  Better dwarf years than dog years, I guess!
> 
> Rushlight *




Thats right and i think i can remember dain geting over 300 years old or near it? "he fell before the gates of Erebor and they still say he could wield his axe as deadly as when he was young"!


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## Beleg

Dain lived for 252 Years. I don't think any dwarf (except Durin1 and Dwalin) whose age is given exceeded 260 Years.

Edit: Thanks Ponte.


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## Ponte

> _Originally posted by Beleg_strongbow _
> *Dain lived for 252 Years. I don't think any dwarf (except Durin1) whose age is given exceeded 260 Years. *




Dwalin lived for 340 years from 2772 to 3112.


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## Celebthôl

But that was due to the F.A. stuff he was supposed to only be 251, if you continue down on EoA it tells you about it, it was/is under debate i think...

by the way, i think i may have worked out a forumlar for dwarve years 

250 (average dwarve age) / (divided by) 80 (average human (our) age) * (times by) your current age

e.g. for me

250 / 80 * 17.5 = 54.6875

therefore i am about 54 1/2 in dwarve years


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## Maerbenn

From HoMe XII: _The Peoples of Middle-earth_; 'Durin's Folk':


> Dwarves of different 'breeds' vary in their longevity. Durin's race were originally long-lived (especially those named Durin), but like most other peoples they had become less so during the Third Age. Their average age (unless they met a violent death) was about 250 years, which they seldom fell far short of, but could occasionally far exceed (up to 300). A Dwarf of 300 was about as rare and aged as a Man of 100.
> Dwarves remained young - e.g. regarded as too tender for really hard work or for fighting - until they were 30 or nearly that (Dáin II was very young in 2799 (32) and his slaying of Azog was a great feat). After that they hardened and took on the appearance of age (by human standards) very quickly. By forty all Dwarves looked much alike in age, until they reached what they regarded as old age, about 240. They then began to age and wrinkle and go white quickly (baldness being unknown among them), unless they were going to be long-lived, in which case the process was delayed. Almost the only physical disorder they suffered from (they were singularly immune from diseases such as affected Men, and Halflings) was corpulence. If in prosperous circumstances, many grew very fat at or before 200, and could not do much (save eat) afterwards. Otherwise 'old age' lasted not much more than ten years, and from say 40 or a little before to near 240 (two hundred years) the capacity for toil (and for fighting) of most Dwarves was equally great.


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## BlackCaptain

Ah well there ya go... Compared to our Human race, an 80 year old man would be like a 250 year old Dwarf. Case closed... I hope. Please don't take that little comparison up there too seriously er anything...


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## istaivan

Maerbenn said:


> From HoMe XII: _The Peoples of Middle-earth_; 'Durin's Folk':


This is really the best source right here. What I think nags us all, is, were the Khazad correspondingly longer-lived in the First Age like the original span of the Numenoreans, meaning including non-royals?
One comes to the sneaking suspicion that you have, in Telchar's time:
Durin (6500 years)
direct-descendants of the other 6 fathers: (700-ish up to 1000, then decreased rapidly within a few generations)
regular dwarves: based on spinning this yarn, -could- live to 'ten percent longer than Elros' originally off of the '-far- beyond the span of men' which sounds more exciting than 3X.
But this is all relegated to fanfic supposition!

Had he ever returned to it, we might have seen a single non-seven-fathers dwarf in the First Age called out as living...a little longer than Elros. Maybe!
But by Narvi's time, dwindling to no more than equalling Numenoreans.


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## Rōmānus

In Appendix A of Lord of the Rings there is a small tree listing some of the dwarves of Durin’s line and how old they were when they died.

Durin Vl - 249
Náin l - 149 (premature)
Tháin l - 256
Thorin l - 254
Glóin - 349
Óin - 250
Náin ll - 247
Dain l - 149 (death by dragon)
Grór - 242
Náin - 134 (premature)
Dáin ll - 252 (premature)

Dain l’s brother Borin (262) and his descendants.
Farin - 243
Fundin - 137 (premature)
Balin - 231 (premature) and his brother Dwalin - 340
Fundin’s brother Gróin (252) and his kids.
Oin - 220 (premature) and his brother Glóin - 253

Grór’s brothers Frór (37 - premature) and Thrór (248 - premature) and Thror’s descendants.
Thráin ll - 206 (premature)
Thorin ll - 195 (premature) and his siblings Frerin (48 - premature) and Dis (born 2760) who had two sons Fili (82 - premature) and Kili (77 - premature).

There are some outliers of over 300 but it seems around 240-250 is the age range at least for Durin’s line.


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## Alcuin

Appendix A of _FotR_ has a partial family tree of the House of Durin for the last millennium of the Third Age. 

The mean (average) age of the males in Durin’s line is 259 years, including that of Dwalin, who lived to 340 years, exceeding the next longest-lived of his forebears and kinsmen by almost 80 years. The median lifespan is 251 years. The eldest son is usually born about the 102nd year of a dwarf’s life, and this is also the median. A king ruled 94 years on average, 96 years median. This makes an average generation of the Dwarves equal to about 100 years. The standard deviation of the Dwarven lifespan is 27.5 years, but if we throw out the anomalous lifespan of Dwalin, that shrinks to only 5.8 years, and the mean and median lifespan converge to 251 years.

(Lifespan figures exclude premature deaths (marked with daggers, *†*), so we’re not counting deaths in battle, due to dragons, or due to Durin’s Bane.)


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