How old is Treebeard?

Question

We know for certain (from Gandalf) that Treebeard the Ent is the oldest living creature on Middle Earth:

"Treebeard is Fangorn, the guardian of the forest; he is the oldest of the Ents, the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-Earth."
_{TLOTR Book 3, Chapter 5: The White Rider}

"Treebeard is Fangorn, and the eldest and chief of the Ents, and when you speak with him you will hear the speech of the oldest of all living things."
_{TLOTR Book 3, Chapter 8: The Road to Isengard}

But just how old is he? Obviously somewhere in the thousands of years, but I'm really curious to know exactly how old the oldest (and probably wisest) living creature in Middle-Earth is. Ent eyes are very deep, and Treebeard's eyes the deepest of all. How long have they seen?

I always wondered about that line. Based on the Silmarilion I always thought Galadriel was older than Fangorn. — SteveED, Dec 29 '12 at 18:37
I would say the Fangorn predates her by a good 5,000 years or so. — Joe Casadonte, Jan 01 '13 at 18:55
See also http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11019/ Who's older: Treebeard or Tom Bombadil? — b_jonas, Feb 02 '14 at 22:30
@SteveED - Treebeard seems to think that all Elves, even Galadriel, are young whippersnappers, relative to himself. And Gandalf refers to Treebeard as "the oldest of all living things", and he doesn't make any exceptions to that - even for the Elves. — Wad Cheber, May 11 '15 at 21:03
Gandalf was wrong. Because Bombadil, who as ever is the wild card. — Mike Scott, Jan 21 '16 at 06:21
@MikeScott But is Bombadil a “living thing”? That's the question… — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jan 21 '16 at 07:12
Worth noting that according to Christopher Tolkien, his father was given to ’rhetorical superlatives’, such as ’the oldest living thing’. — Rand al'Thor, Jan 21 '16 at 12:51
Gandalf is older. He was one of the Maia, as well as Sauron and Saruman. They were created before any of the races of middle-earth, after only the Valar, the race of gods first created. It’s all in the Silmarillion... — Ben Rumak, Mar 01 '20 at 02:50

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 21 '16 at 07:02

Looking at the timeline from The Lord of the Rings Wiki, it looks like the time before the first age lasted around 18,000 solar years, and the Ents were created sometime early on in this period.

There also looks to have been at least 10,000 years after the Ents were created.

The First Age lasted about 590 years, the Second Age 3441 years and the LotR took place in 3018 of the Third Age.

So, 17,000 - 25,000 years, give or take.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 02 '14 at 22:24

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well, Gandalf says he has wandered the earth for 300 ages of men. now, if we assume the average age is somewhere between 60 and 80 years, Gandalf is at the most 24.000 years old. Treebeard greets him, in The Return of the King, as "young master Gandalf"...

answered Feb 02 '14 at 22:24

Sladex

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For the record, in a pre- industrial society The average mortality is at around 35(ish) which would make your calculations way off. – Valorum Feb 02 '14 at 23:25
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I can barely remember that they didn't have had magic in pre-industrial society. – Trollwut Feb 02 '14 at 23:36
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@Richard While average mortality was indeed in early middle age, people who lived to be old were still moderately old by our standards. It's just that there was a lot of attrition along the way. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Feb 03 '14 at 02:27
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That's true but the average generation was still only about 15-18 years. – Valorum Feb 03 '14 at 10:32
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I tend to see that comment as 'Generations' of men not take how long a man can be expected to live and times by 300. – Morgan Jun 09 '14 at 20:43
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@Richard - You're forgetting that the primary reason average lifespans were so low was the enormous infant mortality rates - most kids died before their 7th birthday. If you survived childhood, you could expect to live to be 50, 60, or maybe even 70. The risk wasn't dying at age 40, it was dying at age 5. When 60-70% of people didn't live through childhood, the average lifespan was dragged down by infant mortality, not by adults dying when they were middle aged. – Wad Cheber May 11 '15 at 20:57
Gandalf says "300 lives of men, I have walked this earth". Not "generations" - "LIVES". Depending on which men he has in mind, a life might mean anywhere from 70 years (normal people) to 400 years (Numenorean royalty). Certainly he began walking the earth when Numenor existed, so the possibility that he meant Numenorean lives can't be dismissed out of hand. Still, chances are Gandalf meant 70 years or so, which makes him roughly 21,000 years old. And we can't forget that as Numenorean blood is being watered down, lifespans are probably DECREASING. This is the age of myths, not history. – Wad Cheber May 11 '15 at 21:16
@Richard - the usually reliable Tolkien Gateway says that the average lifespan of Men in the First Age was c. 58 yrs; in the Second Age, c. 330 yrs; in the Third Age, c. 146 yrs. The data comes from this site. – Wad Cheber May 13 '15 at 18:56
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@WadCheber - Well that just makes no sense at all. And is almost certainly worthy of its own question... – Valorum May 13 '15 at 18:59
@Richard I thought so too, but I don't know how/what to ask. – Wad Cheber May 13 '15 at 19:00
@Richard - if you help me with the phrasing, I'll ask the question. I'm a bit groggy today and "What's up with human lifespans in Middle-earth?" is the best I can do. – Wad Cheber May 13 '15 at 19:04
@WadCheber - That was pretty much my thought on the subject. You might want to reference the Tolkien Gateway page and find out how they came up with those (very precise) figures. – Valorum May 13 '15 at 19:08
@Richard - the stats come from the statistics section of the LotR project site, and are based on all characters for whom the relevant figures exist. – Wad Cheber May 13 '15 at 19:10
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@WadCheber - Named characters are hardly a good analogue for the "average" man in Middle Earth. – Valorum May 13 '15 at 19:16

How old is Treebeard?

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