The Nature of Middle-earth

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  Or (b) The age or “growth” scale must be altered. In Aman in the early ages it was very slow. The Eldar then lived at Valian rate: 144 : 1, but also their youth lasted very long, and they were engaged in many pursuits of absorbing interest, so that they did not become “mature” or wed until aged over 100 [VY] or even nearly 200. This does not apply of course to the first generation: e.g., Finwë was born in Middle-earth some time before VY 1085 (when Oromë found the Quendi), say about 1050; in 1132 he was therefore already 82 [Valian] years old and wedded Míriel somewhere about 1150 when he was 18 [Valian] years older: sc., was about 100 [VY].

  But this slow growth was only maintained in Aman “under the domes of Varda”.[5] The rate of growth “under the Sun” soon quickened. For all periods relative to the narrative it may be taken as 10 : 1. That is, from conception to maturity the Elvish hröa in Middle-earth only took 10 times the period of Men. But reaching maturity at 20 they then remained in long-lasting vigour with little perceptible change: i.e., the ageing rate was 144 : 1, or in Middle-earth 100 : 1. As soon as the Exiles left Valinor their ageing and growing rate increased. Those who had to make way on foot and cross the Ice spent a Valian year (= 144 [sun-years]) on the journey after the doom of Mandos. This dreadful journey aged them all to an extent of about 2 [Valian] years (or 72 : 1). As soon as they stepped on Middle-earth the growth rate leapt to 10 : 1. Thus those who were “mature” at the Exile must add 2 life-years to their age (or 1 if in the company of Fëanor) before reaching Middle-earth; and then proceed at the Middle-earth rate of 100 : 1. Those who were immature (under 20 [VY] must add 2 years, and then complete their maturity (if necessary) in Beleriand at a rate of 10 : 1, before proceeding to live at a 100 : 1 rate. (Since this growth rate affected the hröa as soon as conceived, the gestation period was about 9 solar months × 10 = 90 [months].)[fn2]

  That being so, Maeglin if born c. MY 120 would be 20 in MY 320, but in MY 495 would only have grown (495-320)/100 [life-]years older = 1.75 or less than 2 [life-]years. (He was less than 22 and younger than Idril: among her reasons for not accepting him.)

  This will fit the later narrative fairly well, but will make characters such as Galadriel and Elrond rather older in the later ages. It however makes difficulties with Arwen and Aragorn.

  Thus Galadriel was just mature, 20 [life-years], at the Exile in [VY] 1495. She was therefore 22 on entry into Beleriand and then lived at a 100 : 1 rate. At the ruin of Beleriand in MY 590 she was therefore about 28.

  Now if Celebrían was born no earlier than SA 300 she was “mature” (20 [life-years]) in SA 500. By the end of the Second Age in 3441 she was then 2,941/100 = 29 [life-]years older = 49. By TA 100 (her wedding with Elrond)[6] she was therefore 50: not impossible, and explicable by the troublous times.[7] If actually born much later, say 850 or so, she was 20 in [SA] 1050 and in TA 100 2,491/100 years older = 45.

  But Galadriel would be in SA 300 about 31 [life-years] (28 + 3) and in SA 850 about 36½.

  If Arwen was born in TA 341 (as a correction)[8] she was 20 [life-years] in 541. Therefore when in 2951 she met Aragorn (then 20) she was 20 + 2,410/100 = 44! At her betrothal in 2980 she was 20 + 2,439/100, still about 44. At the wedding in 3019 she was nearly 45. Aragorn was 20 in 2951, 49 in 2980, and at their wedding 88. But it seems probable that Aragorn’s life was similarly arranged: thus he grew to maturity as quick as the normal human rate, and then slowed to the Númenórean ageing rate of 3 : 1. He was thus 20 in 2951; but in 2980, 20 + 29/3 = about 30; at wedding 20 + 68/3 = nearly 43 (and so close in age to Arwen); at death he was 190 = 20 + 170/3 = nearly 77.[9] On conceiving Eldarion Arwen joined her husband’s rate, and so at Aragorn’s death (100 years later) [45 +] 34 = 79, an old woman.[10]

  The only way of making Arwen younger at their meeting is this: The Half-elven lived at the human rate.[11] Eärendil was only 39 when he came to Valinor. He was not allowed to return to Middle-earth, but he obtained the grace (from Eru via Manwë) that his children, being half-elven on both sides – descendants of Idril and of Lúthien – should (a) have a choice of which kindred they would belong to, and (b) should in each kind have “a long and fair youth” – sc., should only slowly reach maturity – and that this should extend to the second generation: thus Elrond : Arwen and Elros : Vardamir.[12]

  To Elrond it was thus granted that he should return towards the ancient growth-rate: he reached maturity at 20 [life-years] only in 1,000 [sun-]years (rate 50 : 1). He was thus 20 in SA 1000 – 58 = [SA] 942. When sent by Gil-galad to the war in Eregion (SA 1695) he was therefore 20 + (1695-942)/100 = 27½ [life-years], which is suitable. At the end of the Second Age he was 20 + 25 = 45 [life-years] and at his wedding in TA 100 he was 46, only one year older than Celebrían (see above), which fits well. Elrond at the end of TA 3021 was thus about 75 [life-years], in full Elvish vigour.

  If Arwen had the same growth-rate she was born in TA 341 but did not reach maturity (20 [life-years]) until TA 1341. In 2951 she was therefore 20 + (2,951-1,31)/100 = 20 + 16 = 36 [life-years]. In 2980 she was still of much the same age: and Aragorn (by above reckoning) 30. In 3019 at their wedding she was nearly 37 [life-years] (but Aragorn 43). She then acquired the life-span of her husband after the birth of Eldarion in 4A 1. In 4A 100 therefore she was 33 [Númenórean life] years older or 70.

  Eldarion was mortal and was not by promise included in the “grace of Eärendil”, but he had in fact a long youth: which took the form of remaining like a young man from maturity at 20 until 60 without change. He then lived another 65 years: making him 125, but in life-age 20 + 65 = 85. His descendants became normal, but long-lived (80–90).[13]

  Elros had the Númenórean scale of life, 3 : 1. But the grace of “long youth” took the form of doubling this. He thus should have become “mature” at 60, but in fact became so at 120: he then lived at the Númenórean rate and died at the age of 500 (voluntarily and therefore not at very great age. He was therefore actually in life-age 20 + (500-120)/3 = 20 + 127 = 147. Vardamir lived to be 391 and so was little more than normal Númenórean age (300).[14] Succeeding kings lived for about 400 years until Queen Vanimeldë (the 16th ruler): mostly because after maturity they remained “young” for a long time.

  With regard to those born in Aman it might prove useful to increase their growth-span. Thus the maturing rate of those born in Aman should be 50 : 1, and this should continue in the second generation (those begotten in Beleriand or Eriador of one or two Aman-born parents). Thus Galadriel would not be affected; but Celebrían, born in SA 850, would not reach 20 [life-age] for 50 × 20 = 1,000 [sun-]years: i.e., not until SA 1850. She would then be a young girl at the time of the ruin of Eregion. In TA 100 she would be only 20 + (3541-1850)/100 = 20 + 17 = 37 [life-years]. If born in SA 350 she would be 20 [life-years] in 1350 and in TA 100, 20 + (3541-1350)/100 = 20 + 22 = 42 [life-years].

  Finduilas was about 21 [life-years] when Túrin came to Nargothrond in [FA] 490. If she was 12 in VY 1495 (the youngest Exile) she was 14 in VY 1496. She then needed 6 [life-]years for maturity, or as one born in Aman 6 × 50 = 300 [sun-]years. She was thus 20 in MY 300 and in 490 was 5 years older = 25 [life-years]. This will not work.[15]

  There follows a series of rough attempts, much revised, apparently to find a chronology that would make Finduilas younger when Túrin comes to Nargothrond in FA 490[16]. What appears to be Tolkien’s final scheme appears in the left margin of the last page of this text:

  But note [growth] rates doubled in 1496.[17] Finduilas (the youngest Exile) was 12 in 1495. During 1496 she “grew” at a rate of 25 : 1. Therefore in 144/25 years she grew 6 years. She landed in Beleriand at 16. She then resumed the 50 : 1 growth-rate and needed 4 × 50 – 4 = 196 [sun-years] to complete maturity. She was therefore 20 in MY 196. In MY 502 she had lived 306 more years at 100 : 1 and so was 23.

  It is unclear what the significance of First Age 502 is to Finduilas’s life. In no version of The Annals of Aman or the Tale of Years did Finduilas survive to FA 502, but rather she died no later than FA 49
6 (see XI:92). A possible explanation is provided by some obviously contemporary draft materials, in which it is said of Idril that:

  Idril should be rather older [than Maeglin]. When Tuor reached Gondolin in Bel. 495, he (born in 472) was age 23;[18] but when he wedded Idril in Bel. 502 he was 30. Idril should be also about 30 in Bel. 500. To be 30 in Bel. 500 required 2 [life-]years on journey [across the Ice from Aman to Middle-earth], 16 [life-]years at [growth rate] 12 : 1 = 192 [to reach maturity], and then 12 more [life-years] at 144 : 1.

  The journey to Middle-earth [took] 144 [sun-]years but counted as 2 [life-]years: 144 + 192. We still have to alter the arrangement during the march from Aman in VY 1496. This occupied 144 sun-years; but it was so horrible that the mature aged at a double rate 2 [life-]years during that time. The immature should also have aged at a double rate, at 6 [sun-years] = 1 [growth-year]. Thus an Elda going into exile in VY 1495 at 12 [growth-years] would, by the end of the journey, if female, only require another 6 [growth] years for maturity = 36 [sun-years] and would therefore become 18 in SY 36 of VY 1496.[19] At the end of VY 1496 and arrival in Beleriand she would have had another 108 years at the 72 : 1 rate = 1½ [life-years] and therefore be 19½. She would then resume the 144 : 1 rate and in Bel. 502 would be only 502/144 years older, or about 3½ [life-years]. She would be 23. This fits fairly well. If we make Idril 18 at Exile in 1495, she was then “mature” and lived rest of [her] life at 144 : 1 save the year of journey = 2 [life-years]. She was therefore 20 when she arrived in Beleriand, and in 502 would be 23½. If Idril was 20 at Exile she will be 25½ in Bel. 502. This makes her a little older than Maeglin (and still vastly older in experience) which is better for the narrative, if the marriage of Turgon can be rearranged.

  It would thus seem that Tolkien took the date of Idril’s marriage to Tuor in Bel. 502 here and mistakenly applied it to Finduilas’s chronology.

  This is a convenient place to give a further detail found in still other, very rough but apparently contemporary drafting in red and blue ball-point pen:

  Gilgalad became king in Lindon (under [?Suz[erainty] or?Sway] of Galadriel) about SA 10–20 after departure of Galadriel and Celeborn. He must then have been at least 25 [life-years]. That is, 25 in say Bel. 610. Thus [born] 25 – 6.10 = 18.90 VY before VY 1500 = VY 1481.1.

  XII

  CONCERNING THE QUENDI IN THEIR MODE OF LIFE AND GROWTH

  This is a very clear manuscript written in black nib-pen on 16 sides of eight unlined sheets that Tolkien numbered, in red ball-point pen, 1–14, with two unnumbered sides of tables at the end. These sheets were then clipped together with a torn half-sheet as a cover/title-page. Some corrections and highlights were made by Tolkien in red ball-point pen. It dates to c. 1959.

  The text closely follows the beginning of the text presented here as chap. V, “Natural Youth and Growth of the Quendi”, above, until that text reaches the table of mortal equivalences of Elvish ages.

  Concerning the Quendi

  in their mode of life and growth

  especially as

  Compared with Men

  I. Youth and Ageing

  of the

  Quendi

  When the Quendi were “young in Arda”, during their earliest generations, before the Great March and especially in the first six generations after their Awaking, they were far more like Men. Their hröar (bodies) were in great vigour, and dominant; and the delights of the body of all kinds were their chief concern.[fn1][1] Their fëar (‘spirits’) were only beginning to wake fully and to grow in knowledge of their latent powers, and of their pre-eminence.

  Thus, as was indeed at first necessary, and so ordained for them, they were in their early generations far more concerned with love and the begetting of children than was so later. Moreover, the engendering of children was then less costly to their vigour or “youth”.

  It was not that their natural span of growth and life was different; but that in their early days they used it differently. The natural life of the Quendi was to grow quickly (according to their kind) to bodily maturity, and then to endure in full vigour for many years, until the motions and desires of their fëar became dominant, and their hröar waned.

  The Quendian “growth” and “life” may be compared with that of Men, so long as it is remembered that (a) its rate of “expenditure” was far slower than the human, especially after achievement of maturity, and (b) that when the Quendi spoke of their bodies “waning” it did not mean that these became decrepit or that they felt the oncoming of senility or death.

  The Eldar distinguished between olmië and coivië. The former was the period or process of their ‘growth’ from conception to maturity of body, and was achieved twelve times as rapidly as the coivië. This latter was the process of ‘living’ or “enduring in Arda”, and of acquiring skill, knowledge, and wisdom.

  The olmië was achieved at a rate equalling 12 löar (or sun-years) to 1 löa of human life. An Elvish ‘growth-year’, or olmen, was therefore 12 sun-years. Thus from conception to birth they grew in the womb 9 löar. When born they continued to grow at this rate until maturity of body.

  The coivië then proceeded at a rate 12 times as slow, so that 144 löar (or sun-years) may be more or less equated, so far as change or alteration are concerned,[fn2][2] with 1 year of human adult life. This length of time was the yén or Elvish year, or coimen as a measure of age.

  Elf-men reached maturity at about 24: that is, after 24 olmendi (or 2 yéni): 288 löar. Elf-women reached maturity normally after 18 olmendi (or 1½ yéni): 216 löar.[fn3][3]

  After this, their ‘youth’ (vinyarë), or the time of their full bodily vigour, endured (for both sexes) for about 72 coimendi or yéni after maturity. That is: it lasted until Elf-men were of “age” 24 + 72 or 96; and Elf-women were of “age” 18 + 72 or 90. But expressed in “years” or löar this is 288 + 10,368, or 10,656 years for males; and 216 + 10,368, or 10,584 for females.

  The arrival at maturity was recognized at once by individuals, and occurred with little variation. It was (in times of peace) recognized also by the Elvish families and communities and honoured with ceremony, part of which was the announcement of the essekilmë or personal “choice of name”.[4]

  But the beginning of the “waning” at the end of youth was hardly observable, and was also more variable. Its chief mark, indeed, was the ending of any desire for the begetting or bearing of children (but not of the physical potency until many years had passed). Its approach and process was variable for many reasons. It differed naturally according to the vigour and constitution and character of individuals. Also, among the Quendi, it was much influenced by begetting and by child-birth.

  In this, say the Eldar, more of their “youth” is expended than is the case with Men; and for Elf-men, they say that each child costs as much as 1 coimen or life-year; but for Elf-women as much as, or more than, 2 coimendi. So that for the parents of six children the “waning”, or passing of youth, might come 6 life-years sooner for the father, but for the mother 12 life-years sooner, or more.

  Other special “expenditures”, such as grief, long and arduous travel, great craft-labours, and especially the bodily recovery from grave wounds and hurts, might also hasten the waning. It is said that the “dreadful year” (1 yén) of the journey of the Exiles from Valinor, over the Grinding Ice, to Beleriand, affected those of the Ñoldor who endured it as greatly as three normal life-years.

  But these “expenditures” are not (as they are not either in reckoning human ages) taken into account in computing the “age” of any given Elf. As we may say that two men are both “sixty years old”, though one may be weaker or more worn than the other, so of the Quendi we may give their ages in olmendi and coimendi, and take no account of the chances of their lives.

  As for the begetting and bearing of children: This might naturally begin as soon as maturity was achieved. So it was in the beginning of the Quendi; but soon the other commanding interests of their being, as their fëar awoke, began to occupy
their thoughts even in earliest youth. After the first two generations (that is three including the First Elves) the begetting of children by Elf-men was postponed beyond the age of 24, little by little; until soon the age of 48[fn4] became the most usual for the beginning of fatherhood. Later it was often delayed until the age of 60. It could naturally occur at any time up to the end of “youth” (at about age 96), but later than this a first begetting seldom occurred.

  In the case of Elf-women, marriage and child-bearing tended always to take place earlier than for Elf-men. (For Elf-women were as a rule more eager for motherhood, and until the “waning” of youth, less distracted or deeply engrossed in other pursuits of mind or in crafts.) In the earliest generations their first child was often born before they were of age 20. Later, indeed, as with Elf-men, the date of the first child-birth was often delayed; and first child-birth often took place at age 36.[fn5] It could, of course, take place later. In days of trouble and wandering or of war the producing of children was naturally avoided or postponed. And since this postponement (especially of the first child) prolonged the “youth” of the Quendi, child-birth might in such cases occur up to a female age of 72 (18 olmendi + 54 coimendi).

  These dates – at any rate in the early Ages with which these ancient histories are concerned – were not so much a matter of physical vigour or potency, as of will or desire. As soon as they were full-grown, and with increasing rapidity after the age of 60[fn6] in either sex the fëa and its interests began to dominate those of the hröa. An Elf who had not yet become married, or had at least not found a “desired spouse” by that age (60) was likely, in normal circumstances, to remain unwedded.[fn7]