Sunday, July 19

Of the following, who's the oldest?

(at the time of the War of the Ring)

Note: Tom & Goldberry have been left off the list deliberately.

  • Galadriel
  • Sauron
  • Old Man Willow
  • Gollum
  • Treebeard

Bonus points if you can put them all in order.

11 comments:

Hans said...

hmm....Sauron, Galadriel, Old Man Willow, Treebeard, Gollum.

billybytedoc said...

I have no idea, not good at remembering that kind of stuff. I would have put Golum higher than empath did.

Metamatician said...

Gollum's pretty old. But some things in the world are much older...

Empath is on the right track, but didn't get the whole order correct. she's in the lead unless someone does better.

Empath has 2 of the 5 in their correct slots. She's in the lead until someone does better.

This is a pretty tough one, I admit. I think Delusionist could probably get it though, or get very close.

By the way, although it helps if you've read The Silmarillion or Tolkien's collected letters, and so forth, they're not technically necessary to answer this question.

There's enough information given in just The LOTR to put all five in order, I'm almost positive.

Mist said...

My guess is Treebeard is the oldest. Gollum, Sauron and Galadriel I'd then guess are older than Willow and Old man but sounds of course weird to guess that Old man is among the youngest. Really should read the books again.

Metamatician said...

Hey, a new guest! Hi Mist, thanks for stopping by.

You're right that Old Man Willow is among the youngest.

Treebeard is a good guess for the oldest but incorrect.

I won't say any more for now!

JOVIAN said...

just a guess, but:

1)Sauron
2)Treebeard
3)Galadriel
4)Old Man Willow
5)Gollum

Metamatician said...

Perfect! Delusionist wins with the exact correct order.

Here is your Dewey Button. Use it wisely.

Metamatician said...

Basically-

Sauron: A spirit who existed before the creation of the world.

Treebeard: Created at the same time the world was.

Galadriel: A third-generation Noldorin Elf, who were (along with the Vanyar and Sindar) the first sentient race to "awaken" in the First Age. Tens of thousands of years old, at least.

Old Man Willow: Age unknown, but almost certain "born" (seeded, whatever) in the Third Age. Since willow trees can get to be a thousand years old or more, I'm guessing he didn't get the name "Old Man" unless he was, too. And Tom Bombadil talks about him being old even for the Old Forest. Since The Third Age was nearly 4000 years old at the time of the LOTR, I doubt he was younger than a thousand or older than 4000. He's the least certain figure on this list, but I'd put him roughly at around 2,000 years old at a guess. He can't even talk or walk around, so I doubt he had some great power that would have made him live significantly longer than that.

Gollum: Poor old Gollum. Keeping the Ring all those years prolonged his life so that he is somewhere between 500-600 years old when the LOTR story is occurring, this according to Gandalf. Certainly old for a stoor (cousins of the hobbits), but young compared to the others on this list.

Thanks for the guesses! Congrats, Delusionist. Quiz closed.

Metamatician said...

Oh and Empath did get the original question right, correctly naming Sauron as the oldest, so she shares the Dewey Button with Delusionist.

Hans said...

hard one. I'm glad Heath won.

Metamatician said...

You both won!

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