The Fellowship gets on the topic of their ages one night and Boromir comes to the dawning realization that he has absolutely no idea how old any of his companions are supposed to be at all
Boromir, pointing at the hobbits: I don’t know how your ages work
Boromir, pointing at Legolas and Gimli: I definitely don’t know how either of your ages work
Boromir, pointing at Aragorn: I thought I knew how your age worked but apparently I was wrong
Boromir, pointing at Gandalf: I especially don’t know how your age works
Gandalf: It doesn’t, but carry on
Listen I will die on this hill. I don’t care what it says in the assorted apocrypha, if you go by the Actual Text of LOTR you can make a very good argument that Boromir is the youngest member of the group.
The hobbits are the only ones given official ages in the text, and are between fifty or fifty-one and twenty-nine. Elves and dwarves notoriously age slowly, and Gimli is the offspring of one of Bilbo’s pals, so okay, we’ve established that he’s old enough to call the hobbits young, and Bilbo confirms for them that Aragorn is Pretty Old For A Bigjobs. Gandalf is, of course, eternal.
But we are never given any context for Boromir and Faramir’s ages, except that a) they are humans and, though Sons of Gondor, not much longer lived than most Bigjobs, and b) Faramir is A QuiteYoung Man. I was absolutely convinced, when I read the books as a youngun, that Boromir, being in ‘the flower of manhood’ iirc, was probably between 25 and 30.
And it would be Freaking Hilarious, okay, for Boromir to finally get around to actually asking how old this baby-faced hobbit carrying The Ring is, and get told ‘oh, he’s only fifty, but he’s very steady for his age.’
Boromir: ?!?!?!
And then Pippin and Merry start asking everyone how old they are because this is fascinating are we all official adults here except for Pippin or what.
Boromir: …. Pippin isn’t an adult HOW OLD IS PIPPIN.
Pippin is just 29, which is why everyone calls him Pippin, it’s gonna be at least another 20 years before he can make Peregrine work. Why, how old is Boromir?
Boromir, who would rather DIE than admit to being 28 right at this moment: …. 43.
All the others, weighing up his apparent age compared to theirs: Sure, sounds legit.
Gandalf, who knows for certain, does not say anything because he is absolutely certain that telling Pippin that he’s older than Boromir will be an unmitigated disaster.
LOTR Heritage Post
As everyone reading the post probably knows, Pippin was only 28 during RoTK and makes a particular point of being ALMOST 29, LIKE PRACTICALLY 29 RIGHT NOW ACTUALLY, DEFINITELY 29 THIS VERY YEAR, in a conversation with a child where he does not necessarily come off as the more mature. He was probably making such a clear and important point because hobbits are considered “full” adults (emotionally) at 33. That’s why Elrond’s heart misgave sending Pippin on the journey - he was contextually underage. That is, of course, nerd stuff and not especially interesting.
What is interesting is that Elijah Wood was an actual teenager when acting in the movies but Billy Boyd was 33, the same age as Cate Blanchett playing Galadriel. Born in 1968, Boyd is 9 years younger than Sean Bean (Boromir) and 8 years older than Dominic Monaghan (Merry).
It takes a very concentrated type of energy to be the eldest actor in the hobbit grouping by a healthy margin, and play the youngest character, and there is probably a lesson for all of us. It’s probably something like keeping a flexible mindset, drinking lots of water, staying in touch with friends of different ages, etc. It also goes to show how little reference point younger people really have for being 33.
Billy Boyd also did the voice work for Glen/Glenda in the Child’s Play movies and does a *beautiful* job.
