How tall am I?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I am interested in the heights of the Peoples of Middle Earth, particularly Men. I can't recall Tolkien ever mentioning specific heights for Men and Elves (although you lot can probably dig some up) so I speculate on how tall they are.

For example, Tuor was the tallest of Men. I'm guessing he must have been around 6'10 - 6'11. Any thoughts?

[burrahobbit]

Elendil is the only Man that I remember an exact height for, almost 7'10". Tuor, as the tallest man, is taller than that. Thingol is the tallest of the Children, so he is even taller still.

The average height for Men, and I'm guessing that this means Numenorean Men is 6'4", whis is how tall Galadriel is. Galadriel was the tallest girl Elf.

[ November 16, 2002: Message edited by: burrahobbit ]

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Whoa!Earendil wasnt a man, he was a giant, lol.

[Sharkû]

Unfinished Tales is most important for this topic.

Not only does it tell us about "Turgon [...], tallest of all the Children of the World, save Thingol", it also gives the highly interesting notes on Numenorean Linear Measures. The common length unit was a ranga, 'stride', which was about 3' 2"; two strides was considered man-high (the Numenoreans were tall).
Elendil is said to exceed man height by nearly half a ranga, thus the calculation of about 7'9" to 7'11".

"Húrin was by three years the elder, but he was shorter in stature than other men of his kin;" (Part One II) and "Huor his brother was tall, the tallest of all the Edain save his own son Tuor only" (ibid.) shows us that impressive height can be a sign of nobility and greatness, but lack of it is not at all a sign of less worth.

Also interesting is that "The Eldar of the Elder Days were also very tall. Galadriel, "the tallest of all the women of the Eldar of whom tales tell," was said to be man-high, but it is noted "according to the measure of the Dúnedain and the men of old," indicating a height of about six feet four inches.
The Rohirrim were generally shorter, for in their far-off ancestry they had been mingled with men of broader and heavier build. Éomer was said to have been tall, of like height with Aragorn; but he with other descendants of King Thengel were taller than the norm of Rohan, deriving this characteristic (together in some cases with darker hair) from Morwen, Thengel's wife, a lady of Gondor of high Númenórean descent." (Part Three I app.)

Unfortunately, all of this says very little about definite figures. However, I would think it to be strange and unlikely that, for example, Thingol and Turgon were that much taller than Tuor and Elendil.
I do not recall a figure for Aragorn, either, but man-height seems a good idea to aim at; he likely exceeded it, though.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

7'11? I was well off. And in the film he's just another one of the guys.

Anyway, thanks for that. I'll have to read UT more carefully.

[Maikadilwen]

Not only does it tell us about "Turgon [...], tallest of all the Children of the World, save Thingol

And yet Maedhros is the one called "The Tall"...

[ November 17, 2002: Message edited by: Maikadilwen ]

[burrahobbit]

I was well off.

Only a foot.

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Hmmm...about Turgon. In the Shibboleth of Faenor, it was said that Argon (not menioned in the Sil.) was the tallest of all Fingoflin's children. So what can we make from this?

[ January 16, 2003: Message edited by: Inderjit Sanghera ]

[Inderjit Sanghera]

How tall do oyu think Elwe was? I think about 8 foot 2.

[Sharkû]

If we want to maintain both statements, we can assume that Turgon was tallest because his taller brother was deceased at that time [ie. of the Tuor story].

"Arakano was the tallest of the brothers and the most impetuous, but his name was never changed to Sindarin form, for he perished in the first battle of Fingolfin's host with the Orks, the Battle of the Lammoth." (HoME XII, 2, xi [Shibboleth])

[Lord of Angmar]

I just came upon this thread by chance, but it is indeed quite interesting. I had no idea that the people of Middle Earth in the early days were so tall. Certainly Elendil was not portrayed to be of abnormal height in the movies! Nor was Galadriel made to be more than twice as tall as the hobbits, which would certainly be the case if she was *gasps* 6'4"!

It all fits in quite well with Professor Tolkien's notion that everything 'declined' and 'faded' as time went on. Now it is rare for a man to reach 6 feet, let alone 8! And I suppose, based on the information above (which I am surprised that I did not know before) that most Elves were exceedingly tall. When I thought of tall Elves, I thought 6 foot 5 or so (I am 6'3").

Well, now I shall picture Yao Ming in battle armor whenever I think of Elendil... smilies/rolleyes.gif smilies/evil.gif

[ August 08, 2003: Message edited by: Lord of Angmar ]

[Noxomanus]

Now it is rare for a man to reach 6 feet

I'm 6'3! smilies/biggrin.gif smilies/tongue.gif
Anyways,this is interesting.It's said that Trolls were twice the height of men.How long would that make them on average?

[Amarie of the Vanyar]

ranga, 'stride', which was about 3' 2"; two strides was considered man-high

Then, trolls are likely to be 12' 8" tall smilies/wink.gif

[Sharkû]

We know that Treebeard, himself not the tallest Ent at the Entmoot, was 'at least fourteen feet high' (LR III, iv).

[Morsul the Dark]

dont those heights almost making halflings thirdlings?

[Farael]

That is indeed interesting... yet I believe it's in my Hobbit book that it says that elves were usually four to five feet tall. It might have been a mistake on the translation, or perhaps the usual elves were much shorter than the great ones like Galadriel.

Also, I'd like to note that it is not that men no longer reach heights of 8 feet.... as a matter of fact, they never did! Men are growing taller every generation (at least on the developed countries) children being usually a couple inches taller than their parents!

[Bergil]

dont those heights almost making halflings thirdlings?
No, hobbits were said to be about four feet (I think). "Halflings", is fact makes them sound shorter then thery actually are.

[ManofDale]

The men of Islidur's army following the Disaster of the Gladden fields towered over the largest Orcs as stated in Unfinished Tales and I believe they were up to 6'2,6'3 in height as the orcs would try to jump on them and drag them down, exchanging a two for one in battle.

[Thinlómien]

And how tall you think an average elf male would be?

[Voralphion]

Is it possible that for Thingol being the tallest of the children of Eru, it was only referring to when he was around in the first age, and that some later passed him in height. This would also then be true of Tuor, as those who went to Numenor were said to have increased in stature. If Tuor was the tallest man ever, he must hav been a giant compared to the other men at the time, who were less than the average Numenorean height of 6'4".

[Mithalwen]

That is indeed interesting... yet I believe it's in my Hobbit book that it says that elves were usually four to five feet tall. It might have been a mistake on the translation, or perhaps the usual elves were much shorter than the great ones like Galadriel.

Also, I'd like to note that it is not that men no longer reach heights of 8 feet.... as a matter of fact, they never did! Men are growing taller every generation (at least on the developed countries) children being usually a couple inches taller than their parents!


I think that may be a translation error... I think that those heights are given when comparing Hobbits to Dwarves.

As for Elf men in general ... well the matter is complicated by the description of Celeborn and Galadriel as being the same height ie 6"4 (inicdentally Cate Blanchett is my height (5"10 and they made her wear 13 inch platform soles for some scenes which would have made her nearly 7ft and so more or less twice hobbit size even if not twice hobbit actor size.....).

Now this would be ok if Celeborn was not also known as "the Tall" (mind you I have always suspected that the Celeborn the Wise was an ironic soubriquet so this may be the same although his name indicates height "silver tall" rather than silver tree if I remember correctly). However a man can still be noticeably tall and the same height as the tallest woman. I think I remember reading that the Teleri were in general of lesser stature than the noldor but of course their leade was tallest of all. Perhaps great height was a feature of the ruling house?

[Frodo Baggins]

Even at the un-elvish stature of 5' 10" Cate Blanchett is tall for a woman, the average height being about 5' 4" or 5' 5" (I'm 5'6" most girls I know are as tall as or shorter than me.)

If Elwe Thingol was the tallest of the children of Eru ever to live, over topping even the Elindils and the Turgons I'd say 8 foot or a bit over is a pretty good guess.

If a Ranga is one stride and a stride is 3 feet 2 inches that is a very long stride. Whomever strode like that must have been quite tall.

Celeborn could have been called tall at 6'4" without being exceedingly so. It could be that average male elves in the third age were hovering at 6 feet or just over. Especially if those such as the Teleri were of lesser stature than say the Noldor (Though Thingol was a Teleri/Sindar) I wonder how tall the mighty Vanyar would be? It could also be that colossal ones like Turgon and Elwe were rare. Man high for Numenoreans is about 6'4" and somewhere I read that they are about the same height as elves (How tall are Numenorean women?)

These days it's not that rare for a man to be 6 feet tall, average man height today is between 5' 10" and 5' 11", which is pretty good considering 500 years ago average height for men was about 5'4"

Actually that gives me and idea. 500 years ago men averaged 5' 4" but there were rarites like Henry VIII who was a whopping 6'3"! (Tall by present standars, gigantic in the 1500s) So most elf men could be around 6' to 6'4" but then been exceeded by rarities such as Elwe and Turgon. So we could say that average elf and Numenor men are 6'4" and ladies a bit shorter say maybe 5'7" to 6 feet.

I'm not sure about the statures of people such as the Rohirrim and the Breelanders, or easterlings. I'll leave them to the more scholarly.