How old is Gandalf?

[Mayla Took]

Does anyone know how old Gandalf is? Do the books even say? I remember reading that Gandalf was much older than he looked or would tell anyone. Am I right?

[MallornLeaf]

The books do not (as far as I know) tell how old Gandalf is. He is, however, a Maiar, so probably he's been around basically since the beginning of time. I'm not sure on this, but this is always what I assumed from the fact that he's a maia. Hope that helps!

[obloquy]

Gandalf is in his mid-80s.

[Aldagrim Proudfoot]

I think there's one chronology that says when the wizards came, but it was a few thousand years before the War of the Ring. I think he might be as old as all the Maiar, which he is as an Istari.

[Kuruharan]

Gandalf is in his mid-80s.

LOL! And burrahobbit said that obloquy doesn't kid! smilies/biggrin.gif smilies/evil.gif

Gandalf is older than the world because he was created by the mind of Eru before Time began. His real name is Olorin.

He arrived in Middle earth in the guise of Gandalf circa TA 1000.

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]

[Legolas]

Mayla...

You're familiar with the Ainur, right?

The greatest 14 of which are the Valar, the rest being of the Maiar division.

Gandalf was the Maia Olórin in Valinor. He was of Manwë's people, and it was Manwë who requested that Olórin go to Middle-earth as one of three emissaries to aid the people in their fight against Sauron.

The Maiar came in the form of wizards (obviously), appearing as old men.

From Unfinished Tales

They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly and they had many powers of mind and hand.

They arrived in Middle-earth at Círdan's Grey Havens in the year 1000 of the Third Age. Gandalf departed in 3021, making him 2021 years old in as far as his years on Middle-earth are concerned.

[lathspell]

My age?? ... Long have I thought about that myself, yet I could not remember it. It must be old indeed. smilies/biggrin.gif smilies/wink.gif

[Ruthwen]

Hm. Everyone else stole my answers. :P

[lathspell]

We'll wait for you to speak next time, Ruthwen smilies/wink.gif

[Mitch Cawley]

As gandalf said in the lord of the rings, "Many are my names in many countries, Mithrandir among the elves, Tharkun to the dwarves; olorin i was in my youth in the west that is forgotten, in the south incanus, in the north gandalf; to the east i go not." olorin is elvish of the elves in the blessed realm. and the essay on the istari (in unfinished tales) tells that the wizards were to be peers of sauron. We know that Sauron was a maiar of aule in the begging but corrupted by melkor so Gandalf was older than the world since he descinded into it with the Valar in the beggining.

[Aldagrim Proudfoot]

So basically, to find out Gandalf/Mithrandir/Olorin's real age, find the length of the three ages and add the length of the time before that. So, like Tootsie Roll says, the world may never know.

[Atariel]

yeah, but there were all the ages of starlight as well. if you did add all the ages together, there would be, like, ten thousand years, but they were only the ages of the Sun- Telperion, which means that it must have been after Melkor poisoned the two trees, which was, like, five thousand years before that. anyway, gandalf was bloody ancient.

[Legolas]

Nah - he existed before Creation existed - he was placed into it when its construction began. He's far older that all of the ages put together.

[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Legalos ]

[Manwe Sulimo]

Well, for the sake of doing it, let's find out how long Arda had been around when Gandalf left....

Third Age: approx. 3000 years
Second Age: approx: 3000 years
First Age (after the Exile): approx. 250? years
Before that: approx. 30,000 years

So, Gandalf is at least 36,000 years old, plus however long it was between his creation and being put on Arda.

(Figures from HoMe IV)

[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Manwe Sulimo ]