Good to see you all and see this topic! I haven't been around here in over a year.
GildorInglorion has made I point that I thought of after reading the first couple of posts. That point has barely been acknowledged, so it should be repeated.
One may be "eldest" without being "eldest sentient".
Trees were around before Elves, we know that. Then the Elves went around awakening the trees, apparently creating Ents. So Treebeard is older than any Elf, even Cirdan, when you count his years as a tree. (Trees, after all, are alive, if not sentient.) But, as a sentient being, Treebeard is younger than the first-awoken Elves.
As for Bombadil, he is as Tolkien stated: An enigma. Fun to speculate about, no doubt; but, in the end, an enigma.
|