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What an interesting question, Child! Though the idea of both Bagginses beginning their adventures at 50 greatly appeals to me, I never thought to wonder about Tolkien’s reason for choosing that age.
His biography does not explain this choice; even if we look to see what happened when he was about 50 himself, we know that he began writing the stories much earlier than that. He was well under 40 when he started The Hobbit.
I’ve searched my memory for other parallels, beginning with Biblical stories, which he certainly knew well, but no 50-year-old person occurs to me: Jesus began his ministry at about age 30, Moses was 80 when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt, Abraham was 75 when he left his home to seek out the promised land. There were prophets, kings, and apostles who were younger, others who were older, but no significant 50-year-old that I can remember!
Are there any prominent characters of that age in mythology and literature who could have been his inspiration?
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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