[Child of the 7th Age]

Helen and Din - Those are very lyric descriptions. And Theron - You make a good argument for your own stance with all the calculations.

I guess we can never know for sure whether Tolkien meant his fifty-year old hobbits to be young lads just out of their tweens, hobbits on the verge of middle-age., or something in betwen. Hobbit lifespan is somewhat longer than ours, especially when compared with the figure of average lifespan about 1930.

It's interesting we have so little agreement about this. And think how much our answer to this question influences our visual image of the characters! Personally, I do see Bilbo (and by implicaton Frodo) standing on the verge of middle-age. Leaving all statistical arguments aside, I am influenced by Tolkien's description in UT where Bilbo is portrayed as forsaking the ways of his youth and settling down "immovably". This just sounds too much like the way many people approach middle age.

I had another thought about The Hobbit, and its subtitle "There and Back Again". Obviously that can be read in a literal and geographical sense. Yet there may be another element present here. There have been dozens of studies done on this work, showing how it is a journey of 'maturation' for Bilbo as he evolves beyond what he was in the beginning. While the details of some of these studies may be "iffy", I feel the central point is well taken. There may be a different way of looking at that subtitle, in terms of the life cycle. "There and back again" can refer to Bilbo getting in touch again with what was in his youth -- his love of adventure, willingness to disregards what his neighbors say, etc. In effect he is going forward to "true" and responsible adulthood; yet at the same same time it leads him back to his values as a younger hobbit.

I think one could well make the argument that it is very difficult to mature and go forward unless one has some sense of where one's coming from and can get in touch with the feelings and experiences that one had as a child. This also makes sense in terms of Frodo. One of Frodo's dilemmas at the end of the book is that he has lost the "Shire" in a personal (and not just geographical) sense. He can not get back to being the person he was when he was younger. His challenge in the West may well be to learn to go ahead on the basis of everything that's happened to him during the Ring quest while still integrating his Shire past. A very difficult task indeed! For the most part, we see Bilbo going "there and back again" but with Frodo there is an incomplete trip and we're left not knowing if he's going to make it.

Liriodendron - Your little one shouldn't stop you from forging ahead. Look how Bilbo surrounded himself with younger hobbits? Your "travel" may be of a different nature -- less geographical and more internal -- but it is adventure nonetheless!

My youngest is turning twelve and I am several years past the age when Frodo departed. She keeps me on my toes.