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tolkiens legendarium - How old is Treebeard?


We know for certain (from Gandalf) that Treebeard the Ent is the oldest living creature on Middle Earth:



"Treebeard is Fangorn, the guardian of the forest; he is the oldest of the Ents, the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-Earth."
TLOTR Book 3, Chapter 5: The White Rider

"Treebeard is Fangorn, and the eldest and chief of the Ents, and when you speak with him you will hear the speech of the oldest of all living things."
TLOTR Book 3, Chapter 8: The Road to Isengard



But just how old is he? Obviously somewhere in the thousands of years, but I'm really curious to know exactly how old the oldest (and probably wisest) living creature in Middle-Earth is. Ent eyes are very deep, and Treebeard's eyes the deepest of all. How long have they seen?



Answer




Looking at the timeline from The Lord of the Rings Wiki, it looks like the time before the first age lasted around 18,000 solar years, and the Ents were created sometime early on in this period.


There also looks to have been at least 10,000 years after the Ents were created.


The First Age lasted about 590 years, the Second Age 3441 years and the LotR took place in 3018 of the Third Age.


So, 17,000 - 25,000 years, give or take.


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