What's so special about '50'?

[Child of the 7th Age]

Thanks for all these interesting posts! I think we can safely say that this is a question to which we'll never have a definite answer unless someone discovers a "lost" letter in the Marquette archives or a family member's attic. But there is room for speculation.

First, the equivalencies in birthdays and ages between Frodo and Bilbo were obviously something Tolkien chose to do.

Secondly, some people see 50 as still very young in hobbit terms. I did searches on the internet and discovered several websites (including a reference in the Encyclopedia of Arda) that basically said hobbits age more slowly and therefore '50' can still be a youthful hobbit. In my opinion, hobbit '50' is not as old as human '50', but it's still not the typical youthful hero.

(Incidentally, a number of these discussions on age took place in relation to the movie: whether it was realistic to have the youthful Elijah playing a 50 year-old hobbit.)

Thirty-three is hobbit coming of age. What would the equivalent be in our own society? I would say it is younger than 33, but I'm not sure that I would say it was as young as eighteen. Coming of age can vary from person to person. Some folk have responsibilities thrust on them very young. Others go to college or graduate school full-time and prolong entry into "real" life with all its headaches and financial responsibilities. And taking on responsibility is a gradual process. In my opinion "real" coming of age in our society averages out at about 23-25. It often takes that long (or longer) to settle yourself into a job you like, finish getting an education, and/or decide whether or not to marry.

Fifty is seventeen years after Hobbit coming of age. Let's translate that into human terms. If we use "24" as the benchmark for becoming a 'true' adult, hobbit 50 would be equivalent to age 41 in our society. And 40 is often regarded as the beginning of "middle age". Or we could figure things in terms of the death date. If the average hobbit dies at 92, then 50 is more than half-way there, making it again equivalent to about 40 years in human terms. My gut feeling is that while a hobbit isn't old at 50 by any standard, he's definitely no longer the typical young hero.

This quote from The Hobbit suggests that Tolkien saw '50' as equivalent to the start of hobbit middle age--the point in life where you settle down and don't change a lot:

Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son [i.e. Belladonna's], although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father, got something queer in his make-up from the Took side, something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never arrived until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty yers old or so, and living in the beautiful hobbithole built by his father, which I have just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down immovably.

That reference to Bilbo having 'apparently settled down immovably' sounds a lot like typical middle age in human terms. You've chosen your path in life and there are unlikely to be other major changes..... Maybe the clue to this isn't the particular age of "50" but the whole idea of middle-age as a time to settle down.

I totally agree with those who mention that choosing an older hobbit was part of a wider plot device: pointing out that neither Frodo or Bilbo was your typical hero. But I also wonder if Tolkien didn't see a similar pattern in his own life as he was writing The Hobbit: settling down into a predictable middle-age and perhaps questioning that on some level. Just take a look at the dates.....

Tolkien was born in 1892 and The Hobbit appeared in 1937, when he was 45 years old. The first text of The Hobbit was in existence by 1932 although it still lacked the final chapters. That would be when he was forty-years old. He likely wrote the bulk of the book 1928-1932. That would make him age 36-40. He had finally settled down, gotten a position at Oxford, his last child had been born (Priscilla in 1929). He could see a comfortable middle-age looming up just ahead of him.

Maybe he liked the idea of sending middle-aged Bilbo off on an adventure, of shaking up his predictable life. It was a way of affirming that just because you reach a certain age, it doesn't mean you're ossified in stone. This is wild conjecture with no proof. But it's kind of interesting if he wrote about a hero approaching hobbit middle-age at the same time as he himself approached middle-age. Once he came up with Bilbo, he tried to establish similarities with Frodo:

' So it went on, until his forties were running out, and his fiftieth birthday was drawing near: fifty was a number that he felt was somehow significant (or ominous); it was at any rate at that age that adventure had suddenly befallen Bilbo. Frodo began to feel restless, and the old paths seemed too well-trodden. He looked at maps, and wondered what lay beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly white spaces beyond its borders. He took to wandering further afield and more often by himself; and Merry and his other friends watched him anxiously. Often he was seen walking and talking with the strange wayfarers that began at this time to appear in the Shire.

Frodo had the benefit of Bilbo's upbringing so he was actively looking for adventure, or was at least aware that it could hit. According to Tolkien, then, the approach of middle-age was potentially a most "dangerous" time! I think there is indeed some deeper truth in that. When you hit the point in life when you know you are mortal, you begin searching your brain and asking whether there's anything more out there. In Frodo and Bilbo's case, for good or bad, there was indeed a great deal more!

One last point....regarding the question of "bad" in terms of Frodo. there's no doubt that, in the short term, the effects on Frodo were "bad". But that's only part of the picture. What happened to Frodo in Tol Eressea? We have no idea. You can't really assess 'good' or 'bad' without that piece of the puzzle. Perhaps he never healed, or perhaps he was able to grow far beyond what he had been at first. We simply don't know...