The Longetivity of Hobbits.

[Mithadan]

Hobbits do not reach "adulthood" until age 33. Age 50 is considered comfortable adulthood. They routinely live to 100 years of age. As of the Third Age, this longevity among Men (and for the purposes of this thread assume Hobbits are Men) is comparable only to the descendants of the kings of Numenor. What is the significance of this?

[Inziladun]

Perhaps it's connected with something innate in the Hobbit makeup: their ability to get along with one another and lack of greed or ambition. That is to say, a lack of stress?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Perhaps it's connected with something innate in the Hobbit makeup: their ability to get along with one another and lack of greed or ambition. That is to say, a lack of stress?

No war and attendant famines caused by scorched earth methods of depriving the enemy supplies would obviously be a reason for Hobbitish longevity, and yes, they had far less stress than Gondorions or Rohirrim, who were under constant threat of attack over large periods of their history. It could be that Hobbits ate far more vegetables and grains as well than their carnivorous Mannish counterparts.

In addition, being far smaller than Men, Hobbits could maximize crop yields and rely less on bad tillage and stony land even as their population grew. Also, a head of cabbage is a head of cabbage and size-wise could feed a larger contingent of Hobbits than a family of Men.

There is a genetic standpoint as well. The Southern Dunedain washed out their blood over a period of time, whereas the Hobbits remained insular.

[Zigûr]

It does seem like, scientifically, we could attribute it to a combination of their size and good nutrition. After all, "Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time."

We also know from The Hobbit that even in his pre-adventure days as a conventional non-Took stay-at-home Hobbit type Bilbo liked walking. So maybe decent regular exercise contributed as well, although evidently some Hobbits like the long-lived but nonetheless corpulent Lalia Took were definitely an exception to that.

It's interesting that smaller size, comparative longevity and a resistance to evil are traits which the Hobbits share with the Dwarves, but Hobbits are effectively "true" Eruhíni and Dwarves aren't. Maybe Eru always meant for such a creature to come along, and Aulë just came up with a kind of "souped up" version from his particular nature: like Hobbits but even longer-lived, larger and warlike.

[Firefoot]

The first thing that jumped to my mind was how smaller dogs live longer than big ones, and I found a pretty interesting explanation for that here. So regardless of the literary symbolism, it also seems scientifically valid for hobbits to live longer. Though I guess that might get into a discussion of whether Men and Hobbits biologically belong to the same species...

[Nerwen]

Hobbits may be part of the human race, but they're not exactly *standard* humans- I would have said a slower biological clock is just one of the differences. Certainly a healthy lifestyle would help- but it wouldn't, in itself, extend adolescence past the age of thirty.