ok guys, it looks like no one actually knows what they're talking about except mormegil and turin.
From what mormegil said, Gandalf must be at least 50,000 years old. He is one of the Maiar, so he is older than middle-earth itself. He was there as the Valar shaped Arda. The other wizards, the istari, are also Maiar. Therefore they are also 50k+ years old.
Gandalf received the ring from Cirdan when he arrived in Middle-earth. Cirdan longed to leave, and he saw that Gandalf was a being with a righteous soul, so he gave his ring to him. Therefore, Gandalf had the ring for his entire time throughout wandering Middle-earth.
The elven rings and human rings are pretty obvious. The dwarven rings are not. I have read the appendices and a few of the history books. Tolkien states AS PART OF THE STORY that the fate of all save one of the dwarven rings were unknown. It is LIKELY they were acquired by Sauron, because the dwarves had become smittened with the precious metals of the earth. Their greed was enhanced by the rings and by Sauron's evil power. The one dwarven ring thats fate was known was carried by Thrain, Thorin's father. Unfortunatley he was attacked by creatures of Sauron near Dol Guldur some years before the Hobbit took place. Gandalf tried to save him, but it was too late. The ring was with Sauron.
In reference to entire Gothmog incident, read the books ppl. don't look at websites. The books are ur best bet are finding authentic information. By books, I mean the silmarillion, unfinished tales, and the history.
ugthebarbarian, for the gothmog thing are you refering to their being two of them? ya i went home and read ROTK and it specifically states that the individual who took over for the witchking was named gothmog. i was wondering was he a ringwraith or just a dude, did you find anything on that?
ps thanks man and it appears you know your stuff aswell
Well then I guess we solved the Gothmog thing then Turin. I don't have my books here with me (at college) so I can't check. I do have the silmarillion somewhere in the back of my closet.. but that's about it. I highly recommend "The Atlas of Middle Earth" 2nd edition by Karen Wynn Fonstad. For all of us addicts out there, it has maps of all the battles that took place in middle earth. It has rough maps of locations that were not even in the Silmarillion, such as a map of Valinor, Thangorodrim/Angband and detailed maps of Lothlorien, Rivendell, etc.
The battle maps are particularly interesting if you're into that.
Just thought i'd tell you ppl =)
uh people, some of u have to go do some reading ( me included) , but i'm sure that there are no immortal races in LOTR........... they all age and die.......some more slowly than others
hmm i think i'll get more answers AND questions when i finish the history of middle earth..............but is, of course, gonna be after my degree......have to much damn work to do to read out everything
Gandalf can't even be slain in battle, this happens in fact and he comes back as "Gandalf the White"...he is immortal as he's not a middle-earther, or from valinor or whatever...the elves are immortal in that when they die they go to wherever...while humans must wait it out in middle earth as being "dead".
What happend 10,000 years ago? That date sticks in my mind.
gandalf can be slain, much like the balrog was (their both maiar) and the way i read it, he was slain after the defeat of the balrog. the only truely immortal i guess would have to be the valar. even when morgoth was truelly defeated he was only banished to the outer void. perhaps though when a maiar is slain such as the balrog they also are only bannished or "removed" from arda, making them also immortal. who knows !?!?!?! 😱
Gandalf has been in Middle earth 2000 years. He is a Maiar (angel) though, who has taken physical form 2000 years ago. The Maiar are very old indeed. The world began about 23,000 years ago, so he is at least that old in entirety.
Elrond is about 7,000 years old.
Legolas, no idea, probably quite old.
Only the Elven rings had names. Sauron helped in the construction of the Seven and the Nine.
P.S. There were five Wizards who came to Middle Earth 2,000 years ago. Saruman was the leader, in white with raven hair, (now gone white) Gandalf in grey was the second. The other two had much less significance, one was in brown who never did anything important, the other two in blue, who went to the east with Saruman. Only Saruman returned.
23,000? I thought it was something about 55,000 years 😕
-about 33,537 years in the Valarean Age before the counting of days, about 14,370 in the Years of The Trees, 590 the First Age, 3441 the Second Age and 3021 the Third Age. Well without the time before the couting of time it's quite exactly 23,000 years
Tolkien never gives a birth date for Legolas but PJ fixes the beginning of the Third Age... dunno the exact number, 87, I think...
I discounted the Valenorean age. If gandalf was created before then, then he is a lot older! I would be more interested to know when Sauron went wrong. Evil Valar and Maiar suffer a kind of senility (Melkor lost his fanastic supreme powers; Saruman was soon reduced to a contemptible beggar). If Sauron hadn't forged the Ring about 5,000 years ago, then he would have deteriorated by now. I know that he was in Angband when Melkor was in Utumno. Perhapshe was turned AFTER the coming of the trees?