Frodo Age Question

[samwiselvr2008]

Okay, that took a while, I found it in the book fast enof, but then I had to get back online!

this is what I found, if you have the book that has the whole series in one cover, then you can find this on page 42 and on paragaph 3, in the chapter (if you don't have the book) The Shadow fo the Past:
So it went on, until his forties were running out, and his fiftieth was drawing near: fifty was a number that was somehow significant ( or ominous), it was the age that...

on the next page on paragraph 2, in the 3rd sentince, it says... The conversation at in The Green Dragon at Bywater, one evening in the spring of Frodo's fiftieth year, shows that even in the...

On page 44 last paragraph and on the begining of page 45 it follows... It was just at this time that Gandalf reappeared after his long absence. For three years after the party he had been away.Then he paid Frodo abreif visit, and after taking a brief look at him went off again. During the next year or two he had turned up fairly often, coming unexpectily after dusk, and going off without warning before sunrise. He would not... (next paragraph) Then suddenly his visits ceased, It was over nine years that Frodo had seen or heard of him...

It gose on where Gandalf comes and Frodo agrees to leave on his fiftieth birthday, and then it gose on to his leaving, I am to lazy to typ it up, and about to go eat some home made apple pie, and bought ice creem, so I'll just tell you that the rest of it is on the first few pages of chapter III, where Frodo leaves and so on and so on... the chapter is called Three is Company, so go read it if you are intrested, and give me some feed back please!

[Starr Polish]

Am I the only one thoroughly confused by that post?

[Ñólendil]

I don't understand what the confusion is all about. Bilbo had his Farewell Party when Frodo was 33 years old. At the age of 50 Frodo set off with Sam and Pippin for Crickhollow. In between Gandalf had his various visits with Frodo and that important conversation that takes up much of Shadow of the Past took place.

Entss summed it up well enough.

[Khadrane]

Umm... I don't think all those passages prove anything. Frodo was 33 at the party and then 50 when he left.

(the post in general was confusing to me too, Starr Polish.)

[samwiselvr2008]

What I was saying was telling you where Tolkien messed up on the age thing, saying that he turned 50, and then years later, when he left it still said that Frodo had just turned 50, because I had menchaned how he messed up a few posts before, and someone was wondering what I was talking about to say that Tolkien messed up in that part of the book. Go back and read my post before the last one and maybe you will understand what I was talking about.

Am I still confusing you? Do you understand now?

[Ñólendil]

What I was saying was telling you where Tolkien messed up on the age thing, saying that he turned 50, and then years later, when he left it still said that Frodo had just turned 50, because I had menchaned how he messed up a few posts before, and someone was wondering what I was talking about to say that Tolkien messed up in that part of the book.

I think you're the confused one Sam. I don't know how you did it, but you seem to have really twisted yourself around.

When the story begins, it mentions that Bilbo took Frodo as his heir:

'You had better come and liver here, Frodo my lad,' said Bilbo one day; 'and then we can celebrate our birthday-parties comfortably together.' At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and cming of age at thirty-three.

Then, "twelve more years passed". [quote]Biulbo was going to be eleventy-one, 111, a rather curious number, and a very respectable age for a hobbit (the Old Took himself had only reached 130); and Frodo was going to be thirty-three, 33, an important nuber: the date of his 'coming of age'.

At the end of the first chapter, Frodo is still 33, and Bilbo at 111 has left for Rivendell. Time passes again early on in the second chapter:

As time went on, people began to notice that Frodo also showed signs of good 'preservation': outwardly he retained the appearance of a robust and energetic hobbit just out of his tweens. 'Some folk have all the luck,' they said; but it was not until Frodo approached the usually more sober age of fifty that they began to think it queer.

Yet this time change does not really carry into the immediate narrative. That is: it's jumping ahead. It tells you that when Frodo reached 50, people thought it was queer that he looked so young, but he's not 50 yet. We know this because the next paragraph begins with

Frodo himself, after the first shock,, found that being his own master and the Mr. Baggins of Bag End was rather pleasant.

and of course the paragraph after that:

So it went on, until his forties were running out, and his fiftieth birthday was drawing near: fifty was a number that he was somehow significant (or ominous); it was at any rate at that age that adventure had suddenly befallen Bilbo.

This is probably what most confused you. Tolkien simply jumped ahead and told you what people were going to think about him when he turned 50, then he actually does turn 50. Frodo remains 50 until the end of the chapter, and indeed the rest of Book 1.

[Khadrane]

Ah. Thank you, Nolendil. I was wondering where samwiselvr got that idea. It's all clear now.

[Celandine]

originally posted by Sminty_Smeagol

I feel so bad not re-reading them because everybody like, re-reads them once a year on here!

Its okay I still haven't finished the fellowship of the ring yet

[samwiselvr2008]

What? I think that what you were saying was right, but I am still confused, you explaned it good and all, but why would it say everything about his fifties running out? I think that I get it, but I'm not very cleer, because no one ever really saw Frodo after he turned 50, other then Sam, Merry, Pippon, and Bilbo, that were hobbits, untill after the Ring was distroyed and they returned home, so how could the hobbits say that whene he turned 50, because if any of them saw him leaving, it would have only ben by a glance!

[Sminty_Smeagol]

I don't know... did he have a birthday party?

[Ñólendil]

His birthday was September 22, the same as Bilbo's.

What? I think that what you were saying was right, but I am still confused, you explaned it good and all, but why would it say everything about his fifties running out?

It says his forties were running out, not his fifties.

[samwiselvr2008]

Smity Smeagle- He did, but I think that it was only Merry, Pippon, and Sam.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

oh YEAAaHhHh....

Der!

-~*Sminty*~-

[Rána Eressëa]

Frodo turned 33 on Bilbo's vanishing-act birthday, but is wasn't until exactly 17 years later when he set out of his own quest. 33 plus 17 does equal 50. Therefore, we know Frodo is fifty. But he still looks 33 because of the Ring.