Why did the Early Kings of Gondor live longer than the Kings of Arnor?

[Valandil]

If you have The Peoples of Middle-earth, you'll see in chapter 7, 'The Heirs of Elendil' more information on all the kings of Gondor and Arnor (and its successors) than we are given in Appendix A of LotR. One of the main additions is their birth years. For some reason, Meneldil, son of Anarion, lives to be 280, while Valandil, son of Isildur, lives to be 260. Ages of subsequent kings drop off very consistently, but the northern line drops off even sharper, such that southern kings eventually live 30, 35 or even more years longer than the contemporary northern king (ie, Mallor, b. 895, lived to age 215 - Hyarmendacil, b. 899, lived to age 250).

I find this curious for a few reasons. One, from the lengths of their reigns, which we can easily extrapolate from Appendix A, we see that the northern kings were ruling longer. This led me to conclude that their lives were also longer - but the actual case (from PoMe) is that they consistently waited longer before producing an heir. Another is that in Tolkien, I associate long life with 'blessing' - or even with the 'righteousness' of a king or kingdom, for lack of a better word. I tend to view Arnor and its rulers as more 'righteous' or more deserving of 'blessing' than Gondor and its rulers. But it appears that I'm wrong, either in that association with long life, or in the assumption that Arnor was more so than Gondor. I think I formed the prejudice toward Arnor because; they were descended from Isildur, the elder brother (and therefore were the line of 'High Kings' of all the Dunedain) - and because the line produced Aragorn - and, I don't know, maybe 20th/21st century or personal judgements on Gondor's use of power, etc. Anyway - that's what I thought.

Why do you think this is? Was it just genetic... more 'long-lived' Numenorean genes in Anarion's wife, for instance? Was it the milder climate of the south? Better diet? Did the exercise of power and gaining of strength provide a 'blessing' in itself? Did the shorter reigns lend themselvs to less stress? I wonder if it was the presence of the White Tree(s)... and whatever 'blessing' they may have conferred. Other thoughts? Opinions on options suggested?

[Artanis]

A quick answer: Maybe the Kings of Arnor through their marriages mixed their Numenorean blood in a larger degree than the Gondorians did.

[Count Comfect]

I think the marriage mixture has something to do with it. Also, if I recall correctly, the Kings of Arnor did fall faster than the Kings of Gondor into ways of, let us say, not quite approved action. Or at least I thought so: after all, that's part of why they fractured and were destroyed.

Also, maybe a Northern climate is bad for your health.

Or the stress of ruling longer shortens one's life.

[Lefty Scaevola]

With so small a population sample to deal with, all sort of small and random factors could affect the numbers.

[ranger]

i have no idea but when someone finds out for sure will they please email me at king_ellisar@yahoo.com?

im trying to find out as much as physicly possibe about lord of the rings

[Vicky]

I think Stress was one of the reasons why their lives got shorter and they did have a lot of stress:

In the beginning everyone was happy and content: no stress,
They started travelling and we all know that travelling is very stressfull. You need to think of everything and althought they probably had servants, they needed to check if everything was okay => stress,
Their trips got longer and they went further so they needed to check even more => more stress,
When they got back to Middle Earth they were friends with the ones who liver there, but after a "while" they wanted to rule, and because of that they had more responsibilties => stress,
Some time later they wanted to live longer, everytime they saw someone die they started to panic => stress,
Then they wanted to attack the Valar, preparing for war =>stress.

And I forgot to mention the fights with their wives because off all this...

But it's said before, a number of factors were responsible: mixing with "lower" blood, change in the climate, ...

Maybe the Valar shortend their lives as a punishment?

Who knows?

[Mrs Maggot]

Also, maybe a Northern climate is bad for your health.

Hence the reason why Scandinavians are so healthy. Seriously though, that probably is a good reason. But maybe they compensated for their lack of longevity with other advantages? maybe it was quality over quantity– they may not ahve lived as long but they did more while they were alive? Did Tolkien ever write about it at all?

[Valandil]

Originally posted by Mrs Maggot
... But maybe they compensated for their lack of longevity with other advantages? maybe it was quality over quantity– they may not ahve lived as long but they did more while they were alive? Did Tolkien ever write about it at all?

Sadly, all too little ... for ME anyway!

Vicky, CC and Artanis... I had the impression that the northern line did less intermarriage with non-Numenoreans than the southern. Not sure where I got that.

Another interesting note: Once the line of kings failed in the south, the chieftains of the northern Dunedain still had very long lifespans... and the lengths barely dropped off at all (by comparison) over the next 1,000 years! Meanwhile, the Stewards of Gondor lived to ripe old ages, but nowhere close to that of the northern chieftains.

[Lefty Scaevola]

The Northern line was pure Dunedain, but, on acount of the depopulation of the royalty and high nobility cause by the Gladden Fields battle, there was a lower % of spuses and genes from the royal line of Elros (which had an additional bonus of lifespan over other Numenoreans) than in the south.