April 13, 2002

Re: Who's the Oldest
Richard P.

That would have to be Tom Bombadil (or Iarwain Ben-adar, meaning literally, first and oldest).

In FotR Bombadil actaully says that he was on Middle-earth before, "...the great ones came out of the West..." Here he can only be refering to the Valar (since he also says "before the great darkness", and that can only be the darkness that Melkor created before the Elves even awoke.

Since it was the Elves that first enabled the Ents to speak, and since Bombadil claims that he was in Middle-earth before the Valar came that means he MUST be older than Treebeard.