19 days to the release of
Return of the King!
Friday Fact
Legolas is the oldest member of the fellowship by at least a thousand years, probably more. More on this in a moment. Gimli is the next oldest; born in Third Age 2879, he is 139 years old. Aragorn is the next oldest, at 87; he was born in 2931. Next is Frodo; born in 2968, he is 50. Boromir is the fifth oldest member of the fellowship, at 40, born in 2978. Sam is next, born in 2980, he is 38. Merry follows at 36, born in 2982. Finally, we have Pippin, who was born in 2990 and is only 28 years old when the journey begins.
By contrast, Arwen was born in Third Age 241, and is 2777 years old.
I was unable to find the exact age of Legolas this morning in LOTR, the Silmarillion, or the Unfinished Tales. He states in the Two Towers, referring to the Forest of Fangorn, "It is old, very old. So old that almost I feel young again, as I have not felt since I journeyed with you children." Note that he is speaking to Gimli and Aragorn, the two oldest members of the Fellowship. It is also worth noting that both his father, Thranduil, and his grandfather Oropher (who founded the realm of the Silvan Elves, and built their underground halls) fought in the Last Alliance against Sauron at the end of the second age, and Oropher died there. If anyone knows of a reference that I missed in the books to the precise age of Legolas, please let me know.
Now, Gandalf is a special case. Like Sauron and Saruman, he is a Maia, and has therefore technically been alive since almost the beginning of time. "Years" is a concept which doesn't seem to come up until the First Age, so trying to determine exactly how many years old he is seems rather futile. However, he and the other wizards arrived in Middle Earth from the Undying Lands "when maybe a thousand years [of the Third Age] had passed", so one can say that he's been on [Middle] Earth for 2018 years when the journey begins.
(Source: Appendices 1 and 2 to LOTR; also, Appendix B "The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves", from The History of Galadriel and Celeborn in the Unfinished Tales)
2:14:50 PM 
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