The Old

A title of four Men who lived to advanced age: Bëor, Aldor and Gamling of Rohan and Grimbeorn the son of Beorn.

Apparently the youngest of the three was Grimbeorn, who is reported to have ruled in the Vales of Anduin in the year III 3018. The evidence points strongly to his being born after Bilbo's visit to his father in III 2941, so his age could be no more than 77 at the time he is called 'The Old'. He may, of course, have lived longer than this.

Bëor was the first of Men to encounter the Elves, having led his people across the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. He was 49 at the time of that meeting, and died after another forty-four years of service to Finrod Felagund, at the age of 93.

Aldor was the third King of Rohan; he lived for more than a century, 101 years to be precise, and ruled the land of the Rohirrim for no less than seventy-five years. Long after Aldor's time, another of the Rohirrim also came to be known as 'the Old'. This was Gamling, a defender of Helm's Deep whose name literally means 'old man', though we're not told specifically how long Gamling lived.

The title was also used for one Dwarf, as Thorin referred to his 'far ancestor, Thráin the Old'². That Thráin did not in fact live unusually long; he reached the age of 256, which was fairly typical for a Dwarf. Thorin, however, was not using the title 'Old' to refer to his ancestor's great age, but rather to avoid confusion with a more recent Thráin, Thráin II, who was in fact Thorin's own father.