Does Silver Hair Signify Age among the Elves?

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Q: Does Silver Hair Signify Age among the Elves?

ANSWER: This question comes at the end of a long comment about an older article that I received in August 2022. I’ll share the full comment here:

Great article about Círdan and beards. He has always been of interest to me since I was a boy first reading The Silmarillion, long ago.

Just one point I wanted to add (even though it may be years after you wrote this article): In Unfinished Tales, The Istari essay mentions that Círdan gave the ring Narya to Gandalf when he first arrived in the havens. This is dated to the 11th Century TA, I think; so he, Círdan, would have also aged further during the middle/late TA after giving the ring to Gandalf. Also, it is possible he may not have even worn the ring, having declared himself as just the guardian, whereas he knew Gandalf would have to make use of the ring during his trials and adventures.

Of course, Círdan would have already aged for many ‘years’ in the time of the two trees, during which time moved slower, and years(/spans of time) were longer than the solar years that were counted from around the arrival of Fëanor & the Noldor in Beleriand (“ere the rising of the moon”), and the start of the FA.

Since we know nothing of elves in Aman after the mid-SA (such as when they visited Numenor),and even then descriptions are limited, we have no comparison as to when beards kick in, but can only assume it is a very very long time, and Círdan being a first-gen Teleri (at least so it is suggested), there would be few other living elves anywhere that he can be compared to, and either none or next to none in Middle Earth. Celeborn has silver hair, which may or may not be any indication of age. I cant remember if Thingol had a beard, but he had silver hair too, possibly because time passed differently for him when he met Melian the Maia, and I think he also became an almost different being due to their union.

Even though I don’t see how there can be any other bearded elves around for Gandalf to be compared to as a (bearded) elf (of-the-wand), I still like the explanation of the third cycle of life as the justification for Círdan’s beard, last minute scribble by JRRT though it may have been.

There is a lot to unpack in this comment (inspired by the article “Why Does Cirdan Have A Beard?” – see the link below). But I can say that some of these questions were addressed by Tolkien – except for Cirdan’s beard, oddly. In previous years when I’ve addressed the question of beards among Elves and Númenoreans, I didn’t have access to that long-known “note on Beards” to which Christopher Tolkien referred in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. Of course, that note/essay has been published in The Nature of Middle-earth. And while it clearly represents some of Tolkien’s long-held thought on the beardlessness of characters like “Aragorn, Denethor, Imrahil, Boromir, [and] Faramir” it doesn’t address Cirdan’s beard. So Cirdan continues to upend the final thoughts J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about the bearlessness of Elves. Carl Hostetter mentions a contrary essay from Tolkien in endnote 2, as well as Cirdan’s own beard as established through 2 editions of The Lord of the Rings. He doesn’t attempt to reconcile these contradictary statements from the author. I’m not going into that rabbit-hole here, either.

The issue of beards among Númenoreans and Elves is complicated by the fact that all these texts are scattered across many books. It’s not too difficult to compile all the references to beards, but then you must include appropriate context. And all that just goes right out the window with Tolkien’s last thoughts on the matter because, well, Cirdan clearly has a beard. The only Tolkienian explanation for the beard is that he was in the Third Cycle of Life (whatever that means – probably “old [elf] age” according to some people, and that’s a fair guess in my opinion).

What Is the Significance of Silver Hair among the Elves?

It’s not a sign of age so far as I can determine. J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned quite a few Elves as having specifically silver (not grey) hair. Among them were Míriel (mother of Fëanor), Elwë Thingol, Cirdan, Celeborn, Celebrian, and Gil-galad. There’s a short note on “Hair” from 1959 in which J.R.R. Tolkien writes: “Base [root:NAL] ‘shine, glitter’, always with reference to reflected radiance from a bright surface. As in the name Gil-galad ‘star of radiance’ given to Finwain, last High-king of the Eldar, because of the radiance of his silver hair, armour, and shield that, it is said, could even in the moonlight be seen from many leagues afar.”

There is a somewhat confusing (to me) essay in The Nature of Middle-earth titled “Elvish Ages & Númenorean”. Carl Hostetter dates to 1965 but mentions a note JRRT wrote on the manuscript: “This is the scheme followed in LR and Tale of Years.” I consider this essay to be experimental and contradictory to other, more authoritative notes by the author. He himself mentioned some problems between his proposed aging scheme and texts that had either been published or that he was working on (including the troublesome narrative about Galadriel and Celeborn).

The biggest problem with this “Ages” text is that it doesn’t take into account the alleged slowing of the decay of time conferred by the Rings of Power, and Tolkien specifically calculates aging rates for both Elrond and Galadriel (who each held a Ring of Power for thousands of years).

I don’t see any way to infer from these conflicting texts that silver hair denotes advanced age. Even though Gil-galad never used a Ring of Power, he possessed at least one (and possibly three for a while). So he would have benefited from its time-slowing effects simply from proximity (an effect attested to by Tolkien’s description of the vague passage of time in both Rivendell and Lorien). I just don’t see how Gil-galad could have been considered an “old” Elf by the time he died.

Elrond and Galadriel were both quite ancient by the time they left Middle-earth – Galadriel especially so. And Tolkien never described any greyness or whiteness of hair in her appearance.

Celeborn’s silver hair is said to be a family trait in at least one text. And since Gil-galad’s mother was a “Sindarin lady of the north” (related to Cirdan), his silver hair apparently denotes his relationship to Cirdan’s family. Cirdan was also related to Thingol.

In several collections of notes published in The Nature of Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien attempted to calculate the numbers of the early (pre-Valinorean) Elvish populations up to the Great Journey (as well as the timeline of their history). In several notes he mentioned that Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë were direct descendants of Imin, Tata, and Enel (in various generations). They were not second sons or descended from second sons, etc. Tolkien used a classic primogeniture scheme to trace their relationships from the “first elves”.

I think it’s safe to infer that the Silver-haired Elves were descended from Enel. Should that include Míriel? I don’t know. Her ancestry isn’t mentioned. But there’s a problem concerning Míriel’s hair: it’s described as “long dark hair” in the note 1959 “Hair” note. I think people who want to imagine Míriel with silver hair are fine to do so; and those who imagine her with dark hair are also fine to do so. But if one needs a justification for why she might have silver hair, then a proposed descent from Enel would probably work best (at least for fan fiction and gaming scenarios).

All that said, Tolkien doesn’t ever attempt to explain how the silver-haired Elves were related (if they all were). There’s an unnamed silver haired Elf in Lorien (who assists the Fellowship of the Ring). Perhaps at the time Tolkien wrote that text he was thinking that might be one of Celeborn’s relatives, but we’ll never know.

Conclusion

In fact, in The Lord of the Rings, Cirdan is described as having “grey” hair, not silver hair. His silver-haired descriptions are found in other texts. But I think it’s clear that Tolkien always envisioned him with a silvery head. What’s not clear (to me) is whether Cirdan aged from “silver hair” to “grey hair” or if Tolkien was using the colors interchangeably.

All that aside, I think there are enough references to (relatively) youngish silver-haired Elves that we can say with certainty it wasn’t necessarily a sign of old age among the Elves. Tolkien’s thoughts on aging, renewal, and fading among the Elves were inconsistent and may not (as published in The Nature of Middle-earth) accurately reflect his thoughts as he was writing The Lord of the Rings in the 1940s.

See also

Why Does Cirdan Have A Beard?

Answers To Frequently Asked Questions about Tolkien Elves

Elves By The Numbers (Classic Essay)

It’s All in the Family: the Elwëans and Ingwëans (Classic Essay)

It’s All in the Family: The Finwëans (Classic Essay)

Middle-earth Connections: Lore of the Rings (Classic Essay)

Shhh! It’s A Secret Ring! (Classic Essay)

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