I’m talking about how many years they were physically present in Middle-Earth. For example, Gandalf existed before Arda was created, but he only arrived in Middle-Earth around Third Age 1000, being in Middle-Earth for roughly 2000 years by the time of the War of the Ring. I have a list of much stronger candidates and I did my best to search for the relevant quotes directly from the books
Sauron / Balrogs
These are the strongest candidates. The first mention of both Sauron and the Balrogs is at the start of the Silmarillion, when Arda was just created, and they are already ‘servants’ of Melkor. This is before the two lamps were built by the other Valar:
Yet so great was the power of his uprising that in ages forgotten he contended with Manwe and all the Valar, and through long years in Arda held dominion over most of the lands of the Earth. But he was not alone. For of the Maiar many were drawn to his splendour in the days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down into his darkness; and others he corrupted afterwards to his service with lies and treacherous gifts. Dreadful among these spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in Middle-earth were called the Balrogs, demons of terror.
Among those of his servants that have names the greatest was that spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron, or Gorthaur the Cruel. In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aule, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people. In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself.
‘Of the Enemies’ (Silmarillion)
When Melkor destroys the lamps a little later, he is ‘trusting in the might of his servants’ which may or may not include Sauron and the Balrogs. They are not directly named, but it was stated earlier that Sauron ‘had a part in all the deeds of Melkor upon Arda’.
But Melkor, trusting in the strength of Utumno and the might of his servants, came forth suddenly to war, and struck the first blow, ere the Valar were prepared; and he assailed the lights of Illuin and Ormal, and cast down their pillars and broke their lamps.
‘Of the Beginning of Days’ (Silmarillion)
The first concrete evidence of Sauron and the Balrogs being in Middle-Earth comes shortly after the two trees are planted and Melkor consolidates his forces. Tolkien doesn’t give us any date for this so I’ll have to assume it is during the early years of the trees:
And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days.
….
And Melkor made also a fortress and armoury not far from the north-western shores of the sea, to resist any assault that might come from Aman. That stronghold was commanded by Sauron, lieutenant of Melkor; and it was named Angband.
‘Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor’ (Silmarillion)
So both the Balrogs and Sauron were definitely in Middle-Earth by the early years of the trees, and they might have been in Arda earlier than that but we don’t know for sure. The only named Balrog that survived the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age is Durin’s Bane; all the others were killed or fled. Durin’s Bane spent most of his time sleeping under a mountain, while Sauron was in Numenor for 57 years and had no physical form for around a thousand years, so Durin’s Bane is probably the winner for most time spent in Middle-Earth by any living thing.
Círdan the Shipwright
Círdan is an Elf, he is one of our strongest candidates who is not an immortal spirit. The Elves awoke at Cuiviénen in the year of the trees 1050. They took a journey west to reach Valinor in 1105, and Círdan was one of their leaders who ultimately decided to remain in Middle-Earth. We don’t know for sure if he was part of the original elves awakening in 1050, but he must have been born sometime between there and 1105, making him ancient even for Elves. As far as I know he is the oldest Elf still alive in Middle-Earth by the time of the War of the Ring.
Here is the first mention we have of Círdan. The Elves have reached the western shores in Beleriand and they befriend a Maia called Ossë, a sea spirit serving the Vala Ulmo:
When many years had passed, Ulmo hearkened to the prayers of the Noldor and of Finwe their king, who grieved at their long sundering from the Teleri, and besought him to bring them to Aman, if they would come. And most of them proved now willing indeed; but great was the grief of Ossë when Ulmo returned to the coasts of Beleriand, to bear them away to Valinor; for his care was for the seas of Middle-earth and the shores of the Hither Lands, and he was ill-pleased that the voices of the Teleri should be heard no more in his domain. Some he persuaded to remain; and those were the Falathrim, the Elves of the Falas, who in after days had dwellings at the havens of Brithombar and Eglarest, the first mariners in Middle-earth and the first makers of ships. Círdan the Shipwright was their lord.
‘Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië’ (Silmarillion)
This puts Círdan’s birth somewhere between YT 1050 and YT 1105. For reference Galadriel was Born in YT 1362 (Tolkien gives us the exact date for this one!) We don’t know the date for her husband Celeborn, but I imagine it was around the same.
Treebeard
Treebeard is the only serious contender to Círdan. We don’t know exactly when the Ents were born, but it must have been not long after the Elves. Before the children awake, Yavanna has a conversation with Manwë, where she expresses concern that Dwarves and Elves will cut down trees. Eru creates the Ents to protect the trees:
‘All have their worth,’ said Yavanna, ‘and each contributes to the worth of the others. But the kelvar can flee or defend themselves, whereas the olvar that grow cannot. And among these I hold trees dear. Long in the growing, swift shall they be in the felling, and unless they pay toll with fruit upon bough little mourned in their passing. So I see in my thought. Would that the trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish those that wrong them !’
‘This is a strange thought,’ said Manwë.
‘Yet it was in the Song,’ said Yavanna.
….
Then Manwe awoke, and he went down to Yavanna upon Ezellohar, and he sat beside her beneath the Two Trees. And Manwë said: 'O Kementari, Eru hath spoken, saying: “Do then any of the Valar suppose that I did not hear all the Song, even the least sound of the least voice? Behold! When the Children awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence, and their just anger shall be feared.
….
Then Manwe and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulë; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,’ she said. ‘Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.’
‘Nonetheless they will have need of wood,’ said Aule, and he went on with his smith-work.
‘Of Aulë and Yavanna’ (Silmarillion)
We also have quotes from both Celeborn and Gandalf regarding Treebeard:
Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galadriel. ‘It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone, A vanimar, vanimalion nostari!’ he said. ‘It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.’
And Celeborn said: ‘I do not know, Eldest.’
‘Many Partings’ (The Return of the King)
—-
Gandalf laughed. 'That is better!' he said. 'Well, Théoden. will you ride with me to find Treebeard? We must go round about, but it is not far. When you see Treebeard, you will learn much. For Treebeard is Fangorn, and the eldest and chief of the Ents, and when you speak with him you will hear the speech of the oldest of all living things.'
‘The Road to Isengard’ (The Two Towers)
Both Celeborn and Gandalf personally know Círdan (see below), yet they both call Treebeard ‘Eldest’ and ‘the oldest of all living things’. This makes me think Treebeard is older than Círdan, having awakened at the same time as the first Elves, with Círdan being from a later generation of Elves.
For reference, Círdan is one of the 3 Elves that received a ring of power along with Gil-Galad and Galadriel. Círdan is also the one who welcomed Gandalf when he first came to Middle-Earth and gave him his ring:
Gil-galad before he died gave his ring to Elrond; Círdan later surrendered his to Mithrandir. For Círdan saw further and deeper than any other in Middle-earth, and he welcomed Mithrandir at the Grey Havens, knowing whence he came and whither he would return. ‘Take this ring, Master,’ he said, ‘for your labours will be heavy; but it will support you in the weariness that you have taken upon yourself. For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill. But as for me, my heart is with the Sea, and I will dwell by the grey shores until the last ship sails. I will await you.’
(Appendix B)
Shelob
Another interesting one is Shelob; she is younger than Círdan or Treebeard but still very very old. Melkor allied with Ungoliant to destroy the two trees in YT 1495. This marked the end of the years of the trees and the beginning of the First Age. Ungoliant attacked Melkor, and was forced to flee to Beleriand, where she reproduced and gave birth to Shelob. I found two passages that talk about this:
With their whips of flame they smote asunder the webs of Ungoliant, and she quailed, and turned to flight, belching black vapours to cover her; and fleeing from the north she went down into Beleriand, and dwelt beneath Ered Gorgoroth, in that dark valley that was after called Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death, because of the horror that she bred there. For other foul creatures of spider form had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband, and she mated with them, and devoured them; and even after Ungoliant herself departed, and went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world, her offspring abode there and wove their hideous webs. Of the fate of Ungoliant no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.
‘Of the Flight of the Noldor’ (Silmarillion)
—-
There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider-form, even such as once of old had lived in the Land of the Elves in the West that is now under the Sea, such as Beren fought in the Mountains of Terror in Doriath, and so came to Lúthien upon the green sward amid the hemlocks in the moonlight long ago. How Shelob came there, flying from ruin, no tale tells, for out of the Dark Years few tales have come. But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. Far and wide her lesser broods, bastards of the miserable mates, her own offspring, that she slew, spread from glen to glen, from the Ephel Dúath to the eastern hills, to Dol Guldur and the fastnesses of Mirkwood. But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world.
‘Shelob’s Lair’ (The Two Towers)
Ungoliant settled in Beleriand at the start of the First Age, and Beleriand was destroyed in First Age 587. Shelob was born somewhere in that timeframe. For reference Elrond was born in First Age 532, so Shelob is probably a little older than him. We also know that Sauron settled Mordor around Second Age 1000, and we are told that Shelob was already in Mordor at that point.
Tom Bombadil / Nameless Things
Tom claims to have been there before Melkor, and the Nameless Things are described by Gandalf as being ‘older than Sauron’. Both are deliberately kept mysterious and we only have a short paragraph so we cannot really place them anywhere. It feels like cheating but they are probably both older than anything else on the list:
I am old. Eldest, that’s what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless – before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
‘In the House of Tom Bombadil’ (The Fellowship of the Ring)
—–
We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin's folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel. Thus he brought me back at last to the secret ways of Khazad-dûm: too well he knew them all. Ever up now we went, until we came to the Endless Stair.
‘The White Rider’ (The Two Towers)
This gives us the following timeline:
Early Years of the trees: Melkor settles in Utumno with the Balrogs, Sauron is in Angband
Year of the trees 1050: Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen, Treebeard is born around here, Círdan is probably born around here
Year of the trees 1105: Círdan leaves Cuiviénen
Year of the trees 1362: Galadriel is born, Celeborn is probably born around here
Year of the trees 1495: Melkor and Ungoliant destroy the trees, start of the First Age
Early First Age: Shelob is born in Beleriand
First Age 532: Elrond is born
First Age 587: End of the War of Wrath, Beleriand is destroyed, Melkor is captured, Sauron and Shelob flee, the Balrogs are killed or flee
First Age 590: End of the First Age
The Second Age then lasts for 3441 years, and the War of the Ring happens in Third Age 3019.
Here is the number of solar years each character has spent in Middle-Earth by the time of the War of the Ring. Each year during the year of the trees is roughly equal to 9,58 solar years. I also assume Círdan and Treebeard are born YT 1050, and Sauron and the Balrogs YT 1. I also include Melkor (from YT 1 to FA 590), because he ended up spending more time in Middle-Earth than most of the others. The First/Second/Third age add up to 7050 years.
Elrond – 6518
Shelob – probably a bit less than 7000
Galadriel – 8324
Círdan and Treebeard – around 11 314
Melkor – around 14 903
Sauron and Balrogs – around 21 366
Since Sauron spent a couple of decades in Numenor in the Second Age, the big winner is Durin’s Bane for most time spent in Middle-Earth by anybody!
Source: r/tolkienfans · by /u/WoakBlue