People died at such a young age, you were old at forty. So many infants and children died, adults did not bond with them. Even then, the children were treated like adults; “childhood” is a modern invention.
I have heard this, and variations on this, all my life (and I really am old). It’s wrong and I’ll prove it, but I’ll also talk about why the myth persists.
It’s also something important to get right. For a great many aspects of history, we can change things around to our heart’s content. We can use historical currencies or invent our own. We can introduce or remove flora and fauna, change historical events, and generally treat the past as our personal Tinker Toy set, taking it apart and putting it together in new ways.
With age, though, we’re dealing with human constants. If forty really is old, that changes how we write characters. It means, for example, that childhood and adolescence represents half a person’s life. It means nobody gets to be king for very long.
If you already agree that the age of man has always been three score and ten, skip to the bottom of this post to read a bit of historical philosophy. But if you are unconvinced, you can read the evidence, herewith.
Ancient World
The Bible talks about how long people live. Let’s leave aside Moses and Noah and the like; here’s a passage from Psalms 90:10 (King James version). “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
Huh. Weird. I mean, if people in the Middle Ages were old by forty, then in 1000BC (or so; Psalms is a collection of writings spanning several centuries), people must have been old by like twenty, right? Plainly we’re getting into Ridiculous Land here.
But the Bible’s a peculiar book, tricky to interpret. Is there other evidence from the ancient world? Sure there is.
We can make quite a list of individuals who lived a long life: Seneca (~90), Caesar Augustus (76), his wife Livia (86). Galba, though he reigned only briefly, was in his seventies when he became emperor. Fabius Maximus, the famous dictator who saved Rome, was 72 when he fought Hannibal. Vibius Crispus was advisor to Emperor Domitian at age eighty. Sextus Turannius was still prefect of the corn supply at 90. And so on.
Varro gives us a list of the stages of life (a popular theme right through the Middle Ages). By it we have puerita (0-15), adulscentia (15-30), iuventus (30-45), seniores (45-60), senectus (60 to death). Those divisions are more mathematical than biological, but obviously forty was not considered old.
To be a consul in the Republic the minimum age was forty. One could be exempted from jury duty at age sixty. Certain other civic duties were exempted at age seventy. Again, no one makes laws like this if age forty is considered old.
Here is Horace (Ars Poetica) on the old man:
He lacks fire and courage, is dilatory and slow to form hopes, is sluggish and greedy of a longer life, peevish, surly, given to praising the days he spent as a boy, and to reproving and condemning the young. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Middle Ages
Similar evidence is even more plentiful from the Middle Ages. Charlemagne died at seventy-two. His biographers are not astonished by his great age. Frederick Barbarossa took the crusading vow at age sixty-six and no one thought this worth more than a passing remark about his age.
Moreover, the ancient taxonomy of aging persisted right through the Middle Ages without revision. So where does the statement come from? Are people just stupid?
Not at all.
Lies We Tell Ourselves
The statement comes from a misunderstanding of a statistical statement: the average lifespan of people in the Middle Ages (or whenever) was forty (or thirty-five, or even 37.5 or other overly-precise figures). That statement is technically incorrect and should be stated like this: the average age at death was… whatever. It’s an important distinction. Average age at death means demographers have tallied up how old people were when they died. Since infant mortality—and adolescent mortality—was much higher in pre-modern societies, there’s a very large number of people who were dead at six months or two years or twelve years. There were far fewer people dead at sixty-four. That makes the average figure very low.
It does not, however, say anything all about lifespan, which is a term that means the age to which people might reasonably expect to live if they are not felled by disease or accident. Lifespan and average age at death are two quite different things.
One would think, wouldn’t one, that a few articles making the distinction could clear things up. One would think that statements by professional historians, pointing out what I’ve just pointed out, could set the world straight on this whole “thirty-five was old” business. As a matter of fact, historians have been pointing this out for generations, yet the myth persists. Why is that? Why do people believe this even though it is so obviously wrong and so readily disproved?
Now we get to the interesting part.
First, no one listens to historians. That’s easy. Historians are dull, they write boring books, and nobody’s going to wade through their dusty lists of names and dates to find out about old age. But that’s not an explanation. Popular history magazines (History Today, e.g.) and television shows (History Channel) actually do read historians, and they know how to ignore the dull bits and package up the interesting bits for mass consumption. The myth should have been exploded long ago (History Channel loves to explode myths).
More explanation is obviously needed. It can be stated simply, but analysis will take longer. The problem isn’t that people are ignorant on this topic. The problem is that people already know things about the Middle Ages. It’s easy to educate someone, but it’s much more difficult to re-educate them. People already know about short lifespans in Past Times. They grow up knowing it, and attempts to re-educate them are largely futile because that one piece of information is part of a larger “understanding” about the Middle Ages that simply isn’t going to go away.
That understanding is this: Modern Times are better than the Middle Ages. We are wealthier, live better, have more freedoms, so on and so on … and, we live longer. In other words, the myth about life expectancy is part of a broader myth that we tell ourselves, and tell each successive generation, about Progress. That myth is crucial to our social fabric and isn’t going to go away at the behest of a handful of academics. It’s part of how we understand our own world.
For the Writer
What is the implication of this for the writer? Curiously, almost none at all, for most of us. Much historical fantasy is about young people anyway, but where old people appear, they are “normally” old. Despite the widespread misunderstanding about aging in pre-modern society, when it comes to writing fiction, we instinctively follow Varro’s stages of life. The place where we often get things a bit wrong is that peculiar stage called adolescence. I’ll write about that in another post.
When it comes to portraying the elderly, though, just keep doing what you’re doing. Gray hair, physically infirm, all of Horace’s amusing characterizations. Old starts around sixty, but can slide a bit. You can make your elderly spry or weak as the story demands. And you can now be confident that in so doing you’re being historically accurate.
The place where it gets interesting to me is when considering non-human peoples. What would the implications be for a very short lifespan or a very long one? How long would infancy last? Childhood? Adolescence? What does that imply about schooling or learning a trade? Marriage? Elder care?
Just for examples, if your elves live two hundred years, an elf would be in school longer than her human friend. A human boy would get married far sooner than his elf friend. Would the dynamics of friendship even survive such an arrangement? If your dwarves die in their forties, maybe elves and dwarves are never friends simply out of pure demography. If someone left an elf infant on your doorstep are you looking at a thirty-year commitment?
Further Reading
One book in particular keeps alive incorrect stereotypes about aging–Centuries of Childhood, by Philippe Ariès. Originally published in 1960, the book was soon translated into English and was widely influential. It was a pioneering work, but it relied too heavily on certain types of sources and ignored others. Aries gets all credit for starting a conversation, but the discussion has long since moved away from his conclusions. Unfortunately, popular perception has not, and Aries continues to influence because his book keeps getting re-printed.
A second classic is Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800, by Lawrence Stone. Another pioneering work that is worth reading but which needs to be supplemented by others.
By what others? Here are a couple.
- Aging in World History, David G. Troyansky, 2015.
- A History of Old Age, Pat Thane (ed.), 2005.
That should be enough to get going. It’s a very large topic.
What Do You Think?
Have you played with aging in any of your stories? How did that work out for you?
I’d love to hear how you handled the matter of non-standard aging.
E.L. Skip Knox is the creator of the fantasy world called Altearth, a place where magic is real, monsters roam the land, and the Roman Empire never fell.
I’ve seen stories about Vulcans, who live to be several hundred years old, and the way humans consistently react to what they think is a beautiful Vulcan girl, who Vulcans consider basically a child. On the other hand I’ve seen books about Klingons, who are very short-lived, the young fighting and drinking by 10.
Thanks for the comment.
It would not be quite accurate to say life was shorter in revolutionary France. Talking about life span is complicated, made worse by imprecision in the language used when it's discussed in the popular press.
What can be measured? We can say at what age a person died. We cannot say how long that person would have lived had they not died of a heart attack, or had a bomb dropped on them, or got a fever. We can only say this is how old they were when they died.
If our records are good, we can gather enough data points to make statistically reliable generalizations about a given population. That is how demographers come up with mean age at death. Such an average must necessarily leave aside many interesting variables and considerations, but it's as good as we can do at coming up with a number.
Historical demographers have been doing this for several generations now, and they can make some broader observations. Among these are that mean at age death varies dramatically according to local demographic crises: famine, plague, war (this last is significant mainly in modern times). Over the long haul, and across societies, however, the mean age at death has remained pretty constant. To put it another way, humans live about as long as they always have.
This should be no surprise. We are mammals. The life span of whales, dogs, shrews, etc. likewise have remained pretty constant. While we are not living longer, more of us are reaching our seventies and eighties than ever before. That's a huge change, historically unprecedented.
I suppose saying lives could be made shorter is different from saying life was shorter?
Heads up! (Pun intended) life was shorter in the late 1700s in France. But I suspect that was do to revolutionary circumstances.
On this note, would it not be more possible our lifespands are decreasing rather than increasing?
Granted knowing some … historical and present legal issues, I wouldn't be surprised if laws were created to imply that they'll never let them out of jury duty.
cool!
Actually, most heroines in romance (fantasy and/or historical) are in their early 20s. Early marriage was not an uncommon thing. Borgias? Nobility? There's a reason why Romeo and Juliet were so young. So no, romance writers aren't writing ages out of historical facts for the most part.
beetle eggs behind the eyes? *Skip recoils in horror*
<grin>
I can't speak to the romance market. I've tried to read in that genre a couple of times, but it simply does not connect. It's an entirely different language.
I've got another article at the ready that talks about marriage, but just to speak to the point about the young age: yes, but mostly only where property was involved. And, usually, title. So, if you want to have your main character married off (t's always against her will, isn't it), that's fine, but please make her of noble family.
Edit: I know *you* don't do that, Caged Maiden! I was speaking widely. Please, not the beetle eggs! Aaaah!
Great article. I’ve been saying this for a long time. If Stone Age people lived past 10, they were perfectly likely to see 60. HA!
One of the things that made me quit reading historical romance was how everyone got married at 12. Um…it’s true that happened in the Middle Ages, but those were complicated and rare situations (not based on how long people lived or how they needed to reproduce while adolescents to keep the species going) in which the bride and groom usually didn’t even live together until they were at least 16, but also, in 1500, the average age of marriage for first-time brides was 25! Teens having babies wasn’t any more prevalent then than it is now! OMG, why is romance so intent on spreading the same misinformation? And men weren’t even considered “marriageable” until they’d finished an apprenticeship (at 24) or education (possibly older than that). So…why would people waste all those years of reproducing if they were only going to live another decade at most? And why would nature have seen fit to saddle women with menopause, since that doesn’t start till forty or so?
Thanks for tackling the subject of age. You’re absolutely right it affects stories when people have a skewed view of history (and humanity) they’re trying to replicate. Fair enough some people might want to create a society that mirrors the myths, but let’s then see some new reasons for it. “Oh, that’s my ancient uncle. He’s forty years old, can you believe it? Yeah, the hideous eggs they inserted behind his eyes at his coming-of-age ceremony haven’t shown any sign of hatching beetles to burrow into his brain. That dude might make it to forty-two! I’m taking bets!”
All good points, folks. I don't really want to become Medieval Mythbuster. For reasons I laid out in the article, I'm convinced that it would do little good, save at the individual level. These myths persist because they serve a social need. That's why they are stronger than historical accuracy. After 35 years in academia, one of the chief lessons I've learned is that education doesn't change much at the societal level. Facts have hard edges. They're awkward. Myth is pliant, adjusting itself to social need. And it's okay, really. Human societies survived for thousands of years without the aid of scholarly research. And for those fascinated by the quest for truth, historians will stand at the ready.
I'm more interested in the positive side of reconstructing the past, especially in how writers can make use of it. Once I allow for the strength of myth, I always stressed to my students that reality is *way* more interesting than the myth. This is because the myth works in black and white, two dimensions. It lives in oversimplification. Once you can get past that, you begin to see the human experience in all its baffling, contradictory richness. And, of course, that's precisely where fiction writers work.
So, I'll be busting myths now and then, but it's mainly going to be by the way, on the road to more interesting vistas that become visible when one sweeps away the cobweb of stereotypes.
I very much appreciate your comments, folks.
Ugh, that one really grinds my gears. I actually saw it in a fantasy writing advice article once. No idea how it started, but this myth refuses to die.
Glad to see the age myth taken apart.
Hello Skip!
You have my congratulations for an excellent article. I am often annoyed by many myths that most people believe about Medieval life, and also it's very bad that some of those ideas have become part of Fantasy worlds as well.
In general, many people think that Medieval life was horrendous in every way.
They like to think of themselves as superior, something like privileged that we live in a world that is somehow better and more advanced. Yes there were many horrible things back then, but we have plenty of horrible things happening today as well. On top of that, few people know the better and happier aspects of Medieval life.
You should bust some of these myths in following articles:
1- Medieval people were very short, to the point that we are giants today.
2- Everything was darkness and ignorance!
3- Medieval doctors were just torturers.
4- The farther that you go back in time, the worst it becomes.
5- Everybody was a serial killer in those times.
6- Knights were brutal fighters without martial arts.
7- Medieval swords weighed twenty kilograms!
Those are just a few, I am sure that you can think of many more.
This kind of thing is mentioned in certain parts of my Joan of England trilogy. Joan was a little angry when she realized that her world had been reduced to a bunch of silly myths in the minds of most people, and she provides her friends with a different point of view about life in the 14th century.
By the way, if some horrible and deadly pandemic hits the world today we would not do any better than they did.
Nice piece. Bad history is one thing, but it gets even more pernicious when it leaks over into fantasy and fiction.
Keep up the myth busting!
Great article! As a sociologist who’s studied demography, the persistent ignorance about demography in the Middle Ages drives me nuts. I used to start out my “Marriage and Family” and “Aging and the Life Course” classes by spending a week just debunking all the historical lies the students had picked up. I bought Stone’s book for academic reasons, but have been delighted in how useful it is for my fantasy writing, as well.
My historical demography course in grad school was a real pleasure. Got to read the 1900 census. Of course, as a medievalist, I also got to read 15th century parish registers. I nearly went down the quantitative history road, but veered off in the nick of time. 😉
Makes me miss my grad school days, when I could take classes and read all those books just for the pleasure of learning things. It feels so hard to squeeze that in these days! Although now at least I can justify all that “extra” reading as research for my novel. 🙂
Great article! I was taught that 40 was old before modern times. Thank you for correcting that.
I’m glad you found it useful.