Is he really that young...

[ex-drashizu726.livejournal.com]

I've been rereading the books lately, and I think Eugenides is way younger than we all thought he was. In The Thief, we know that Eugenides's mother died when he was ten years old (p. 275). We also know that Eugenides's big fight with his father occurred two years before the events of The Thief (p. 269), because Eugenides told his father he wanted to be the next Thief of Eddis (p. 225). Then, in The Queen of Attolia, we learn that Eugenides told his father his intentions immediately after his mother's death (pp. 48-49). Therefore we know that Eugenides was ten years old when he became the next Thief of Eddis --- making him twelve in The Thief, thirteen at the beginning of QoA, and fifteen at the end. That's a good three years younger than I previously believed (and slightly worrisome).

Also, I've come up with an easy (ha) way to approximate Attolia's age at the end of QoA. Just take Eugenides's age (15), add the number of years Eddis has reigned (7), add the number of years Attolia had been on the throne before Eddis's coronation (probably less than 5) and subtract the number of years' age difference between Eugenides now and Attolia when she first married (probably less than 3). That would make her around 25-ish, give or take a few years. I'm feeling better now that I can assume there's only a 10-year age difference between Gen and Irene instead of 20 or more, as I previously thought.

All page numbers refer to the new 2006 Eos editions.

Comments

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Here's my take on his age. I have reasoning, I just can't remember it all off the top of my head right now. XD But it's there, I promise.

I figure he's 15 at the youngest in The Thief. Like Rowana said, the enrollment age for the army can't be that young, so really, he'd probably be more like 16 in The Thief. As checkers said, he'd have to be old enough to get away with drinking in wine shops. So that would make him 16-17 at the beginning of QoA, 18-19 at the end.

As for Irene's age, well, here we go... I always got the impression that she couldn't have been more than two or so years older than Helen, because she compared their childhoods as though they'd been about the same age. I also thought it couldn't have been more than about two years between the time Irene became queen and Helen did. At the end of QoA, Helen's been queen for 7 years, which would mean Irene had been queen for about 9.

Irene also says that she was "practically a child" when she became queen. "Practically a child" to me means early - mid teens. If she was fifteen when she became queen, she'd be 24 or 25 at the end of QoA. I know fifteen seems young, but that's the impression I got.

Thoughts?

[ex-drashizu726.livejournal.com]

Attolia's age always appeared to me to be exactly the age you suggested here. I always thought she was relatively close to Eddis's age, too (and while we're at it, I always figured Eddis was twenty-ish or maybe twenty-one, that being about halfway between Gen and Irene's ages).

Could it be possible?

[norell leung (from livejournal.com)]

I haven't done any specific calculations myself but could it be possible that although Irene is older than Helen, she was crowned at a younger age? So maybe although it was made clear that Irene was the significantly more experienced queen (upon "pouring the vitriol into Helen's ears"), she's only a year or two older?

[madclairvoyant.livejournal.com]

He could be that young; boys in the past, especially in countries like Sparta, has boys trained form as young as seven in the arts of war. And Eddis always seems to be sort of reminiscent of Sparta with me, with its militaristic reputation.

Interesting I noticed the Militaristic element of Eddis too

[norell leung (from livejournal.com)]

There seems to be more military/war/fighting emphasis in Eddisian culture than in Attolian:
-There's that part in QofA where someone mentions that the Eddisian army is particularly badass because they have "little to do all winter other than train for war."
-QofA narrates that Irene "doesn't pretend to be a soldier" and is again, envious of Helen because she has been trained in the art of war since she was 8 years old and "while not as dangerous as a soldier, Helen could fight her own battles, if she chose."
-CofK where Sophos is running after Helen and her entourage of guards and attendants after Helen leaves him after their fight and every individual in that entourage points a weapon at Sophos, including her female attendants, likely meaning that all Eddisian women were trained to handle weapons and fight to some degree.