A Collection of Ranger's Apprentice Theories

Halt's Age: Revisited

Launching from the previous theory, Halt's age is actually much more complex depending on which evidence is used to determine his age. Running the numbers, Halt should be 33 in 'The Ruins of Gorlan,' and yet he's already going gray and has an aura of old man; Pauline lets slip people used to think of him as a "dyed-in-the-wool, cranky old bachelor" ('The Kings of Clonmel'). In 'The Burning Bridge,' Halt implies he's 30ish years older than the 16-year-old Alyss, making him 46ish. And yet, not only does he outlive Crowley, he's a fully functional Ranger in the Royal Ranger series, despite that making him in the range of at least 65-68 just by adding 5 years for main series events + 16 years for Maddie to be 15, if not older. According to the estimate of time passing in another theory, he'd actually be minimum 78 years old in 'A New Beginning.'

The origin of 'The Ruins of Gorlan' was a series of short stories for Flanagan's son. Halt fills the role of grizzled advisor, teaching the tricks from many years of wisdom and exists within this short period of time. Then, the books became popular and now Flanagan cannot stop writing them. 'The Lost Stories' wraps up the main series, and then 'A New Beginning' was released as the 12th book to hint at the future of Araluen, only to be converted into a series alternating release years with Brotherband. Suddenly, Halt's age becomes an issue, putting Flanagan in a bind where logically Halt should be slowing down or dead like Crowley, except the nostalgia factor still exists, and parts of the fandom might riot if Halt ever passes away.

Flanagan is not above behind the scenes revision as he improves his research and logic for the universe. In 'The Icebound Land,' corn is seen in Gallica, in 'The Battle for Skandia,' a Skandian hunting cabin contains cornmeal, and in 'The Sorcerer of the North,' Seacliff has corn fields. Corn, however, is not native to Europe, and so in 'The Ghostfaces,' he decides to make the Heron crew unaware of corn until they see it in the unrecorded land they stumble across. Seacliff, a common place for Skandian raiders to land, also has wild turkey, yet the Herons have never seen one before coming to this new land that represents somewhere in North America. Even Duncan's age gets more specific. 'The Ruins of Gorlan' only noted him as somewhere in his 20's, a ten year range.

Halt might not have one consistent age. Through the prequel series and into early Brotherband is an era of universe exploration and hitting his stride in level of banter and detail, and is mostly consistent. Prior to that was his main series era, from 'The Ruins of Gorlan' to 'The Lost Stories,' also fairly consistent in terms of facts.

When focusing on Halt's age through just the main series, it is known that he is around 45 as his character is established, going gray in the hair. He implies he has been in the Corps for 20+ years, and that he is one of the senior Rangers, where Gilan and another Ranger around the age of thirty are not considered the same rank likely due to age ('The Ruins of Gorlan'). Pritchard is not mentioned in Halt's summary of events leading to heading to Araluen in 'The Kings of Clonmel,' so Halt could have arrived at 17, became a Ranger at 22, rose in rank just enough to be put in the cavalry sidequest against Morgarath, and then spent the next 15 years building his legend even more. By 'The Icebound Land,' Halt and Duncan have been friends for over 20 years, indicating they'd known of each other long before Halt was put in charge of the cavalry.

It's really only that 'The Tournament at Gorlan' directly follows the events in 'The Hibernian' which throws the main series' ages out the window. The main difference is that Flanagan focused on Will, with Halt as a relatively flat, grumpy man to help Will become a Ranger, until suddenly Halt becomes a main character with backstory and his own prequel series with the energetic Crowley.

No matter which way the age is calculated for Halt, he is still quite old for an active Ranger by the Royal Ranger series, almost like he never aged at all. The implication is either Halt is immortal, or is simply a timeless character who went gray at 33. As a constant through the main series, he is beloved, and age doesn't need to be a factor.