How old is Schmendrick in "The Last Unicorn"?

Question

In Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Schmendrick the magician is cursed not to age until he learns how to use magic.

How old is he during the events of the book?

Answer 1

There is no mention of his actual age in the book. While aging and the passage of time are frequently mentioned themes in the story, the length of time time that Schmendrick has been alive is never given explicitly. Given the frequent mention of the explicit time periods that various phases of the backstory have taken (Molly Grue spending seventeen years with Cully, Haggard having lived in his castle for thirty years before the arrival for Lir, etc.), this omission was almost certainly a conscious stylistic decision on Beagle's Part.

All we know for certain is that Nikos's spell that made Schmendrick immortal was not cast recently. For example,

"Maybe this time," Molly heard him mutter, "maybe this time. Nikos said — what was it that Nikos said? I don't remember. It has been so long."

and later,

"I told you that I was older than I look," he said. "I was born mortal, and I have been immortal for a long, foolish time, and one day I will be mortal again; so I know something that a unicorn cannot know. Whatever can die is beautiful — more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?"

So he has been in is current state for quite some time (long enough for him to become famous among other wizards)—and Schmendrick himself may not even remember how long, exactly.

However, at the end of the story, it is revealed that he does eventually learn to master magic, and so he becomes mortal again.

Long years later, when Schmendrick's name had become a greater name than Nikos's and worse than afreets surrendered at the sound of it, he was never to work the smallest magic without seeing Prince Lir before him, his eyes squinted up because of the brightness and his tongue sticking out.

(Actually the character of Schmendrick apparently predates The Last Unicorn. According to https://thelastunicorn.fandom.com/wiki/Schmendrick,

Schmendrick was a character Beagle had initially made up for his children's bedtime stories, and was called "the world's worst magician."

So it is possible that there was more backstory that Beagle originally created for the character, when he was just making up funny stories for his kids. However, those additional noncanonical details, if they exist, have not been published.)