Calendars and timekeeping in Middle Earth

The basic outline of the Eldarin Calendar and its relation to other time systems as intended by Tolkien, AND as implemented here, are the subjects of this volume. This book is by Nolindil, but is based on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, and the independant calculations of Lamdir, a member of the Imladris culture here on Elendor. Lamdir's ideas were first related in a series of messages that have been edited and presented here as some of these chapters. Only the Reckoning of Imladris is given in any detail in the LotR. Perhaps other realms like Lothlorien kept calendars slightly different in particulars. In Imladris, you can see the current time and date on the Eldarin Calendar, in Sindarin, with the +imtime command, or +imtime/q to see it in Quenya. Also, you can see the current date in Steward's Reckoning (the current system in the Westron speaking cultures) with the +stime command.

Overview

The Eldarin Calendar is very different from the human style of time keeping. Their year is made up what could be called 6 short seasons, or 6 long months, depending on how you want to define them, plus a few holidays outside them. The New Year starts on about April 6th in the Steward's/Shire Reckoning, but it does move somewhat due to the different style of handling leap years. A year of the sun is called a "Loa" by the Eldar (Growth), or sometimes a "Coranar" (Sun-cycle). Consider how similar this is to the cycle of the Two Trees and it will be easier to understand. This calendar was created by someone who had lived under their bi-polar cycle for millenia. Notice how the two longest seasons, summer and winter, seem to be anchors and the other seasons serve as transition.

The "Middle Days" are a sort of equivalent of the "Mingling of the Lights" in Valinor. Elves also count time in much larger increments that have no equivalent in human terms. The term "Yen" is usually translated as "year" in LotR, but it really means a cycle of 144 solar years. There have been only about 50 yen since the rising of the sun. The Eldar observe a week of sorts, but it is only 6 days long. Elves generally prefer to count in threes, sixes, and twelves where possible. Weeks run consecutively just like our week does.

Comparing the Eldarin and RL Calendars

Our January 1 corresponded, in ordinary years, to the Shire's Afteryule 9. The Elves' New Year was said to correspond to Shire Astron 6; this would correspond to our March 29. If fixed on that date, the whole calendar would proceed (in a 365-day year) as follows: Yestare March 29, Ethuil March 30 - May 22 (54 days), Laer May 23 - August 2 (72 days), Iavas August 3 - September 25 (54 days) the Enderi September 26 - September 28 (3 days), Firith September 29 - November 21 (54 days), Rhiw November 22 - ry 1 (72 days), Echuir February 2 - March 27 (54 days), Mettare March 28. Calendrical details were matters of specialized knowledge or lore, more often written than talked about; they might well be left in Quenya.

It is pointed out that among Westron-speakers, Quenya (not Sindarin) names for the months were in usual use. The Imladris calendar (in the books) did not correct for leap years until after 12 years, when they made the enderi 6 days long. This means that the calendar would vary, relative to ours, over a period of three days, the date of yestare falling back by one day on every one of our leap years. Since the global time system here does not implement leap years, neither the Eldarin Calendar nor the Steward's Reckoning can doso either.

Expressing dates in Sindarin

In expressing dates in Sindarin, the number was put first and followed either immediately by the season-name or using the preposition _ned_ 'in', thus: tolothen Ethuil (8 Ethuil) or nelchaenen ned Echuir (30 Echuir). Third Age in Sindarin might be Andran Neleden or Andran Nelui (andran being a somewhat 'modernized' form of an older _anrand_, containing _and_ 'long' and _rand_ 'age'; the prefix an(d) was added in Sindarin to make the word _rand_ more distinct from simi lar words). First A ge: Minandran or Andran Erui; Second Age: Adandran or Andran Edwen; Third Age: Nelandran or Andran Nelui. If you use the preposition _ned_, it will in all likelihood lose the final consonant before a word beginning in a consonant: _ne Laer_; and Rhiw would become Riw after it: _ne Riw_. So it might be easier just to leave the preposition out!