Stewards' Reckoning

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Stewards' Reckoning, also known as the Revised Calendar, was the calendar system introduced in Gondor by its first Ruling Steward, Mardil Voronwë, in Third Age 2060. It replaced the previous system known as the Kings' Reckoning and, following the War of the Ring, it was replaced by the New Reckoning.

Background

Arnor and Gondor used a Númenórean calendar called the Kings' Reckoning. Even after the fall of Númenor near the end of the Second Age, the old calendar was maintained by the Exiles of Númenor in Middle-earth well into the Third Age. When the era of the Kings passed with the fall of Arnor and the loss of King Eärnur, the Kings' Reckoning presented (due to resetting the "millennial additions" with the new count of Third Age years) an offset of about 2 days out of synchronicity with the solar year.

History

To correct the accumulating deficit of the calendar, Steward Mardil inserted two leap days into T.A. 2059. In addition, he reformed the calendar, to take effect in 2060, by making all months of equal length at 30 days and arranging the two extra days as holidays outside of the months. In 2360 Steward Hador added 1 day to that year. There were no millennial additions in 3000, but by the end of the Third Age the calendar was in deficit by less than 1 day.

The Stewards' Reckoning was eventually adopted by most speakers of Westron.

In T.A. 3019, the calendar was replaced by the New Reckoning.

The Calendar

The Revised Calendar consisted of twelve months, each of thirty days, and five additional days that belonged to no month. The months were taken from those of the Kings' Reckoning, with the change that the seventh and eighth months were shortened to thirty days, and the two days placed outside the months as tuilérë, meaning Spring-day, and yáviérë, meaning Autumn-day.

Month number	Quenya	Sindarin	Length
	Yestarë		1
1	Narvinyë	Narwain	30
2	Nénimë	Nínui	30
3	Súlimë	Gwaeron	30
	Tuilérë		1
4	Víressë	Gwirith	30
5	Lótessë	Lothron	30
6	Nárië	Nórui	30
	Loëndë/Enderi		1/2
7	Cermië	Cerveth	30
8	Úrimë	Urui	30
9	Yavannië	Ivanneth	30
	Yáviérë		1
10	Narquelië	Narbeleth	30
11	Hísimë	Hithui	30
12	Ringarë	Girithron	30
	Mettarë		1

The names of the months and days were popularly used in Quenya, though the Dúnedain adhered to Sindarin versions.

Observations

• Yestarë: approximately the Winter Solstice
• Tuilérë: near or just after the Vernal Equinox
• Loëndë: approximately the Summer Solstice
• Yáviérë: near or just before the Autumnal Equinox

Controversy

Tolkien stated that the deficit remaining after Steward Mardil's 2-day addition to T.A. 2059 was "about 8 hours". The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion states that the remaining deficit at the end of 2059 should have amounted to "2 hours, 16 minutes, 40 seconds".

Some have suggested (including The Reader's Companion) that Tolkien's "about 8 hours" deficit refers to the end of 2060, but only if the leap day in 2060 was dropped in consequence.

Andreas Möhn goes further in his blog post "Tolkien has reckoned correct after all", speculating that Tolkien "failed to specify" additional Stewards' Reckoning rules, which would explain the deficit figures published in Appendix D.

Paul Sarando suggests instead that a simpler explanation for Tolkien's puzzling "about 8 hours" may have been the result of a mathematical shortcut of using the deficit calculation for the end of Second Age 5501 (which would have been the same year as T.A. 2060 if the count of Second Age years had continued) instead of correctly calculating the deficit for S.A. 3441 plus the end of T.A. 2060.