Timeline

From Tolkien Gateway
Revision as of 22:35, 21 September 2007 by Hyarion (talk | contribs) (→‎The Third Age: Linking more years)

Years of the Lamps

"After ages of labour beyond knowledge or reckoning in the great halls of the Valar descended into Arda in the beginning of its being, and they began there their labour fore-ordained for the shaping of its lands and its waters, even from the foundations to the highest towers of the Air."
The Annals of Aman

Years of the Trees Begin

(i) According to the reckoning by the Trees

12 hours (a full flowering of both Trees) = 1 day
1000 days (12,000 hours) = 1 year
100 years = 1 age of the Valar

(ii) Relation of the reckoning by the Trees to the reckoning by the Sun

1 hour of the Trees = 7 hours of our time
1 day of the Trees = (7 x 12) 84 hours of our time
1 year of the Trees = (7 x 12,000) 84,000 hours of our time

There are (365.25 x 24) 8766 hours in a Sun Year, and thus:

1 year of the Trees = (84,000 / 8766) 9.5824777549623545516769336071184 Sun Years

(iii) Original intention of the Valar for the new reckoning by the Sun and Moon

12 hours of moonlight + 12 hours of sunlight = 24 hours = 1 full day
700 times of sunlight and moonlight = 350 full days = 1 Sun Year
1 hour = 1/7 of 1 hour of the Trees

Therefore:

1 Sun Year would have (24 x 350) 8400 hours = (8400 / 7) 1200 hours of the Trees = 1/10 of a Valian Year (see (i) above); thus 1 Valian Year would = 10 Sun Years

The matter can be expressed more concisely thus:

1 year of the Trees = (7 x 12,000) 84,000 hours of our time
84,000 / (350 x 24) 8400 = 10

but

84,000 / (365.25 x 24) 8766 = 9.582

(iv) The dates of the first flowering of the Trees and the first rising of the Moon

The Trees first flowered after 3500 Valian Years had passed, or 33,530 Sun Years. The Moon first rose after 5000 Valian Years had passed, or 47,901 Sun Years. The Trees shone for 1495 Valian Years, or 14,322 Sun Years.

-- The Annals of Aman, Notes

Dates given in Valian Years (9.582 Sun Years)

The First Age

The Second Age

The Third Age

The Fourth Age

References