Cormarë

From Tolkien Gateway
This article is about a festival honoring Frodo Baggins within the legendarium. For the series of books published by Walking Tree Publishers, see Cormarë Series.
Cormarë
Event
Other namesRingday
LocationReunited Kingdom
Date22 September of the Fourth Age
Part ofNew Reckoning calendar
ReferencesThe Return of the King, "Appendix D"

Cormarë (Q.Ringday) was a festival honoring the birthday of Frodo Baggins, destroyer of the One Ring.

History[edit | edit source]

In Aragorn the King Elessar's New Reckoning calendar, 30 Yavannië was made a festival in honor of the Ring-bearer, since it corresponded with Frodo's birthday, 22 September in the Shire Calendar. Except in leap-years 30 Yavannië corresponded with 21 September in the Shire Calendar (due to its Overlithe leap-day at midsummer), so the New Reckoning's leap-day was inserted between Yavannië and its Enderi and Frodo's birthday feast was doubled in leap-years.[1] It's not clear if the last day of the month of Yavannië was still referred to as "30 Yavannië", or if this day, and the leap-day, were simply called Cormarë.

Etymology[edit | edit source]

Cormarë is a Quenya word glossed as "Ringday", apparently being a compound of corma ("ring")[2] and the suffixal form of ("day").[3]

Outside the legendarium[edit | edit source]

22 September is a popular "ceremonial" date for founding Tolkien societies. Unquendor (the Netherlands), Eredain (Switzerland), Imladris (Denmark) and several others were founded on this day. Another ceremonial day is 3 January, the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Among fans, 22 September is also commonly observed as the Hobbit Day.

External links[edit | edit source]

References

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix D, "The Calendars"
  2. Helge Fauskanger, "English-Quenya Wordlist (Quettaparma Quenyanna)", Ardalambion (accessed 25 June 2011)
  3. Paul Strack, "Q. Cormarë pn.", Eldamo (accessed 13 September 2022)