Middle-Earth Time

I read in one of the Appendix's in the end of The Return of the King something about how long a day, month, and year is compared to our time, but I didn't quite understand it. Can someone help me grasp that concept a little better?

Also, I recently discovered for myself that Tolkien fit his story in to the making of the earth. Such as how it became round and even Atlantis! (I was surprised to read that ) So when did the events in The Silmarillion take place according to our concept of time?

Read it again! understanding takes effort. Also you want to remember Shire Reconning when trying to figure this out. Suffice to say it was a long long time ago.

Time 'in Middle-earth' is not very much different than it is 'here'. It was the reckoning of time and the measuring of it it that by the inhabitants that differed.

The War of the Ring is supposed to have taken place app. 6000 years ago. That was at the end of the Third Age. The first Second and the Third Ages (of the Sun) were about 3000 years long, but the Ages have shortened since then, and we are now in the Seventh. So I suppose you could say the War of the Ring took place app. 4000 B.C.E..

The events in the entire Silmarillion begin with the creation of the Holy Ones, the Ainur, which is before Time, to the end of the Quenta Silmarillion, the end of the First Age, and then with the Akallabeth and much of Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age it covers events until the end of the Second Age, but naturally this latter has much to do with the Third, the Age in which events from the The Lord of the Rings takes place.

Excluding everything but the Quenta Silmarillion, that story goes from Varda's making of the stars and the awakening of the Quendi to the War of Wrath Ages later, in which Morgoth is overthrown. I guess one might say (with increasing variance on the number) that the War of Wrath took place 12000 B.C.E..

Time 'in Middle-earth' is not very much different than it is 'here'.

Here's where I get confused between what you said, Inoldonil, and what the book said.

*pulls out Return of the King, flips to appendix D*

It seems clear that the Eldar in Middle-earth, who had, as Samwise remarked, more time at their disposal, reckoned in long periods, and Quenya word yen, often traslated 'year' (I, 489), really means 144 of our years.

The yen contained 52,596 days.

Yes if you're getting into it that length is true but only for the Eldar. LOTR is primarily concerned with Hobbits and the like and so S.R. is good and that is the same length as our years according to the same appendix. Shire Year 1 corresponded with T.A. 1601. Hobbits not adopting the revised calendar. In Bree it would be the year 1300. There's a whole lot more, but you can see that yourself just by reading. You certainly don't want us to copy the book verbatim do you?

My sentence should have read 'It was the reckoning of time and the measuring of it by the inhabitants that differed.'&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
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What I meant, Xanthyz, is that Time in Tolkien's Middle-earth is measured by its inhabitants, not made thereby. Here it is generally understood (by scientists anyway) that Time is relative. There isn't really a 'Time', we just measure how long it takes Earth to rotate around the sun, etc., etc.,. But in Tolkien's Middle-earth there is a force called Time, it began when Ea was first made amid the Void, but was not measured until the Lamps were forged and filled with light.

Putting aside scientific ideas, the length of what we call a year, or rather, the time it takes for seasons to wax and wane 'here' is the same as it is 'there'. For Middle-earth is not supposed to be another planet, its events take place in our ancient (previously forgotten) past. As Time is a kind of order where things age and progress in Tolkien's Middle-earth, whether Elves measure it differently than we do does not matter. Time is what it is, regardless of whether conceptions differ.

So the days last the same lenght and everything...=)
Gotcha=)
Thanx....

but then what are those quotes i pulles out of appendix ? meaning?

A differing conception, based on the Elves' indefinite longevity.

Elf years, if you will, like dog years, are not the same as ours.

Thus, although an Elf may live for 70 of our years, in the reckoning of the Eldar he/she would be quite young.

OHHHH!!!

So kinda like 1 Human year = 7 dog years....
1 Human year = 144 elf years?

Yeah, well, almost.

1 Elvish year is = to 144 Mannish years, you had it backwards.

Ahhh....got it
thanks

but the Ages have shortened since then, and we are now in the Seventh.

Where are you getting this info??LOL

Is it in a book I can buy or online somewere?

It's in the Tolkien Letters;

*I imagine the gap ['in between the Fall of Barad-dur and our Days'] to be about 6000 years: that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

That's in Letter #211.

Great!
Thanks=)