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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Jan 29 2015, 5:06pm
Post #1 of 1
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Converting Shire-dates into modern-era dates
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Between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, we get several solid dates for events taking place during the Quest of Erebor. Thorin and Company leave Bag End on the morning of April 27; Lord Elrond examines Thror's map on Midsummer's Eve; the Company arrives in Lake-town on September 22 (Bilbo Baggins' birthday). However, Professor Tolkien tells us that those dates do not align precisely with the Gregorian calendar of the modern world. So what to do if you want to find out when Midsummer was on our modern calendar? When should we correctly observe the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo? Tolkien gives us some clues.
In LotR Appendix D ("The Calendars") Tolkien provided a couple of keys for converting Shire-dates. He informs us that Midsummer and Midyear's Day were observed on the same day, which was meant to coincide as closely as possible with the summer solstice. This suggests that Midyear's Day should fall on June 21 on our Gregorian calendar. Tolkien states, "The Shire dates were actually in advance of ours by some ten days" and goes on to note that "our New Year's Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9."
Unfortunately, the two statements above are seemingly contradictory. If we equate our June 21 with Midyear's Day then our New Year's Day would fall on January 11 in Shire Reckoning, two days later than Tolkien predicted. Do we account for the difference as the accumulation of missing time due to inaccuracies in the hobbits' calendar? Or do we ignore the January 9 estimate as a simple mistake on Tolkien's part? Given the context of the pair of statements, I propose the latter. We should adopt equating Mid-year's Day with the summer solstice as our standard for conversions. With all this in mind, I suggest adopting the following table:
CONVERSION OF SHIRE RECKONING TO THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
Afteryule = December 22 to January 20
Solmath = January 21 to February 19
Rethe = February 20 to March 21*
Astron = March 22* to April 20*
Thrimidge = April 21* to May 20*
Forelithe = May 21* to June 19*
1 Lithe (Midsummer Eve) = June 20*
Midyear's Day = June 21*
Overlithe = June 21 (only on leap years)**
2 Lithe = June 22
Afterlithe = June 23 to July 22
Wedmath = July 23 to August 21
Halimath = August 22 to September 20
Winterfilth = September 21 to October 20
Blotmath = October 21 to November 19
Foreyule = November 20 to December 19
1 Yule = December 20
2 Yule = December 21
* minus one day on leap years with the exception of years at the end of a century. However neither TA 2941 nor 2942 were leap years (example leap years: TA 2940; 2944; 3004; 3016).
** Overlithe would have been skipped in years that ended a century (such as TA 2900 or 3000).
Using the above table, we learn that Thorin Oakenshield met Gandalf the Grey in (or near) Bree on March 6* **. Gandalf was "good-morninged" by Bilbo on April 15* and the Unexpected Party fell on April 17*. It was June 20* when Lord Elrond discovered the moon-letters on Thror's map on Midsummer Eve. Thorin and Company arrived at Esgaroth on September 12 (happy birthday, Bilbo and Frodo!).
Conversion of other significant Shire-dates:
- 1 Rethe (Aragorn's birthday) = February 20*.
- 23 Halimath (Frodo leaves Bag End) = September 13.
- 6 Winterfilth (Frodo is wounded on Weathertop) = September 26.
- 20 Winterfilth (Frodo crosses the Ford of Bruinen) = October 10.
- 25 Winterfilth (the Council of Elrond) = October 15.
- 25 Foreyule (the Company of the Ring leaves Rivendell) = December 14.
- 25 Rethe (Destruction of the One Ring and passing of Sauron) = March 16*.
None of this answers the riddle of the disappearance of Thrain II. Gandalf says to Thorin, "...Thrain your father went away on the twenty-first of April, a hundred years ago last Thursday, and has never been seen by you since--". In Shire Reckoning, April 21 always falls on a Friday. Did Gandalf make a mistake? Or was he perhaps using the Dwarven calendar (since he was speaking to Thorin) of which we no little?
* One day earlier in the Peter Jackson films, where the Quest of Erebor would have taken place in TA 2940, a leap year.
** Thorin's encounter with Gandalf would have been sometime during the previous July in Jackson's movie-verse.
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(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Jan 29 2015, 5:11pm)
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