shire-reckoning
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Shire Reckoning ===============
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Shire Reckoning
The months and days, therefore, throughout The Lord of the Rings refer to the Shire Calendar.
... Mid-year's Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice. In that case the Shire dates were actually in advance of ours by some ten days...
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Appendix D
Contents
- Tolkien's Calendars
- Introduction
- Middle-earth Simulation
- Middle-earth Holidays
- Synchronization Settings
- Shire Reckoning Notes
- Gondor Reckoning Notes
- Rivendell Reckoning Notes
- Rivendell Weekdays
- Rivendell Seasons
- Rivendell Holidays
- Aligning the Calendar of Imladris to the Gregorian calendar
- The Drifting of the Calendar of Imladris through Time
- Why March 22nd?
- Reformed Rivendell Reckoning rules
- Why March 25th?
- For a general reference for converting a date in the Gregorian calendar, in any year, to a date in the Rivendell Reckoning calendar, I recommend using my "Reformed" rules (and choosing a non-leap-year for dates between February 28 and Rivendell New Year's Day).
- References
- Shire Reckoning for Other Calendar Apps
- License
Tolkien's Calendars
The calendars described in The Lord of the Rings Appendix D are the Shire Reckoning of the Hobbits, the Rivendell Reckoning of the Elves, and the 3 calendars of Gondor: Kings' Reckoning, Stewards' Reckoning, and the New Reckoning.
Follow this link for a live demonstration of these calendars.
The following screenshot demonstrates the Shire month of 'April' generated by this project.
More examples of each calendar can be found in the examples directory, along with installation and usage instructions, including instructions for adding these calendars to your own site or app!
- Shire Calendar examples
- Rivendell Calendar examples
- Gondor Calendar examples
- Shire iCalendar and base reckoning function examples
- Shire Reckoning for Google Calendar, Apple's iCal, or other calendar apps!
![[npm version]](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/shire-reckoning.svg?logo=npm)
![[react dependency version]](https://img.shields.io/npm/dependency-version/shire-reckoning/peer/react.svg?logo=react)
Introduction
Have you ever been confused to find the date of February 30 in the timeline of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings? Or have you ever tried reading about the Middle-earth calendars in The Lord of the Rings Appendix D but became bogged down by all the leap-day details and Deficit calculations?
Or are you curious about how the calendars of Middle-earth compare to a modern-day calendar? Or do you simply wish to find your birthday according to the Shire Reckoning of the Hobbits, the Elvish Reckoning of Rivendell, or Aragorn the King Elessar's New Reckoning of the Fourth Age?
Many fans of The Lord of Rings don't realize that Middle-earth is not meant to be in a parallel universe or on a fictional planet like C.S. Lewis' Narnia or George R.R. Martin's Westeros. In one of Tolkien's letters, he said "'Middle-earth' by the way, is not a name of a never-never land without relation to the world we live in... imaginatively this 'history' is supposed to take place in a period of the actual Old World of this planet." Although there are many supernatural beings and events that occur in Middle-earth, the laws of nature that apply to the real Earth should still apply to the world of Middle-earth (at least by the Third Age), which is why Tolkien put so much effort into ensuring things like distances traveled, and the phases of the Moon, were as realistic as possible in The Lord of Rings. As Tolkien put it in another letter, "The Lord of the Rings may be a 'fairy-story', but it takes place in the Northern hemisphere of this earth: miles are miles, days are days, and weather is weather." So it also follows that years are years, seasons are seasons, and solstices are solstices; and by observing the skies of our world, we're also observing the skies of the world of The Lord of Rings! That is also why the Shire Calendar is so similar to the modern Gregorian calendar (the most widely used calendar in modern times), and why they have almost identical leap-year rules.
The primary goal of this Shire Reckoning project is to visualize how the calendars described in The Lord of the Rings Appendix D relate to the Gregorian calendar, but the notes of this project also include some highlights of the lore found in Appendix D.
It's my hope that this project can serve as a reference for fans who are interested in the lore of Appendix D, such as the holidays celebrated in the Fourth Age or how the Middle-earth calendars compare to each other, but who don't want to get bogged down in details such as the Deficit calculations. Although this project also includes detailed notes for anyone who finds the minutiae or math behind the calendars of Middle-earth interesting, plus I've added some of my own insights into the details of these calendars for those who wish to learn more.
I also find it easier to understand the layout of the calendars of Middle-earth visually, rather than just relying on the text descriptions of Appendix D. So I hope I can help some fans get more out of Appendix D with this project as a reference, much like having the visual reference of the map of Middle-earth in the back of the book which helps readers understand the different locations described in the story.
I also hope that this visual reference makes it easier to understand how these calendars worked
by comparing them to the Gregorian calendar that's already familiar to most of us.
So the default Shire Reckoning calendar is displayed according to the reasonable rules suggested by
Shire-reckoning.com
(not affiliated with this project),
where Shire Mid-year's Day
is aligned as much as possible with the contemporary
summer solstice
(which is usually on June 21st),
and it follows the same leap-day rules of the Gregorian calendar.
This allows it to stay in sync with the Gregorian calendar so that most Shire Reckoning dates
will always fall on the same Gregorian date.
The exception being in leap-years, when these calendars will temporarily shift out of sync by 1 day,
starting from the Gregorian leap-day of February 29 until the Shire leap-day of Overlithe in midsummer.
To see this for yourself in the default Shire Calendar on this project's home page,
set the Gregorian Date to June 21 in a leap-year,
then change the year to a non-leap-year (2016 and 2017 for example).
It may be easier to see the differences by viewing the entire calendar year at once,
by selecting the This Year button at the top of the calendar.
Note that Tolkien stated in Appendix D that the Gondor calendars reckoned their dates from sunrise to sunrise, and the Elves reckoned their dates from sunset to sunset, but for simplicity, all the calendars of this project reckon their dates from midnight to midnight, just as our modern Gregorian calendar and the Shire Calendar reckon dates.
By default, these calendars make no attempt to correlate Gregorian years with Shire-reckoning years or the Ages of Middle-earth.
Middle-earth Simulation
As pointed out in the Shire Reckoning notes, the calendars of Gondor and the Shire described in Appendix D had similar yet different leap-year and leap-day rules compared to our Gregorian calendar. So this project also includes a way to reckon Shire and Gondor dates according to the traditional leap-day and leap-year rules as described in Appendix D. This allows me to implement a simulation that can display these calendars according to Shire-reckoning years and the Ages of Middle-earth. Various ways of synchronizing Gregorian years with Shire-reckoning years and the Ages of Middle-earth are also provided.
Follow this link for a live demonstration of these simulations.
Note that those who are only interested in a Shire, Gondor, or Rivendell date conversion for today's date in modern times should simply use the default calendars on this project's home page as a reference. For example, if you simply want to know how a Shire date listed on Tolkien Gateway would convert into a date in this year's calendar, use the default Shire Calendar on this project's home page. If you're more interested in how the different leap-day rules of Appendix D cause dates to shift in each of these calendars relative to each other, or how these calendar rules would shift dates relative to the Gregorian calendar over thousands of years, then you may be more interested in the Middle-earth calendar simulations.
Middle-earth Holidays
If you've spent some time exploring these calendar visualizations, then you may have noticed that each month is displayed with a color appropriate to that month's name or season, but certain days are highlighted with a pale color (different than the yellow highlight marking today's date).
Those highlighted days are considered holidays in those calendars, and most are also days that do not belong to any month.
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
In each calendar, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are holidays. In the Shire Calendar these are called "1 Yule" and "2 Yule", but in all other calendars they are called Mettarë (Last Day) and Yestarë (First Day).
Middle-days and Leap-days
Each calendar also has a set of special holidays in the middle of the year. In the Shire Calendar these are "Mid-year's Day" in midsummer, surrounded by the Lithe days, "1 Lithe" and "2 Lithe"; and in leap-years a leap-day called "Overlithe" follows "Mid-year's Day". In Bree these are known as The Summerdays, although it's unclear to me whether or not Bree also had a "Mid-year's Day", or if that was simply the 2nd Summerday. This project displays a "Mid-year's Day" in both the Shire and Bree calendars.
In the calendars of Gondor, the "Mid-year's Day" in midsummer is called Loëndë, and in leap-years that day is replaced by 2 Enderi (Middle-days), except in Aragorn the King Elessar's New Reckoning, where Loëndë is in autumn and Frodo's birthday is a holiday, and his birthday celebration is doubled in leap-years by having the leap-day also on his birthday, "called Cormarë or Ringday" (see the New Reckoning notes for more details).
The Calendar of Imladris simply has 3 Enderi (Middle-days) in the middle of its year (around the autumnal equinox), and those Enderi are doubled (adding 3 leap-days) every 12 years (with rare exceptions, see the Rivendell Reckoning Notes for more details).
Note that Tolkien only specifically stated that New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the Middle-days ("Mid-year's Day" / Loëndë etc.) were holidays in the Shire and Stewards' Reckoning calendars, and that in the Shire Calendar "the Overlithe was a day of special holiday", but surely these common features in the other Middle-earth calendars would be considered holidays in those calendars as well.
Unique Holidays
Tolkien also described the following holidays specific to certain calendars:
- During the Third Age, the Stewards' Reckoning calendar had a 'Spring-day' (Tuilérë) and an 'Autum-day' (Yáviérë), which were holidays in Gondor in addition to holidays inherited from the Kings' Reckoning: Loëndë (Mid-year's Day), Mettarë (Last Day), and Yestarë (First Day). The Tuilérë, Loëndë, and Yáviérë holidays remind me of the Erukyermë, Erulaitalë, and Eruhantalë holidays of Númenor.
- As mentioned above, the Shire Calendar's New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were called the Yule days, but Appendix D also says that the "Yule-tide" was 6 days in total, including the 2 days before and the 2 days after the Yule days.
- The Silmarillion mentions a festival of Gondolin in the First Age called the "Gates of Summer" which occurred at sunrise on the 1st day of summer (and the ceremonies started the evening before). Although modern western cultures consider the summer solstice to be the 1st day of summer, I think the "Gates of Summer" holiday probably corresponded with the 1st day of "Summer" (Lairë / Laer) in the Calendar of Imladris (a.k.a. the Reckoning of Rivendell).
- The only Dwarvish holiday that I know of is called Durin's Day. In The Hobbit, Thorin says, "The first day of the dwarves' New Year... is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together." Since the Dwarves' New Year depends on the moon at a certain time of year, this implies the Dwarves use a lunar calendar. So this holiday would not occur on any fixed date of any of the solar calendars of this project, though it should usually fall sometime in the Shire month of 'October' (Winterfilth), or possibly in early 'November' (Blotmath). See this Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages blog post and the blog post Tolkien's Legendarium versus Astronomical Reality for even more details.
Fourth Age Holidays
The day of the destruction of the One Ring, Shire 'March' 25, was observed every year since that became New Year's Day (Yestarë) in Aragorn the King Elessar's New Reckoning calendar.
In the Reunited Kingdom they also celebrated Frodo's birthday, Shire 'September' 22, and doubled the celebration in leap-years by having the leap-day also on his birthday, "called Cormarë or Ringday" (see the New Reckoning notes for more details).
Finally, although Shire 'March' 25 and 'September' 22, which fall on the New Reckoning's Yestarë and Cormarë/Yavannië 30, were holidays in King Elessar’s Reunited Kingdom, it appears these dates were not celebrated in the Shire; but I'll quote the end of Appendix D describing these other holidays celebrated in the Shire after the War of the Ring:
There is no record of the Shire-folk commemorating either March 25 or September 22; but in the Westfarthing, especially in the country round Hobbiton Hill, there grew up a custom of making holiday and dancing in the Party Field, when weather permitted, on April 6. Some said that it was old Sam Gardner's birthday, some that it was the day on which the Golden Tree first flowered in 1420, and some that it was the Elves' New Year. In the Buckland the Horn of the Mark was blown at sundown every November 2 and bonfires and feastings followed.
Synchronization Settings
The default calendars on this project's home page include settings for synchronizing these Middle-earth calendars with the modern Gregorian calendar in different ways.
These settings keep the Shire and Gondor calendars in sync with the modern Gregorian calendar, by making them follow the same leap-day rules of the Gregorian calendar, so that most of these calendars' dates will always fall on the same Gregorian dates for each setting. The Rivendell Reckoning settings are slightly different, where most of those settings allow that calendar to follow its traditional leap-year rules, but its leap-years are still kept in sync with the modern Gregorian calendar leap-years.
Note that this is different than the synchronization schemes used by the Middle-earth calendar simulations page. That page keeps the Middle-earth calendars in sync with each other, following all the leap-year rules described in Appendix D as much as possible, but adjusts how our modern Gregorian calendar synchronizes with those Middle-earth calendar simulations.
Shire and Gondor Calendar Synchronization Settings
There is one synchronization setting for the Shire Calendar, but it also controls the settings for the 2 example Gondor calendars displayed below the Shire Calendar (see the Gondor Reckoning Notes for more info on why these calendars are kept in sync).
This means that independently adjusting the Start reckoning from date for one of the Gondor calendar examples
can change the Shire's synchronization setting to or from the Custom Reckoning setting.
Synchronize Mid-year's Day with the modern summer solstice.
This is the default setting used by the Shire and Gondor calendars of this project, and is also the recommended setting for those interested in a Shire or Gondor date conversion for today's date in modern times.
See the Shire Reckoning start dates notes for more info.
Synchronize Shire 'January' 9 with modern New Year's Day.
See the Shire Reckoning start dates notes for more info.
Synchronize Shire New Year's Day with modern Christmas Day.
See the Reckoning with moon phases notes for more info.
Synchronize Mid-year's Day with Southern Hemisphere summer solstice.
This setting synchronizes the Shire Calendar's Mid-year's Day with the December solstice, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere!
This will flip the seasons of the Shire Calendar to match the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere. This setting could be used when visiting the movie locations in New Zealand!
Selecting this setting will automatically set this calendar to display with the original Shire names for months and weekdays, in order to avoid the confusion of having Shire 'June' overlap with modern November and December. The month and weekday name setting can still be readjusted after choosing this synchronization setting.
Rivendell Calendar Synchronization Settings
Synchronize Enderi with "Hobbit Day"
This setting synchronizes the Enderi with "Hobbit Day" (modern September 22, as Tolkien could have intended).
This is the default setting used by the Rivendell Reckoning calendar of this project, and is also the recommended setting for those interested in a Rivendell date conversion for today's date in modern times.
See the Rivendell Reckoning Notes for more info.
Synchronize Yestarë with modern March 25
This setting synchronizes Yestarë with modern March 25, as Tolkien probably intended, but using my "Reformed" rules.
This is the recommended setting for those interested in a Rivendell date conversion for a modern date in any year (and not necessarily a modern date in one specific year).
See the Reformed Rivendell Reckoning rules notes for more info.
Synchronize Yestarë with Shire 'April' 6, "more or less"
This setting synchronizes Yestarë "more or less" with Shire 'April' 6, as Tolkien noted in Appendix D.
This will synchronize the Rivendell Reckoning calendar with the Shire Calendar
the way I think it may have been by the end of the Third Age.
It will adjust the Rivendell Reckoning's Start reckoning from date
relative to the Shire Calendar's current Start reckoning from date
so that Yestarë will fall on Shire 'April' (or Astron) 5, 6, or 7 in modern times
(i.e. "more or less" on Astron 6).
See the notes on Aligning the Calendar of Imladris to the Shire Calendar for more info.
Synchronize with Boris Shapiro's "7th Age" Reckoning
This setting synchronizes the Rivendell Reckoning calendar with Boris Shapiro's "7th Age" Reckoning.
See the Rivendell Reckoning Notes for more info.
Synchronize Enderi with March 25
This setting synchronizes the Enderi with Tolkien Reading Day, March 25, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere!
This will flip the seasons of the Rivendell Reckoning calendar to match the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere. This setting could be used when visiting the movie locations in New Zealand!
Shire Reckoning Notes
In the above notes [of Appendix D], as in the narrative, I have used our modern names for both months and weekdays, though of course neither the Eldar nor the Dúnedain nor the Hobbits actually did so...
All the days, months, and dates are in the Red Book translated into Shire terms, or equated with them in notes. The months and days, therefore, throughout The Lord of the Rings refer to the Shire Calendar.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Appendix D
In other words, as Tolkien "translated" the Red Book of Westmarch into English as The Lord of the Rings, he "translated" (or rather substituted) the Shire names of the months and weekdays with modern Gregorian calendar names, so that Mersday became Thursday, Rethe became March, and Astron became April in the narrative.
This project's visualization can display the Shire Calendar with either the Gregorian names Tolkien used as substitutions, or the original Shire names of the months and weekdays, or the alternate month names used in Bree.
To see the descriptions of the month and weekday names in this visualization, hover your cursor over any day in a month or over a weekday, and a tooltip will display the description of that month or weekday name. These descriptions were compiled from The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, Shire-reckoning.com, and the Wikipedia article on the pre-latin Germanic calendar.
Shire Weekdays
In Appendix D, Tolkien gave the Shire names of the week, along with more archaic names used by the Hobbits before Bilbo's time. The table below lists these Hobbit names, along with the Old English origins given by the Reader's Companion, and the Gregorian names Tolkien used as substitutions.
This table starts with Sterday and ends with Highday because of this statement made by Tolkien in Appendix D:
The last day of the week, Friday (Highday), was the chief day, and one of holiday (after noon) and evening feasts.
So culturally speaking, Highday "more nearly" corresponded with Gregorian Sunday, and Mersday with Gregorian Saturday, making Mersday and Highday like the weekend for the Shire.
| |Shire|Tolkien|Description| |---|-----|-------|-----------| |⭐|Sterday|Saturday|Star Day. From the archaic Sterrendei (from Old English steorra dæg).| |☀️|Sunday|Sunday|Sun Day. From the archaic Sunnendei (from Old English sunne dæg).| |🌙|Monday|Monday|Moon Day. From the archaic Monendei (from Old English mōna dæg).| |🌳|Trewsday|Tuesday|Trees Day. From the archaic Trewesdei (from Old English trēow dæg).| |🌌|Hevensday|Wednesday|Heavens Day. From the archaic Hevensdei (from Old English heofen dæg).| |🌊|Mersday|Thursday|Sea Day. From the archaic Meresdei (from Old English mere dæg).| |🏔|Highday|Friday|High Day. From the archaic Hihdei (from Old English hēah dæg).|
Shire Months
| |Shire|Bree|Tolkien|Description| |---|-----|----|-------|-----------| |🌄|Afteryule|Frery|January|The month after the winter solstice (Midwinter), from æfter Gēola 'after Winter Solstice', and from frēorig 'freezing, frigid'.| |🌧|Solmath|Solmath|February|From Solmōnað, perhaps from the Old English word for mud, 'sol'.| |🌬|Rethe|Rethe|March|From Hrēðmōnað 'glory-month'. Month of the Goddess Hrēþ or Hretha, according to the Venerable Bede. Or perhaps 'Storm-month' according to Dr. Eleanor Parker's reading of Tolkien's notes in Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.| |🌱|Astron|Chithing|April|From Ēastermōnað 'Easter-month', named after the Goddess Ēostre, and from cīþing 'growing thing' (cīþ 'young shoot, sprout').| |🌼|Thrimidge|Thrimidge|May|The month of plenty, when cows were given three milkings (þri-milce) daily.| |☀️|Forelithe|Lithe|June|The month before the summer solstice (Midsummer), when 'litha' (gentle or navigable) weather encouraged voyages. From ǣrra Līða 'before Litha'.| |🍃|Afterlithe|Mede|July|The month after the summer solstice (Midsummer), from æfter Līða, and from mǣd 'mead, meadow'.| |🌿|Wedmath|Wedmath|August|When fields were beset by weeds, from Wēodmōnað 'weed-month'.| |🍇|Halimath|Harvestmath|September|The holy month of offerings, from Hāligmōnað 'holy-month', and from Hærfestmōnað 'harvest-month'.| |🍂|Winterfilth|Wintring|October|The filling of winter's first full moon, according to the Venerable Bede. Tolkien instead suggests the "filling" or completion of the year before Winter, after the harvest. From Winterfylleð 'winter fullness', and wintrig 'wintry, winter'.| |🌫|Blotmath|Blooting|November|From Blōtmōnað 'sacrifice-month'.| |❄️|Foreyule|Yulemath|December|The month before the winter solstice (Midwinter), from ǣrra Gēola 'before Winter Solstice', and from Gēolamōnað 'Yule-month'.|
Shire Holidays
|Name|Description| |----|-----------| |2 Yule|New Year's Day| |1 Lithe|Midsummer's Eve| |Midyear's Day|Midsummer Day| |Overlithe|Shire Leap Day| |2 Lithe|Day after Midsummer| |1 Yule|New Year's Eve|
See the section on Middle-earth Holidays for more detailed descriptions of these holidays.
Layout of days and weeks
The individual month views of the calendars in this project can switch
between a Vertical layout and a more familiar Horizontal layout.
The Horizontal layout is what you see in any modern Gregorian calendar,
where the dates advance within each row from left to right,
and the weeks advance from top to bottom.
The Vertical layout might look odd at first,
with the dates starting at the top of the left column and advancing vertically down the column,
then continuing the next week in the next column (again counting dates from top to bottom),
but this is the Vertical layout Tolkien used in his example Shire Calendar at the beginning of Appendix D.
Shire-reform
The Shire-folk introduced one small innovation of their own (eventually also adopted in Bree), which they called Shire-reform. They found the shifting of the weekday names in relation to dates from year to year untidy and inconvenient.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Appendix D
Once Shire-reform was enacted (before Bilbo's time), every year of the Shire Calendar always started on the first day of the week and always ended on the last day of the week, by not assigning a day of the week to Mid-year's Day or the Overlithe.
That means all other days in the Shire Calendar will always fall on the same day of the week year after year. So "1 Yule" is always on a Highday, "2 Yule" is always on a Sterday, and Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday is always on a Mersday in every year!
This project borrows the layout of the Shire-reckoning.com calendar which shows Mid-year's Day and the Overlithe sharing a cell with the other Lithe days, because I also found it tidy to display these days-without-a-weekday in this manner. Just keep in mind that only "1 Lithe" was considered to be on a Highday (but not Mid-year's Day), and only "2 Lithe" was on a Sterday (but not Overlithe).
Reckoning start dates
This visualization reckons the start of the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 21 by default, in order to align Shire Mid-year's Day as much as possible with the contemporary summer solstice (see Shire-reckoning.com), which is usually on June 21st (in our lifetimes).
The Shire Calendar on this project's home page includes a control that allows the Shire Calendar to start reckoning its year from different days in December, since Tolkien did not specifically state when we should observe Shire New Year's Day in modern times. He only directly compared the Shire Calendar with real-world years in one passage of Appendix D, (and all other calendars in Appendix D are only compared with the Shire Calendar):
It appears, however, that Mid-year’s Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice. In that case the Shire dates were actually in advance of ours by some ten days, and our New Year's Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9.
So Tolkien only gave us 2 direct comparisons of the Shire Calendar with a real-world year:
- "Mid-year’s Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice."
- "our New Year's Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9."
Although these statements are somewhat vague, some will see the 2nd comparison and choose to always observe the Shire New Year's Day on our December 23, since reckoning the start of the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 23 allows our January 1 to fall on Shire 'January' 9 (Afteryule 9); but as a consequence, Mid-year’s Day will fall on Gregorian June 23, or June 22 in leap-years (to see this for yourself, set the Shire Calendar to start reckoning from December 23).
This may be acceptable for those that are interested in observing the traditional New Year's Day of the Shire Calendar.
This project reckons the start of the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 21 by default, because I'm placing more importance on the 1st comparison.
Shire, Gondor, and Gregorian intercalation differences
I think Tolkien was vague with these statements because he had in mind the differences in the leap-year rules (or intercalations) between the Shire and our Gregorian calendars. The Shire Calendar originated from the Kings' Reckoning calendar of Arnor and Gondor, and both the Kings' and Shire Reckoning followed leap-year rules similar to the Gregorian calendar, where every 4th year is a leap-year except the last in a century; however, the Gregorian calendar adds back the leap-day every 4th century whereas the Kings' Reckoning adds 2 extra leap-days every millennium.
So maybe he said "more or less to the Shire January 9" because he knows every 400 years that date would shift by 1 day; and if the Shire Calendar had millennial leap-days like the Gondor calendars, then it would shift back 2 days the other way every 1000 years. So even if the Gondor and Shire Calendars' New Year's Day started out on a Gregorian December 23, after 400 years they would correspond with December 22, then 400 years after that December 21, but they could re-sync with December 23 after the millennial leap-days are added 200 years after that. Eventually these differences would add up, and after only 2000 years the calendars would permanently shift 1 day off from where they started (or by 5 days with no "millennial additions"). So for example, if the Shire Calendar started reckoning from a proleptic Gregorian December 23 in 1 A.D., then its New Year's Day would end up on our December 22 for a few centuries after the year 2000, or without Gondor's "millennial additions" in the years 1000 and 2000, it would now fall on Gregorian December 18 instead.
Adopting Shire Reckoning to modern times
If we don't want to observe the Shire Calendar with these traditional leap-year rules, and we adopt it to our Gregorian leap-year rules (in order to keep the calendars always in sync), then I think we also get to choose to start its reckoning from December 21 so that it fits the seasons the way it was originally intended.
Also note that in Tolkien's letter #211, he estimated the events of The Lord of the Rings could have occurred approximately 6000 years ago, and around that time (and throughout much of antiquity) the summer solstice did generally occur on the proleptic Gregorian June 23. So reckoning the start of the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 23 may have kept Mid-year’s Day in sync with the June 23 solstice in ancient times, but reckoning from Gregorian December 21 in modern times will keep Mid-year’s Day in sync "as nearly as possible" with the modern summer solstice.
I'll also point out that some prefer to start reckoning the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 22, which will keep Mid-year’s Day in sync with June 22. I'm assuming that's because the summer solstice usually fell on June 22nd during the first half of the 20th century, when Tolkien was writing this material, but June 21st is the more common date in the centuries around the year 2000.
Finally I'll point out that the similar leap-year rules between these calendars (especially with Gondor's millennial leap-days) means these calendars will track the seasons in a similar way.
In fact, the entire purpose behind the Gregorian reform of the classical Julian calendar was to keep it more in sync with the spring equinox, so that the date of Easter is more in sync with traditional Easter dates. Of course it's not perfectly in sync, which is why the spring equinox can fall anywhere from the Gregorian March 19th to the 21st. Apparently, the calendars of Gondor and the Shire had similar leap-year rules (if including Gondor's millennial leap-days) in order for their Mid-year’s Day "to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice". Tolkien also mentioned in his letter #176 that the calendar of Gondor was a bit more accurate than the modern Gregorian calendar in tracking the solar year.
Reckoning with moon phases
The Shire Calendar on this project's home page allows the calendar to start reckoning from days up to Gregorian December 25, since it is demonstrated in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion that Tolkien used the actual moon phases of 1941-1942 as a reference for the moon phases described in The Lord of the Rings, but these moon phases only align with the dates in the narrative if those Shire Calendar dates start reckoning their year from December 25 in 1940 and 1941. Note this annotation from The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion referring to its chart demonstrating this alignment:
N.B. the chart in 'Chronologies, Calendars, and Moon' earlier in the present volume is concerned only with Tolkien's method of adjusting the lunar calendar for 1941-2 to his changing ideas within the narrative. It has no relation to the correspondences discussed in Appendix D.
- It has not escaped my attention that the proleptic Gregorian December 23 would have corresponded to the classical Julian December 25 from 45 B.C. (when the Julian calendar was enacted) until 100 A.D., but I can only speculate that this may have something to do with Tolkien's alignment of the Shire New Year's Day with December 25 in 1940 and 1941 for his moon phase chart, and yet he aligned Shire New Year's Day to December 23 in Appendix D when he stated "our New Year's Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9."
- Since moon phases repeat on approximately the same dates every 19 years, then these 1941-2 moon phases repeated on most of these same "adjusted" dates in 2017-18. Although reckoning the start of the Shire Calendar year back 1 more day (from Gregorian December 24) in 2017 allowed the full moons of Afteryule (just before the Fellowship reaches Moria) and Rethe (just before the destruction of the One Ring) to fall on the correct days.
- If reckoning the start of the Shire Calendar year from Gregorian December 21, then the moon phases of 2020-21 will match the Shire Reckoning dates of the narrative instead (and a bit better).
The Lord of the Rings Lunar Readalong
In 2017-18, I attempted to re-read The Lord of the Rings in chronological order, and also aligned with the moon phases in those years. It actually was not too difficult with the help of The Lord of the Rings Appendix B, the Reader's Companion, and this project's Middle-earth calendar simulations.
I also repeated this Readalong for the (better fitting) 2020-21 moon phases, and this time I published blog posts on the dates when the moon is mentioned in the story, with Stellarium simulations of exactly what the moon should have looked like (using the moon phases of 1941-42).
I present the breakdown of each date's reading by page number, including snippets of passages from the story where each date begins or ends, along with some of my own real-world observations of the moon phases, and with links to the related blog posts, on the The Lord of the Rings Lunar Readalong project page.
What if our years began at the same seasonal point?
Tolkien also made a brief comparison of our calendar with the Shire calendar "if our years began at the same seasonal point"; that is, if the Shire and our New Year's Day fell on the same day. So I've included an example of this hypothetical alignment in the Shire Calendar examples, and also in the Gondor Calendar examples.
Gondor Reckoning Notes
Since the Shire Calendar originated from the Kings' Reckoning, and in order to keep these calendars in sync with each other as Tolkien implied in The Lord of the Rings Appendix D, the calendars of Gondor in this project will also follow the Gregorian leap-day rules by default, so that they will always stay in sync with this project's Shire Reckoning calendar.
These calendars actually had very similar, but slightly different leap-day rules compared to the Gregorian calendar's leap-day rules, as described above in the Shire Reckoning notes and on "The Kings' Reckoning Rules and the Deficit" page.
The 3 Calendars of Gondor
The calendar of Gondor went through 3 variations throughout its history:
Kings' Reckoning: The Kings' Reckoning was established in Númenor and was "used in Númenor, and in Arnor and Gondor until the end of the kings". This was the calendar that was in use for the longest period of time in Middle-earth (with the likely exception of the Calendar of Imladris). It "was ultimately of Eldarin origin", and had a 6-day week like the Elvish calendar of the Eldar, but at some point the Númenóreans added a 7th weekday called "Sea-day" / Eärenya / Oraearon (so I'm guessing it could have been added during the reign of Tar-Aldarion). The Kings' Reckoning was used in Númenor until the Downfall in Second Age (S.A.) 3319, and starting no later than S.A. 1000 under the reign of Tar-Aldarion, since Appendix D implies that the first of the Kings' Reckoning "millennial additions" to account for the Deficit was made on time in S.A. 1000. I wouldn't be surprised if Tar-Aldarion's father, Tar-Meneldur, decreed that the "millennial additions" be added to the rules of the Kings' Reckoning, since he was also known as Elentirmo ("Star-watcher") and "built a tall tower, from which he could observe the motions of the stars" (Unfinished Tales, Part 2 Ch.1, "A Description of the Island of Númenor"). So he may have been the first Númenórean king to become concerned that the calendar was falling out of sync with astronomical events like the summer solstice, and decided to correct this Deficit. It's also possible that the Kings' Reckoning was already established (with or without the "millennial additions") and in use for the entire history of Númenor, starting in S.A. 32. In fact, the first chapter of Unfinished Tales implies it was already in use, in some form, by the Edain of the First Age. The Kings' Reckoning continued in Gondor for the remainder of the Second Age after the Downfall of Númenor, and up to the Third Age (T.A.) 2059. It's also possible that it was still observed by the Dúnedain of the North until the end of the Third Age (see the New Reckoning notes below).
Stewards' Reckoning: The Stewards' Reckoning was established in the time of Mardil, the first Ruling Steward of Gondor, and replaced the Kings' Reckoning in T.A. 2060. It was only a minor modification of the Kings' Reckoning that added the days "Tuilérë" (Spring-day) and "Yáviérë" (Autumn-day) and shortened the two 31-day months in summer to 30 days each. It seems to me like these new Tuilérë and Yáviérë days could have been in honor (or a reflection) of the holidays of Númenor for Erukyermë and Eruhantalë.
New Reckoning: The New Reckoning was introduced by Aragorn the King Elessar and started its reckoning from the day the One Ring was destroyed, T.A. 3019 'March' (Rethe/Súlimë) 25, which became its New Year's Day (Yestarë).
When Sam awoke by the Field of Cormallen after the destruction of the One Ring, he asked what day it was, and Gandalf replied:
"The fourteenth of the New Year... or if you like, the eighth day of April in the Shire-reckoning. But in Gondor the New Year will always now begin upon the twenty-fifth of March when Sauron fell, and when you were brought out of the fire to the King..."
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, "The Field of Cormallen"
One might assume then that Shire 'April' (Astron) 8 was equivalent to 'April' (Víressë) 14 in the New Reckoning, but what Gandalf was saying was that it was the 14th day of the year, and not the 14th day of that month in the New Reckoning. This is the same as saying that February 1 in the Gregorian calendar is the 32nd day of the modern year.
Although Tolkien did not explicitly detail it in Appendix D, it works out that the New Year's Eve (Mettarë) and New Year's Day (Yestarë) of the Kings' / Stewards' Reckoning were moved from midwinter and aligned with Shire 'March' (Rethe) 24 and 25 for the New Reckoning, and the start of each month was shifted back by a few days to align the calendar with this new Yestarë.
The New Reckoning also removed the Stewards' Spring-day and Autumn-day, and Tolkien did state that the Mid-year's Day (Loëndë) was moved to autumn, along with 2 Middle-days (Enderi), which immediately followed the month of Yavannië.
In fact, Tolkien's statement in Appendix D, that the New Reckoning's Yavannië 30 aligned with Shire 'September' (Halimath) 22, only works out if Víressë 1 in the New Reckoning aligned with Shire 'March' (Rethe) 26, so it must have had a Yestarë outside of Víressë that aligned with Shire 'March' (Rethe) 25.
But in honour of Frodo Yavannië 30, which corresponded with former September 22, his birthday, was made a festival, and the leap-year was provided for by doubling this feast, called Cormarë or Ringday.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Appendix D
In other words, Yavannië 30 of the New Reckoning calendar falls on Frodo's birthday, Shire 'September' (Halimath) 22, except in leap-years when Yavannië 30 falls on Halimath 21 due to the Shire Calendar's leap-day in summer (Overlithe). So the New Reckoning calendar adds its leap-day, Cormarë (Ringday), between Yavannië 30 and its Middle-days. This way Yavannië 30 is a festival in every year, but in leap-years Cormarë falls on Frodo's actual birthday, and his birthday celebrations are doubled!
Since Shire "March 25" in T.A. 3019 was the same day as "March 25 in both Kings' and Stewards' Reckoning", then "former September 22" in this quote might be a reference to the Shire Calendar; because if the New Reckoning New Year's Day was the same day as Stewards' Reckoning "March 25" as well, then the New Reckoning Yavannië 30 and Shire "September 22" would have fallen on Stewards' Reckoning "September 23". However, it seems odd to refer to a date in the Shire Calendar as the "former September 22", since Shire Reckoning was still in use by the Hobbits in the Fourth Age, but never in use in Gondor or anywhere else the New Reckoning became the common calendar. So the "former September 22" may in fact be a reference to the Kings' Reckoning "September 22", which would have fallen on the same day as Shire "September 22" if "March 25" fell on the same day in both calendars. If "former September 22" is a reference to the Kings' Reckoning, then that may imply that Aragorn and the Dúnedain of the North never adopted the Stewards' Reckoning and continued observing the Kings' Reckoning throughout the Third Age. Another hint that Aragorn and the Dúnedain of the North continued observing the Kings' Reckoning, up until the New Reckoning was enacted at least, may be found in the implication that Aragorn intentionally chose former May 1 as his coronation date in T.A. 3019.
As mentioned in the notes on Fourth Age Holidays, Shire Rethe 25 and Halimath 22, which fall on the New Reckoning's Yestarë and Cormarë/Yavannië 30, apparently were not celebrated in the Shire.
Gondor Weekdays
This project assumes Tolkien's statements in Appendix D about the Shire's weekdays also apply to Gondor's weekdays.
Since Shire weekday names originated from Kings' Reckoning weekday names, I assumed the same cultural correlation in Gondor, so these Gondorian calendars also correlate their weekdays similarly with Gregorian weekdays.
In other words, I'm assuming Eärenya and Valanya was the weekend in Gondor just as Mersday and Highday was the weekend in the Shire.
| |Quenya|Sindarin|English| |---|------|--------|-------| |⭐|Elenya|Orgilion|Stars Day| |☀️|Anarya|Oranor|Sun Day| |🌙|Isilya|Orithil|Moon Day| |🌳|Aldëa|Orgaladh|White Tree's Day| |🌌|Menelya|Ormenel|Heavens Day| |🌊|Eärenya|Oraearon|Sea Day| |🏔|Valanya or Tárion|Orbelain or Rodyn|Valar or Powers Day|
Gondor Months
| |Quenya|Sindarin|English| |---|------|--------|-------| |🌄|Narvinyë|Narwain|New Sun| |🌧|Nénimë|Nínui|Wet Month| |🌬|Súlimë|Gwaeron|Windy Month| |🌱|Víressë|Gwirith|Budding Month*| |🌼|Lótessë|Lothron|Flower Month| |☀️|Nárië|Nórui|Sunny Month| |🍃|Cermië|Cerveth|Reaping Month*| |🌿|Urimë|Urui|Hot Month| |🍇|Yavannië|Ivanneth|Fruit Giving Month| |🍂|Narquelië|Narbeleth|Sun Waning| |🌫|Hísimë|Hithui|Misty Month| |❄️|Ringarë|Girithron|Cold Month|
* Most of these English translations are literal translations, except for "budding" and "reaping". Víressë is related to the Quenya word for "freshness" or "youth". The meaning of the root word for Cermië is not so clear. David Salo states, regarding Cerveth in his 2004 book A Gateway to Sindarin, that "the meaning of the root is unknown and cannot be guessed". Jim Allen's 1978 An Introduction to Elvish states this relation:
certa 'cut character' (see Cermië 'Harvest, i.e., Cutting')
Jim Allen also points out that the names of most of the months in this calendar are similar to the names of the months in the French Republican Calendar (which in turn were based on earlier unrecorded Germanic month names). According to the Wikipedia article for the French Republican Calendar, the month starting near the end of June (which corresponds with Cermië) is named 'Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest")'. This article also notes that the Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle suggested that an English name for Messidor could be Reapidor (in his 1837 work The French Revolution: A History). Carlyle also suggested Buddal for the French Republican month Germinal, which corresponds with the month of Víressë.
So for the English translations of Víressë / Gwirith and Cermië / Cerveth, I have adopted "Budding" and "Reaping", which are similar to Carlyle's English alternatives for the corresponding French Republican Calendar months.
Gondor Holidays
|Quenya|Sindarin*|English|Description| |------|--------|-------|-----------| |Yestarë|Iestor|First Day|New Year's Day| |Enderë|Enedhor|Middleday|| |Mettarë|Methor|Last Day|New Year's Eve| |Loëndë|Lawenedh|Midyear's Day|Midsummer Day (except in the New Reckoning)| |Tuilérë|Ethuilor|Spring-day|Stewards' Midspring Day| |Yáviérë|Iavassor|Autumn-day|Stewards' Midautumn Day| |Cormarë|Corvor|Ringday|Ring-bearer's Day|
* Note: Tolkien did not give the Sindarin words for these holidays in Appendix D. These translations from the Quenya were provided by Sindarin expert /u/Elaran in the /r/sindarin subreddit.
Tuilérë and Yáviérë were specific to the Stewards' Reckoning, and Cormarë was specific to the New Reckoning.
See the section on Middle-earth Holidays for more detailed descriptions of these holidays.
Rivendell Reckoning Notes
Rivendell Weekdays
| |Quenya|Sindarin|English| |---|------|--------|-------| |⭐|Elenya|Orgilion|Stars Day| |☀️|Anarya|Oranor|Sun Day| |🌙|Isilya|Orithil|Moon Day| |🌳|Aldúya|Orgaladhad|Two Trees Day| |🌌|Menelya|Ormenel|Heavens Day| |🏔|Valanya or Tárion|Orbelain or Rodyn|Valar or Powers Day|
Rivendell Seasons
| |Quenya|Sindarin|English| |---|------|--------|-------| |🌼|Tuilë|Ethuil|Spring| |☀️|Lairë|Laer|Summer| |🍇|Yávië|Iavas|Autumn| |🍂|Quellë|Firith|Fading| |❄️|Hrívë|Rhîw|Winter| |🌱|Coirë|Echuir|Stirring|
Rivendell Holidays
|Quenya|Sindarin*|English|Description| |------|--------|-------|-----------| |Yestarë|Iestor|First Day|New Year's Day| |Enderë|Enedhor|Middleday|| |Mettarë|Methor|Last Day|New Year's Eve|
* Note: Tolkien did not give the Sindarin words for these holidays in Appendix D. These translations from the Quenya were provided by Sindarin expert /u/Elaran in the /r/sindarin subreddit.
See the section on Middle-earth Holidays for more detailed descriptions of these holidays.
Aligning the Calendar of Imladris to the Gregorian calendar
- For a general reference for converting a date in the modern Gregorian calendar, in any year, to a date in the Rivendell Reckoning calendar, I recommend using my Reformed Rivendell Reckoning rules (and choosing a non-leap-year for dates between February 28 and Rivendell New Year's Day).
Since the Rivendell Reckoning calendar (also known as the Calendar of Imladris) described by Tolkien has very different leap-day rules than the Gregorian calendar, then by default, the Calendar of Imladris in this project will follow its traditional rules where every year has 365 days, except every 12th year is a leap-year, which adds 3 extra days in the middle of the year, however every 432nd year is not a leap-year. Compare these rules to the Gregorian calendar, where every year has 365 days, except every 4th year is a leap-year, which adds 1 leap-day, except the last year in a century is not a leap-year, however every 4th century is a leap-year.
In other words, both calendars average 1 leap-day every 4 years (which is the same average as 3 leap-days every 12 years), but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap-days every 400 years (once a century except every 4th century), whereas the Calendar of Imladris omits 3 leap-days every 432 years.
These leap-day rules are close enough that these calendars will stay in sync with each other for a few centuries, but due to the differences, these calendars would not stay in sync with each other over longer periods of time. Approximately every 1700 years, the 432-year cycle of the Calendar of Imladris will drift a day ahead of the Gregorian calendar's 400-year cycle, and gradually, over the millennia, the dates of the Calendar of Imladris will fall on later and later dates in the Gregorian calendar.
I chose March 22nd as the default starting date of this Calendar of Imladris, and its first year starts reckoning (or starts re-reckoning by some imagined mechanism) on year 1 of the proleptic Gregorian calendar, in order to keep its leap-years in sync with our Gregorian leap-years (to make it easier to compare how the Calendar of Imladris relates to our Gregorian calendar). In other words, this calendar starts reckoning on March 22nd, 1 A.D. of the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
The Drifting of the Calendar of Imladris through Time
For a detailed description on how the Calendar of Imladris drifts apart from the Gregorian calendar, please see the project page titled The Drifting of the Calendar of Imladris through Time.
This page also includes a detailed description on how the Calendar of Imladris drifts apart from the Shire Calendar, and notes on aligning the Calendar of Imladris to the Shire Calendar around the end of the Third Age.
Why March 22nd?
Starting this calendar from Gregorian March 22 with its traditional rules allows September 22 during our lifetimes (the usual date of the contemporary autumnal equinox; and the date also known as Hobbit Day) to always fall on one of the 3 Middle-days (Enderi) from about 1900 until 2100, and also allows Rivendell New Year's Day (Yestarë) to re-sync with March 25 for a few years following one of its leap-years during these centuries.
Unfortunately, Tolkien never stated in the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings when the Calendar of Imladris was established or from what date it started reckoning, so we don't have a "canon" first day to use for our reckoning in modern times.
Tolkien provided many thorough details about his calendars in Appendix D, but he only provided a few (sometimes vague) details of how each calendar related to one another, and as mentioned earlier, only the Shire Calendar was compared to the Gregorian calendar, which complicates attempts to observe these calendars in modern times. Perhaps he was intentionally vague on some of these details, as indicated by his letter #268. The following excerpt is referring to the fate of Shadowfax at the end of the story, but I think it also applies to Appendix D:
I feel it is better not to state everything (and indeed it is more realistic, since in chronicles and accounts of 'real' history, many facts that some enquirer would like to know are omitted, and the truth has to be discovered or guessed from such evidence as there is).
-- J.R.R. Tolkien's le