LOTR Time: Timeline of Arda

Lord Malbeth

Lord Malbeth

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OK, for awhile now, I've been trying to create a timeline that matches the LOTR years and histories to our current histories. I've based a lot of this research off of this website HERE. What do you guys think of this...

~13.73 ± 0.12 billion years B.C. - Eru Illuvatar creates the universe, aka Eä
..."Uncounted time" passes...
~4540000000 B.C. - Initial Creation of Arda via the Music of the Ainur
..."Uncounted time" passes...
58073 B.C. - The Building of the World is Complete
39866 B.C. - The Beginning of the Age of the Lamps
24524 B.C. - The Beginning of the Age of the Trees
10160 B.C. - The Beginning of the First Age of the Sun
9564 B.C. - Beginning of the Second Age of the Sun/The Fall of Beleriand
6245 B.C. - The Foundering of Numenor
6123 B.C. - Beginning of the Third Age of the Sun
3102 B.C. - Beginning of the Fourth Age of the Sun
3103 + B.C. - Founding of 'other realms of man' (AKA Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.) Decline of the Megalith kingdoms, (AKA Gondor, Arnor, etc.)

What do ya guys think?
 
I think that far too much was lost during the decline of the Megalith kingdoms.
Seriously, did we really regress to bronze from iron?
 
HaHa, this pseudo-literary history is so very interesting...

dwaxe said:
Seriously, did we really regress to bronze from iron?
Click to expand...

According to Tolkien, I guess we did! :D
 
What sources did you use for Arda's specific timeline?
 
No, we regressed to Stone from Mithril, and then started metallurgy all over again with Copper.
 
Nylan said:
What sources did you use for Arda's specific timeline?
Click to expand...

Well, I based everything off of the sinking of 'Atlantis'... actually the submerging of Beleriand. See here for more info...

For the Arda-specific time-line, I used "A Tolkien Bestiary", "The Return of the King: Appendices", and "The Atlas of Middle-earth".

When it came time to line everything up, I used this website...

According to said website "the last vestige of the once mighty continent of Atlantis sank beneath the waves in 9564 BC. Much later, the Kali Yuga (or Fourth Age of the present World Cycle) began in 3102 BC. These two events, therefore, are separated by 6462 years. Now it turns out that the sinking of Beleriand (not Númenor) is separated from the beginning of the Fourth Age of Middle-earth by precisely the same time span, 6462 years. The maths is simple – Beleriand was destroyed in the final year of the First Age, the Second Age lasted 3441 years, and the Third Age lasted 3020 years (plus a couple of months or so). 1 + 3441 + 3020 = 6462. The chances of Tolkien hitting on this number by accident are astronomical, especially when in both the Middle-earth mythology and Theosophical doctrine this period is opened by the submergence of a huge landmass, and is closed by the beginning of something called the ‘Fourth Age’."

Basically, after that, I just line the two time lines together. :)
 
I am by no means a Tolkien-fan but - did he really mean his stories to take place on our Earth? I guess he never heard about plate tectonics then ;)
 
Winner said:
I am by no means a Tolkien-fan but - did he really mean his stories to take place on our Earth? I guess he never heard about plate tectonics then ;)
Click to expand...

I dunno about you, but I don't remember a time when the world was lit by two giant lanterns. :p
 
Nylan said:
I dunno about you, but I don't remember a time when the world was lit by two giant lanterns. :p
Click to expand...

Gods, I am not asking if it was real :crazyeye:

I am asking if, according to Tolkien, did his stories take place on our world - if there is a continuity between LOTR and our history.
 
Well, Tolkien does explain how the earth became round, and he mentions in The Hobbit how hobbits have been getting smaller and more reclusive so that people nowadays no longer think they are real. LotR however claims hobbits have been getting taller, and that they would interbreed with humanity and lead to men with occasional hobbit traits like hair on their feet.
 
It actually reminds me somewhat of Zelazny's Jack of Shadows, where the daysiders rely on science and technology, and the nightsiders on magic and witchcraft. In Tolkien, to the elves, Arda was still flat and you could sail from middle earth to valinor, and indeed to the edge of the world, but to men (after the ban of the valar and the sinking of numinor), the earth was round. Perception governs reality, and all that.
 
He never said it per se, but it's the basic interpretation of his phrasing of the prologue, particularly when he uses "us" rather than "men", or when he compares the time of the story to a "now", with the first being "long past". He also drew comparisons, in letters, that show the two worlds are the same, although he sometime seemed to hesitate.

But as for plate tectonics, well...his not hearing about it wouldn't be a surprise.

Wegener first formulated a full theory of continental drift in 1912 (there were a few precursors, though). Even then, it remained a fringe theory, for want of a mechanism to explain it (Wegener's proposed mechanism was soon disproven); the mechanism, and the studies backing continental drift, only came forward in the 50s and 60s. Of course, the Lord of the Rings was published 1953-6. and written 1937-50 or so; so Tolkien only finding out about plate tectonics (or at least about them as a mainstream theory) after creating Middle Earth is almost a foregone conclusion.

(He did later become aware of such issues, and it was one of the things that bothered him about the Middle-earth/Earth parallels)
 
Why do you match the sinking of Beleriand with Atlantis?

It should be the destruction of Numenor.

I think you made a small error here:


6123 B.C. - Beginning of the Third Age of the Sun

It should be 6122 B.C. The 21st of May, at 10:34 to be precise. It was raining.

About Tolkien and Earth:

When discussing with friends, he regretted the lack of "mythology" for Western Europe.

You have the norse sagas, the Greek mythology, etc. And so he wanted to "invented" one.

So in theory Tolkien's work could pass for a West European mythology. And regarding mythology, it doesn't need to follow plate tectonics.

I don't think the 9 worlds connected to Yggdrasil in the Norse mythology are completly compliant with plate tectonics either.
 
Steph said:
Why do you match the sinking of Beleriand with Atlantis?

It should be the destruction of Numenor.
Click to expand...

The website I used stated that since Beleriand was a much bigger downfall then Numenor, then it was probably what cause the myth of Atlantis, therefore, the smaller inundation (Numenor), was merged into the former, creating one flood myth. The website also points out that the time between the drowning of Atlantis and the Beginning of the "4th Age" of a Buddhist calender correspond exactly to the sinking of Beleriand and the 4th Age of the Sun, thus, it lines up more accurately. Also, the 4th Age ends sometime near the decline of the Megalithic civilization, which according to the website, is the remains of Gondor.
 
.Shane. said:
Can a mod please move this thread to the history forum?
Click to expand...

Would you really qualify this as history? It is fake after all...
 
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