When Did the Third Age End in Our Calendar?

Q: When Did the Third Age End in Our Calendar?

ANSWER: On October 14, 1958 J.R.R. Tolkien sent a very long letter to Rhona Beare, in which he answered many of her questions about The Lord of the Rings and Middle-earth. This letter, denoted as Letter No. 211 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, has been much cited and debated through the decades by Tolkien scholars and fans for many different reasons. The dating of the Ages of the Sun in our calendar system is one of those reasons. In the letter, Tolkien wrote:

May I say that all this is ‘mythical’, and not any kind of new religion or vision. As far as I know it is merely an imaginative invention, to express, in the only way I can, some of my (dim) apprehensions of the world. All I can say is that, if it were ‘history’, it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or ‘cultures’) into such evidence as we possess, archaeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire, for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region (I p. 12).6 I could have fitted things in with greater versimilitude, if the story had not become too far developed, before the question ever occurred to me. I doubt if there would have been much gain; and I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap^* in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for ‘literary credibility’, even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of ‘pre-history’.

I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in ‘space’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-earth is (by the way & if such a note is necessary) not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration (N[ew] E[nglish] Dictionary] ‘a perversion’) of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the oikoumenē: middle because thought of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between ice of the North and the fire of the South. O.English middan-geard, mediaeval E. middenerd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet!

It is in a footnote denoted by the asterisk after “gap” in the first paragraph I cite above that Tolkien writes:

^* I imagine the gap 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.

If the Third Age ended about 6,000 years prior to 1958, that would mean it ended around the year 4042 BCE in our modern western calendar.

According to an early draft of material dropped out of the appendix for The Lord of the Rings the Fourth Age would have lasted about 2500 years (actually, “one hundred generations of men”). How long is a “generation”? Many old sources typically placed it at about 25 years. In Judaic tradition a generation lasts 40 years but to apply that definition to Tolkien’s statement, in light of the letter he wrote 7-8 years later, would be inconsistent with his idea of shortened lengths for the various ages.

Calculating The “Ages of the Sun” In Our Calendar

On the basis of this data we can assign the following correlations (with no real authority for doing so):

• First Age of the Sun: 11,094 BCE – 10,504 BCE (13,107 years ago to 12,517 years ago)
• Second Age of the Sun: 10,504 BCE – 7,063 BCE (12,517 years ago to 9,076 years ago)
• Third Age of the Sun: 7,063 BCE – 4,042 BCE (9,076 years ago to 6,055 years ago)
• Fourth Age of the Sun: 4,042 BCE – 1,542 BCE (6,055 years ago to 3,555 years ago)
• Fifth Age of the Sun: 1,542 BCE – ? (3,555 years ago to ?)
• Sixth Age of the Sun: – 1945 CE (? years ago to 68 years ago)
• Seventh Age of the Sun: 1945 CE

Conclusion

There is not, so far as I know, any Tolkienien source for this table. It is my own extrapolation based on the texts cited above. I doubt Tolkien meant the dating to be taken this seriously. Note: My calculations may be off by a few years because the ages did not necessarily end after full calendar years.

See also

What are the Ages of the Sun?

What are the Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar?

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