What Is the Correct Conversion Rate for Years of the Sun to Years of the Trees?

Q: What Is the Correct Conversion Rate for Years of the Sun to Years of the Trees?

ANSWER: J.R.R. Tolkien seems to have attempted to define the length of Years of the Trees in terms of Years of the Sun by at least three different factors: 100 years of the Sun to 1 year of the Trees, 144 years of the Sun to 1 year of the Trees, and 9.58 years of the Sun to 1 year of the Trees. Readers have not been able to agree on which is the “correct” conversion rate and, frankly, I think the question is logically flawed because it extends (or is founded upon) a common misunderstanding about Tolkien’s mythologies.

The stories are not all part of the same continuum, so to speak. That is, the stories in The Book of Lost Tales belong to their own stratum or continuum and they cannot be used to explain or expand upon the stories of later periods in Tolkien’s writing. Christopher Tolkien, faced with the task of bringing a complete Silmarillion manuscript to publication, did use some of the material in The Book of Lost of Tales and other pre-Lord of the Rings writings, but he did so with reservations and in the case of “The Fall of Gondolin” he really used the older story as a model on which to base a new version, rather than actually use the original story.

Hence, you must be careful not to conflate chronological narratives from one period in Tolkien’s fiction with the conversion rates he used in another period of writing. That is, you cannot simply plug in the numbers any way you wish (as some readers have tried to do) and start calculating away.

That said, there is an interesting reference on the Tolkien Estate Website that may help settle the matter for many if not all fans. In response to a popular reader question they write:

How does The Children of Húrin fit into JRR Tolkien’s mythology? When does it take place relative to The Lord of the Rings?

The Tale takes place during the First Age of Middle-earth. Túrin was born in the year 464 from the first rising of the Sun after Morgoth destroyed the two trees of Valinor, and died in the year 499.

This would have been 5000 years after the awakening of the Elves in Middle-earth, and 978 years after Fëanor completed the forging of the Silmarils. The recorded coming of Men occurred at the first Sunrise, and Beren and Lúthien, who encountered each other the year of Túrin’s birth, achieved their quest for the Silmaril when Túrin was a young boy.

Túrin died approximately 100 years before the Drowning of Beleriand which marked the beginning of the Second Age lasting for three and a half millennia. Sauron forged the One Ring around the year 1600 of the Second Age. Bilbo met Gollum in the year 2941 of the Third Age, and the Fellowship met up and formed in Rivendell in the year 3018. The One Ring was destroyed in 3019. Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf and Elrond (who by that time was 6500 years old, and was born 33 years after Túrin’s death) departed from Middle-earth in 3021, marking the end of the Third Age.

So, you can probably take it from there, and anyway it’s safe to say that the Tale of the Children of Húrin took place “a very long time ago”!

A detailed discussion of the reckoning of time in the First Age can be found in Morgoth’s Ring, and The War of the Jewels, Vols X and XI of The History of Middle-earth.

Some if not all of the answers on the Tolkien Estate Website have been written by or in accordance with Christopher Tolkien’s wishes. These chronological calculations probably constitute the most authoritative explanation of which conversion rate fans should be using for the chronological tables published in Morgoth’s Ring and The War of the Jewels. Some readers may not agree with the Tolkien Estate’s choices.

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