About calendars
Calendars
The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar that was introduced in 1582 and is still used nowadays in most countries, especially western ones. At first, it was used for religious holidays and events but is now used internationally as the civil calendar.
J.R.R. Tolkien @ Merton College / © BBCThe Shire Reckoning is a fictional calendar designed by J.R.R. Tolkien and is used by the characters he created: the Hobbits. It is shown here as described in Appendix D "The Shire Reckoning" from the book The Lord of the Rings. The calendar of Imladris is also from the same fictional world and is used by the Elves. Dates between these two fictional calendars and the Gregorian calendar are matched based on the work and research of Boris Shapiro (also known as Elenhil Laiquendo) whom details are available here Ambar Eldaron.
Quenya is a constructed language by author J.R.R. Tolkien and is used by the Elves. Quenyna numbers and numerals used in the calendar of Imladris are based on the following sources: Ambar Eldaron - numerals, Wikibooks - Quenya numerals, Tolkien Gateway - Quenya numbers and Languages and numbers - Counting in quenya.
Calendars source code, displays and illustrations shown on this website are made by nicodeux.
Events
Dates and related events shown in the Shire Reckoning (Hobbits calendar) are based on Appendix B "The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands)" from The Lord of the Rings. Matching between dates from Appendix B and those on this website are calculated from Boris Shapiro's work, who explains why events indicated as occurring at a given time, as examples, the Fall of Barad-Dûr on 25th of March of Bilbo's birthday on 22nd of September, should in fact be celebrated eight to ten days earlier according to the Gregorian calendar if one wants to follow J.R.R. Tolkien's writings.
Dates and related events from the Gregorian calendar (Catholic calendar) are updated every year for events whom date changes from one year to another. Beginning and ending dates for each season are valid until year 2030 included.
Calendars page visual
At first, this page was intended to be a rework with modern languages of a previous version for an elvish and hobbit calendar made in 2001 that was displayed as a simple text in another website. One may be puzzled by the japanese aesthetic on this page, which is not clearly related to J.R.R. Tolkien's work. The idea to illustrate this calendars rework with a tree emerged early because the tree is a common symbol of seasons and passing of time, symbol that is also used for this same purpose in Tolkien's books, but also in japanese culture.
Haiku is also a good example of how central seasons are in japanese culture, because this poem often hints of season and passing of time. In his writings, Tolkien also uses poetry as an evocation of time and seasons, the more famous of his poems being Namarië from the first book of The Lord of the Rings. Therefore, it soon felt natural to add a stone carved with a haiku, which offered also an additional way for the visitor to interact with the page and to be informed without shadowing the tree that should remain the central item. In order to complete the increasing japanese ambiance brought by the carved stone and the use of sakura flowers to decorate the tree during Spring, more items that are idiomatic of Japan and its temporal rituals were added to the drawing: Fujisan and paper lantern.
All these visual changes modified step by step the content of the page towards something more oriented to seasons and the passing of time rather than only elvish and hobbit calendars, as shown by the later addition of more calendars.