Shire Calendar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Shire Calendar was a calendar used in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth by the Hobbits of the Shire. It was different from that used by the Men, Dwarves and Elves. Use of this calendar in Middle-earth is referred to as Shire-reckoning.

It is highly based on the Germanic calendar.

Year 1 of the Shire Calendar corresponded when the Shire was founded by the Bree Hobbits Marcho and Blanco in the year 1601 of the Third Age. Therefore, years of the Third Age can be converted to Shire-years by subtracting 1600.

The last year of the Third Age was year 1421 on the Shire calendar.

[edit] Months of the year and special days

The Shire's calendar year was divided into 12 months of 30 days. Five additional days were added to create a 365-day year. The months followed the lunar cycle.

Month number	Name	Approximate relationship to Gregorian calendar
	2 Yule	22nd of December
1	Afteryule	23rd of December to the 21st of January
2	Solmath	22nd of January to the 20th of February
3	Rethe	21st of February to the 22nd of March
4	Astron	23rd of March to 21st of April
5	Thrimidge	22nd of April to the 21st of May
6	Forelithe	22nd of May to the 20th of June
	1 Lithe	21st of June
	Mid-year's Day	22nd of June
	Overlithe	Leap day
	2 Lithe	23rd of June
7	Afterlithe	24th of June to the 23rd of July
8	Wedmath	24th of July to the 22nd of August
9	Halimath	23rd of August to the 21st of September
10	Winterfilth	22nd of September to 21st of October
11	Blotmath	22nd of October to the 20th of November
12	Foreyule	21st of November to the 20th of December
	1 Yule	21st of December

The Yuledays were the days that signify the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one, so 2 Yule was the first day of the year. The Lithedays are the three days in the middle of the year, 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In leap years (every fourth year except centennial years) a day was added after Mid-year's Day called Overlithe. All these days were placed outside of any month. These days were primarily holidays and feast days. Mid-year's Day is meant to correspond to the summer solstice, which Tolkien describes as being 10 days earlier than the middle day of our year. However, since then the summer solstice has shifted slightly so it falls on a different date now, rendering the difference between Mid-year's Day and the middle day of our year eleven days, instead of ten.

[edit] Days of the week

There were seven days in the Shire week. The first day of the week was called Sterday and the last day of the week was called Highday. The Mid-year's Day and, when present, Overlithe had no weekday assignments. This arrangement was used because it caused every day to have the same weekday designation from year to year (instead of changing as in the Gregorian calendar).

Day Name	Meaning	Relationship to Gregorian calendar
Sterday	Stars of Varda	Saturday
Sunday	Sun	Sunday
Monday	Moon	Monday
Trewsday	Two Trees of Valinor	Tuesday
Hevensday	Heavens	Wednesday
Mersday	Sea	Thursday
Highday	Valar	Friday

Highday was a holiday with evening feasts.

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the names of months and days are given in modern equivalents. For instance, Afteryule is called January and Sterday is called Saturday.