LOTR appendices
I mentioned I’d been reading them, daily, in small doses. The drudgery paid off this weekend when I got to Appendices C and D.
Appendix D is about the Hobbits’ calendar. Each month has thirty days. A given date always falls on the same day of the week, year after year.
But some of our months have more than thirty days, you might complain. Do the Hobbits just ignore certain days? Or do the heavens over Middle Earth have very tidy properties? Is Tolkien another Dante?
Extra days are included in the Hobbits’ calendar; but, sensibly, they aren’t grouped with any month or week. Consider this 61-day sequence: 30 month-days (the “Forelithe” month); a non-month, non-week holiday (“Midyear’s Day,” a.k.a. “Overlithe”); and then 30 more month-days (the “Afterlithe” month).
Tolkien comments:
I also like it that Tolkien underlines the names of those present at the Long-Expected Party, i.e. the beneficiaries of Bilbo’s practical joke.
You can browse the appendices here. Click on links in the table of contents.
Appendix D is about the Hobbits’ calendar. Each month has thirty days. A given date always falls on the same day of the week, year after year.
But some of our months have more than thirty days, you might complain. Do the Hobbits just ignore certain days? Or do the heavens over Middle Earth have very tidy properties? Is Tolkien another Dante?
Extra days are included in the Hobbits’ calendar; but, sensibly, they aren’t grouped with any month or week. Consider this 61-day sequence: 30 month-days (the “Forelithe” month); a non-month, non-week holiday (“Midyear’s Day,” a.k.a. “Overlithe”); and then 30 more month-days (the “Afterlithe” month).
Tolkien comments:
It will be noted if one glances at a Shire Calendar, that the only weekday on which no month began was Friday. It thus became a jesting idiom in the Shire to speak of “on Friday the first” when referring to a day that did not exist, or to a day on which very unlikely events such as the flying of pigs or (in the Shire) the walking of trees might occur.Appendix C, “Family Trees,” is even funnier. A single Hobbit name is faintly amusing. Dozens laid out together are hilarious: Tolkien at his pedantic best.
I also like it that Tolkien underlines the names of those present at the Long-Expected Party, i.e. the beneficiaries of Bilbo’s practical joke.
You can browse the appendices here. Click on links in the table of contents.