Middle-earth Calendar - Elven Calendar

Elven Calendar

The Calendar of Imladris is a calendar used in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth by the Elves of Rivendell. (Imladris is the name of that place in Sindarin.) It is apparently the only Eldarin calendar described by the Hobbits in the Red Book of Westmarch.

Often translated "year" the word yén is equivalent to 144 of our years. The Elves also have a regular 365-day solar year called coranar meaning "sun-round" or more commonly loa meaning "growth". An Elven day is called a ré of which a yén contains 52,596. An Elven week, used for ritual rather than practicality, contains six days and is called enquië; and a yén contains 8,766 of these enquier. The Elven year, which began near the northward equinox, is divided into six seasons or 'months' which consist of four 54-day months and two 72-day months. Five or eight extra days outside the seasons make the length of the loa 365 or 368 days. Most years are 365 days, but every twelfth year is 368 days, for an average year length of 365.25 days.

In Rivendell, the loa began on the spring equinox and was divided into six "months" or seasons, as follows.

Five other days, two between coirë and tuilë and three between yávië and hrívë, meant the calendar added up to 365 days. Irregularities were allowed for by adding another three days every twelve years, except the last year of a yén.