[burrahobbit]

To answer the name of the topic (which isn't a very bad question), 24. A lot of the stuff after that, however, is repellant.

Firstly, Gimli, going around a star doesn't cause days, it causes years. The years were just about the same length of time as now. The cosmology of Middle-earth went through many changes over the years, both in text and in conception, so I will leave that at that.

Also, Gimli, generally that is the meaning of prehistoric, but in this case it means before the European histories that we have.

And finally, Elrian, DON'T EVER SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU ARE ALL THE WAY WRONG. What you are thinking of is called a yén, WHICH IS NOT AT ALL A YEAR, AT ALL. A yén is 144 years, and as there isnt anything similar to that it is usually translated as "long year" BUT IT IS NOT A YEAR, SO THAT IS MISLEADING. If you look at the paragrapgh directly below what you quoted you'll notice that it talks all about Elven solar years. Arwen may have been 19 yéni old, but she was a hell of a lot more years older.