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Findegil writes:
Here we go with the asked for quotation... <snip>
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... And even as they set foot upon Middle-earth, the ages of the Stars were ended, and the time of the Sun and Moon was begun, as is told in the Chronicle of Aman.
YS 1 [Year of the Sun]
§52 Here the Moon and the Sun, wrought by the Valar after the death of the Trees, rose new in the heaven. First the Moon came forth, and even as it rose above the darkness in the West Fingolfin let blow his silver trumpets, and began his march into Middle-earth; and the shadows of his host went long and black before them.
... But soon after there came the first Dawn of the Sun, ...
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§56 From this time are reckoned the Years of the Sun. Swifter and briefer are they than the long Years of the Trees in Valinor. Lo! in that time the growth and the changing and ageing of all things was hastened exceedingly; and all living things spread and multiplied in the Second Spring of Arda, ...
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Okay to be fair it was the first rising of the Moon that started the First Age as said in the quotation above. But that makes only a very small deferens. (I hope, you are content, Tar-Elenion. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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I was content for a year and a month, but have, alas, been left quite discontent now [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] , but that is another matter.
No, I am afraid I am not content with the quote, because it mentions nothing about the First Age, which appears only in your interpretation (though you may find something in earlier works). It speaks of the 'ages of the stars', the 'time of the Sun and Moon', and the 'Years of the Sun'. Nothing about the First Age (and this dovetails with JRRT's writings of this period about the 'long First Age' and the 'First Age being the longest'. The First Age started well before the return of the Noldor. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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Things are often not that simple as they seem to be, when we are looking for dates of changes in Tolkiens fantasy-universe. You are certainly right, Tar-Elenion, that Tolkien worked during the early 50's with the flat-earth version of his myth. But when he started that work he, for the first time, thought about a transformation for which he laid out the plans a couple of years later in the text given as Myths Transformed.
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I am not specifically addressing the 'flat-earth', but rather the Sun and Moon, however he also worked on a 'Round World Version', the so called 'Ainulindale C*', before the completion of LotR, and even lent a typescript of it out in 1948. This is what CT is refering to in the quote you graciously provided. (I snipped it for space)
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Especially when you think The Lord of the Rings featured a round-earth myth (which is in it self debatable), you can not deny that JRR Tolkien was not sure what to do with his myth during the complete 50’s until he settled down for the change in the late 50's with the texts published in Morgoth's Ring part 4 and 5.
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Well, I was referring specifically to a pre-existing sun and moon in LotR, not a 'flat-earth'. Nor do I find it particularly debateable that the Sun and Moon existed in LotR (and The Hobbit (R)) well before the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth (as the various quotes I provided in responce to Moerbenn show).
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Thanks