Tolkien's final First Age timeline

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Arvegil145

Did we threw away the 3,100 years idea?

There are 3264 years from the arrival to the end of the Age. That's far enough off that I can't honestly say it matches the 3100 XVIII statement, especially since that quote says it was probably wrong.

Originally Posted by Arvegil145

Other than being very conspicuously absent from c. late '50s to Tolkien's death in 1973?

I feel like there were lots of things not written about by Tolkien post-AAm/GA; that doesn't mean they were discarded. The Lamps were always something of an afterthought to the Trees; it's entirely possible Tolkien was simply waiting until he had the "round-world Trees" story straightened out before bothering to think about the Lamps.

Originally Posted by Arvegil145

If I'm being honest, I don't give a toss about 'strange astronomy!' - is this really going to be the crux of all this stuff? Unless you're an astronomer, I can't see why anyone would give a single damn about the intricacies of this stuff.

I mean, Tolkien devoted whole calendars to the phases of the moon, it's entirely possible the seasonal rising of Orion and how it changes over millennia was also on his mind. However, in my view the later explicit 16 000 years quote trumps any possible unrecorded workings on that score.

Not sure if you missed it, but I did put together a bare-bones Unified Timeline, from the entry of the Valar into Arda to the discovery of the Notion Club Papers.

hS