LotR --- Appendix D -- The Calendars

[davem]

This Appendix contains one of the two ‘essential’ parts of the Appendices for an understanding of the story, according to Tolkien: The Shire Calendar. The other one was The Tale of Aragorn & Arwen.

The ‘Translator Conceit’ takes on a new dimension here: not only has Tolkien converted the Shire calendar into our modern one in the text, he has also translated the original Hobbit names of months into variations of Old English. As Hammond & Scull point out in LotR: A Reader’s Companion:

The names of the months in the Shire Calendar are adaptations, or modernisations, of names in Old English:
Afteryule from aefter Geola ‘after winter solstice’.
Solmath from Solmonad, apparently ‘’mud-month’ (from sol ‘mud’....

Winterfilth from Winterfylled ‘winterfullness’...etc

So, we have a translation of the original Hobbit names for the months into Old English & the Calendar then converted into our own familiar one. It seems Tolkien’s intention was to tie the Hobbits in even more closely to the English people.

What he has done with the names of the weekdays is also interesting, as it seems to show some kind of ‘natural religion’ - days are dedicated to objects found in nature, rather than to Gods (as with ourselves: Sunday to the Sun (God), Monday to the Moon (Goddess), Tuesday to the God Tiw, Wednesday to Woden, Thursday to Thor, Friday to Freya/Frigg, Saturday to Surtur(?) ),

so we have

Sterrendei = Stars, Sunnendei - Sun, Monendei = Moon, Trewsdei = Tree, Hevensdei = Sky, Meresdei = Sea, Hihdei - High/lofty/sublime

As Tolkien states, the Hobbits seem to have taken over the Elvish attributions of the days without taking over the meaning or relevance - much as we do ourselves, carrying over the Pagan names for the days without (in most cases) knowing why. Or, as another example, how many people are currently continuing another ancient tradition (having a decorated tree in the corner of the room) without knowing the reason?

We find another example of this kind of preservation without knowing the reason:

There is no record of the Shire-folk commemorating either March 25 or September 22; but in the Westfarthing, especially in the country round Hobbiton Hill, there grew up a custom of making holiday and dancing in the Party Field, when weather permitted, on April 6. Some said that it was old Sam Gardner's birthday, some that it was the day on which the Golden Tree first flowered in 1420, and some that it was the Elves' New Year. In the Buckland the Horn of the Mark was blown at sundown every November 2 and bonfires and feastings followed.

Which is contrast to Gondor:

But in honour of Frodo Yavannie 30, which corresponded with former September 22, his birthday, was made a festival, and the leap-year was provided for by doubling this feast, called Cormare or Ringday.

What we seem to see here is Gondor preserving the ‘facts’ while the inhabitants of the Shire create their own stories (of course, the fact that they can invent stories about such events may cause us to question other statements made by them (as in The Tale of Years, for example).

One odd thing is Tolkien’s statement:

In the language of the time of the War of the Ring these had become Sterday, Sunday, Monday, Trewsday, Hevensday (or Hensday), Mersday, Highday.

This is either wrong, or very odd - as if correct it would mean that the ‘language of the time of the War of the Ring’ was Anglo-Saxon!