How Long Does it Take to Get to Valinor?

[Galin]

I would agree that Aman and Eressea, after being removed, are still within time.

If I recall correctly there's also a letter where JRRT notes this specifically, but anyway, as Legolas notes concerning Lothlorien, change and decay is not the same in all places. Tolkien toyed with actual time differences in Lorien (as seen from draft texts), but he abandoned this for halting or slowing the unwanted (from an Elvish perspective) effects of time rather -- which still had its confusing effect in any case, as we see from Sam's comments.

Lothlorien still could be said to be 'timeless' in ways, but as Legolas also notes, time does not tarry. In the text Aman (Morgoth's Ring) it's noted that: 'Time in Aman was actual time, not merely a mode of perception. As, say, 100 years went by in Middle-earth as part of Arda, so 100 years passed in Aman, which was also part of Arda.'

Of course the next section titled Aman and Mortal Men begins: 'If it is thus in Aman, or was ere the Change of the World, and therein the Eldar...' but still the reader is given no real reason to think that this bit about time wasn't still true after the Change of the World.

[Puddleglum]

Interestingly, I just ran across something I had forgotten in HoME volume 4 "The Shaping of Middle Earth". In the section "The Ambarkanta" (The shape of the world), there is a diagram drawn by Tolkien (Diagram III) which shows the world after it was made round.

The diagram includes a line, tangential to the surface of the round world, labeled "The Straight Path."

And on that line, at a distance from the tangent point of about 1-1/2 radii, is a dot labeled "Valinor"!

So, if the round world (post downfall) is equivalent to our modern Earth in size, then Valinor would be about 6000 miles out.

Of course, this is just one diagram and Tolkien's ideas may have changed - but at least it suggests the theory may have more documentary basis (in Tolkien's writings) than I had originally thought.

[Pitchwife]

Nice find, Puddleglum! There are also several world maps reproduced in that section (one of them, with the shapes of the continents starting to look similar to what they are now, can be seen here). Judging from those, I'd say Belegaer pre-Fall looks like it's roughly the size of the Atlantic - which is something between 3000 and 6000 km wide, and it took Christopher Columbus a little over three months to cross it; which fits your guess of about 12-14 weeks quite nicely.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

Interestingly, I just ran across something I had forgotten in HoME volume 4 "The Shaping of Middle Earth". In the section "The Ambarkanta" (The shape of the world), there is a diagram drawn by Tolkien (Diagram III) which shows the world after it was made round.

The diagram includes a line, tangential to the surface of the round world, labeled "The Straight Path."

And on that line, at a distance from the tangent point of about 1-1/2 radii, is a dot labeled "Valinor"!

So, if the round world (post downfall) is equivalent to our modern Earth in size, then Valinor would be about 6000 miles out.

Of course, this is just one diagram and Tolkien's ideas may have changed - but at least it suggests the theory may have more documentary basis (in Tolkien's writings) than I had originally thought.

Wow! That's a great find, as pitchwife said. Thanks a lot! But I think I'm going to stick to Galadriel55's answer

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

Interestingly, I just ran across something I had forgotten in HoME volume 4 "The Shaping of Middle Earth". In the section "The Ambarkanta" (The shape of the world), there is a diagram drawn by Tolkien (Diagram III) which shows the world after it was made round.

The diagram includes a line, tangential to the surface of the round world, labeled "The Straight Path."

And on that line, at a distance from the tangent point of about 1-1/2 radii, is a dot labeled "Valinor"!

So, if the round world (post downfall) is equivalent to our modern Earth in size, then Valinor would be about 6000 miles out.

Anyone want to buy me the HOME for Christmas?

Anyway, it still seems to me that one's perception of time would change when making the transition from the "new" world to the "old".