LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 01 - A Long-Expected Party

[Boromir88]

It continues to amaze me how you can latch on to a different snippet and tiny detail every time you reread Tolkien. This time, probably with The Hobbit more fresh in my memory it's Bilbo's garments when he leaves Bag End for the last time:

"He took off his party clothes, folded up and wrapped in tissue-paper his embroidered silk waistcoat, and put it away. Then he put on quickly some old untidy garments, and fastened around his waist a worn leather belt. On it he hung a short sword in a battered black-leather scabbard. From a locked drawer, smelling of moth-balls, he took out an old cloak and hood. They had been locked up as if they were very precious, but they were so patched and weatherstained that their original colour could hardly be guessed: it might have been dark green. They were rather too large for him."~A Long-Expected Party

The smallest detail about the cloak made me smile. It's not just the fact this was the cloak Dwalin gave him, but how Tolkien reveals this information of being the same cloak which makes it that much better. Instead of being direct just writing "Bilbo grabbed a dark-green cloak Dwalin gave Bilbo many years ago." Tolkien describes it as almost like an "Easter egg" for readers of The Hobbit to discover. The cloak is like an Easter Egg: "locked up as if they were very precious"..."so patched and weatherstained that their original colour could ahrdly be guessed: it might have been dark green. They were rather too large for him."

"...and Bilbo was wearing a dark-green hood (a little weather-stained) and a dark-green cloak borrowed from Dwalin. They were too large for him, and he looked rather comic.~Roast Mutton

Also, as much as I get Frodo's frustration with how the hobbits (in particular Lobelia) reacted in a free-for-all frenzy the day after Bilbo's disappearance. I'm still rather fond of them (yes even Lobelia). As dreadful as the Sackville-Bagginses are in this chapter, it's almost like a soft, ultimately harmless form of troublemakers. They're not pleasant hobbits, but they're not evil and like Frodo you still don't want any evil penetrating the Shire.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

It continues to amaze me how you can latch on to a different snippet and tiny detail every time you reread Tolkien.

Struth!

I remember being about 16 and thinking "surely, the things I'm noticing for the first time in THIS reread are the last things I'll ever notice for the first time in this book--I've got to be running out."

But, fifteen years later... still noticing things I've never noticed before--in a book I've read ALOUD twice since!

[Morsul the Dark]

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

It wasn't until rather later in the process that Tolkien started using an almanac (for 1942) to keep things like sunrise/sunset and the lunar phases straight.

Even so, he consciously cheated once: the image of the moonlight illuminating Durin's Doors was too striking to give up, even though it's astronomically impossible, so he let it stand. I think the fireworks timing was just an oversight (or else, he didn't want to keep his hungry hobbits waiting too long for dinner!)

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

A weird takeaway from this listening to the audio book, Middle Earth May be based on Europe and Shire specifically England, but we can make an interesting assumption that days are shorter that is to say the sun sets earlier. As has been quoted The fireworks start at 6:30 however mid September the sun sets at about 6:45. Most firework displays certainly wait til nightfall.

For a while I thought the differences between our calendar and the Shire's might help with this, but 22 Halimath is actually closer to September 13th, which makes matters even worse.

I'd just gone into a long ramble about Roman timekeeping, but I think there's a simpler explanation: did you remember to remove Daylight Saving Time? Our September 22nd is actually near enough the Equinox, meaning kind of by definition sunset should be at 6pm (have I got that right?). It's only because we shift things around that this doesn't happen.

This year, sunset on September 22nd in London is at 5:59 GMT, and on 22 Halimath (September 13th) is at 6:20 GMT. I admit Gandalf was still a little - hroom - hasty, starting up a mere 10 minutes after the sun dipped below the horizon, but there's a lot of hungry Hobbits around.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

When written it was Sept 22 Gregorian, just a day off the equinox; the Shire Reckoning was invented after the book was finished.