Events in Tolkien's Literature
Tolkien
Encyclopedia > Events
Timeline : The Master Chronology of
Eä
Series of tables listing
events in Middle-earth (and before) being linked to articles all over
this Encyclopedia that continue to be written by a great many people
from original Tolkien sources.
First Age of
Eä - original research by
Arveleg from events Outside of Time through the First Age of the Sun
year 1 through 590. His work has been continued by Varda for the rest
of the Timeline.
Second
Age - S.A. year 1 through 3441
Third
Age - T.A. year 1 through 3017
Great
Years - T.A. year 3018 through 3021
Fourth
Age - starts with F.A S.R. 1422, which would have been 3022. (S.R.
is Shire Reckoning.)
#
General events below: (a
convenience while
the table Timeline is in progress)
Eru
Ilúvatar
exists alone.
Creation
Ainur
are created
by the thought of Eru, kindled with the Flame
Imperishable. He also
creates the Timeless Halls as a fair place for them to live.
Melkor
believes the Void, outside their Timeless
Halls, is not being considered by Ilúvatar and he is impatient
of its
emptiness. He searches there for the Flame Imperishable,
desiring to make things of his own as Eru had done. He cannot not find
the Fire, for it is within Eru, but this time spent in secret search
makes his thoughts diverge from that of the other Ainur.
Eru declares the Great Theme to the Ainur.
First Theme:
The Ainur obey Eru's order to make in harmony a
Great Music, each with his own thoughts to add great beauty. The
originators of the main thoughts, set forth by their voices that
sounded like musical instruments, would later be called Valar
and those
who aided those thoughts would later be called Maiar.
At first the music is perfect.
Melkor tries to increase his part in the music by
his own imagination not in accord with the theme. He causes discord,
those near him faltering, or falling silent, or attuning to his thought
instead of their own.
The music becomes like dark waters making war in
endless wrath.
Second Theme:
Eru rises and smiles and with his left hand begins a
new theme amid the storm, like but unlike the first. It gathers power
and a new beauty.
Manwe is the chief instrument of Eru Iluvatar in
this theme.
The discord of Melkor rises and contends with the
new theme, and the music becomes even more violent than before. Many
dismayed Ainur cease to sing, so Melkor gains the mastery.
Third Theme:
Eru rises, face stern, and his right hand makes a
third theme amid the confusion unlike the others: at first soft and
sweet then taking new power. So for a time it seems two musics play at
once. One is slow, deep, wide, and beautiful blended with sorrow that
is the greatest part of its beauty. The other finally achieves unity
but is loud, vain, and endlessly repeated with little harmony but a
loud bray in unison with few notes. The braying's most triumphant notes
are taken by the other and woven into its solemn pattern.
The halls of Iluvatar shake with the strife.
Iluvatar rises, face terrible, and raises both
hands. With one mighty chord, he ceases the music.
The World (
Eä/Universe) and Arda (Earth):
Ilúvatar
states that all themes have their uttermost
source in him, and that attempts to alter his music are used to create
new things more wonderful than the marrer imagined.
Ilúvatar leaves the fair regions that he had made for the
Ainur, and they follow him into the Void.
In the Void, Ilúvatar shows them a vision made by
the Music they had just sung. They see a new World globed within the
Void and sustained by it, but not of the Void. Then the history they
had sung plays before them. Melkor is told that eventually he will
learn all his own secret thoughts and see that they are but part of the
whole glory. Many other great things
Ilúvatar
tells them, and they
remember what they themselves added, so that they know much of what is
to come and little is unseen by them. But in every age
Ilúvatar
brings
forth new things that cannot be foretold. They had thought they were
making merely beauty, but learn that they were preparing a habitation
for the Children of
Ilúvatar,
Elves and Man, their new siblings in
whose making they had no part. The Ainur loved them for being strange
and free and other than themselves, and for a new reflection of the
mind of Iluvatar from which they learn new wisdom.
Within the splendours of the World with it vast
halls, spaces, and wheeling fires, within the Deeps of Time and in the
midst of innumerable stars, is chosen a place for the habitation for
the Children. The Ainur would continue to shape the World in vastness
and in precision.
But when the Ainur see the vision of the habitation
of the Children and seen them arise within it, many of the most mighty
bend all their thought and desire to this special place. Melkor
most strongly desires to go there, envying the gifts of the Children
and wishing to enslave their wills, and to be called Lord; outwardly he
claims that he wishes to go there to control the turmoils of heat and
cold that continue to pass through him. Other Ainur look within the
spaces of the World at this habitation that the Elves call Arda, and
rejoice in the light and color, but feel an unquiet at the roaring of
the sea; they praised the waters most for it held the greatest echo of
the Music of the Ainur. This is what many of the Children of
Ilúvatar
unknowingly listen for as they listen unsated to the voices of the Sea.
Ilúvatar
speaks to Ulmo who had turned his thought
to water and had
the greatest instruction in music by
Ilúvatar. In
the Music, Melkor had
made war on the waters with bitter cold, yet from this came the snow
and cunning work of
frost, still leaving the fountains and pools. Melkor had used
unrestrained heat against the water but instead of its drying up, there
came glorious clouds and rain, and with the clouds Ulmo is drawn nearer
to the airs of Manwe, Ulmo's dear friend. And between the two came the
snowflake. From the beginning are Manwe and Ulmo allied and most
faithfully served the purposes of Iluvatar.
But then
Ilúvatar
takes away the vision of the World
and the Ainur see Darkness, which they had never seen before. They did
not see the end of the Dominion of Men and the Fading of the Elves, nor
with sight did they see the Later Ages nor the ending of the World.
This makes their interest all the more sharp and there is unrest. Eru
knows that they desire that this vision exist even as they do but as
other.
And Eru says "Ea", meaning Let these things be. He
sends the Flame Imperishable into the Void and they see far away a
cloud with a living heart of flame. This is no longer a vision, but Ea,
the World that Is. Ea is the universe in which the habitation of Arda
is set. Those who wish may go down into Ea. Part of the Ainur abode
still with
Ilúvatar
beyond the confines of the World. Other Ainur,
among them many of the greatest and most fair, descended into it. But
on those
Ilúvatar set
a condition, or it is a necessity of their love,
that their power would be bound within the World until it is complete,
so they are its life and it is theirs. Therefore are they named the
Valar,
the Powers of the World.
The Valar enter into Ea and are at a loss, for it is
dark and unshaped. The Great Music had been but the thought of Ea in
the Timeless Halls, and the Vision was only a foreshowing. But
now they had entered at the beginning of Time and they must work to
achieve it.
So the Valar work for ages uncounted until in the
Deeps of Time within the vast halls of Ea they at last make the
habitation for the Children of Iluvatar. The chief work is done by
Manwe, Ulmo, and Aule. Melkor is there from the first, meddling in all
that is done, trying to turn it to his purposes, and he made great
fires.
Melkor tells the others that the young Earth is his
kingdom. But Manwe, brother of Melkor in the mind of Iluvatar,
calls to himself many spirits greater and less to aid in the making of
Arda lest Melkor hinder their labor forever. And Manwe tells Melkor
that others had labored in Arda no less than he had, and therefore it
is wrongful for Melkor to claim it as his kingdom. Melkor strives with
the other Valar for a time, but he withdraws to other regions and does
as he wills, but continues his desire to claim Arda.
The Valar in Arda next take on shape and hue as they
had learned and loved it from the vision of Ea, these shapes being as
clothing set by their thought. They might appear as splendid versions
of the kings and queens of the Children of Iluvatar or without any
human appearance as the great wave of Ulmo or the tree of Yavvanna
Valar and Maiar enter
the unformed Arda.
Arda's attempted form continually shifts as Melkor
changes what the other Valar set up.
Strife. The warrior Vala Tulkas enters Arda and
stops Melkor.
Melkor expelled.
The ends of the ages:
"The First
Age ended with the Great Battle, in which the Host of Valinor
broke Thangorodrim and overthrew Morgoth. Then most of the Noldor
returned into the Far West and dwelt in Eressea within sight of
Valinor; and many of the Sindar went over Sea also.
"The Second Age ended with
the first overthrow of Sauron, servant of Morgoth, and the taking of
the One Ring.
"The Third Age came to its
end in the War of the Ring, but the Fourth Age was not held to have
begun until Master Elrond departed, and the time was come for the
dominion of Men and the decline of all other 'speaking-peoples' in
Middle-earth."
-Return of the King, Appendix
B, intro.
Names by Ages:
Ages of the Lamps:
The Two Lamps are set up giving light to Arda.
The Two Lamps are destroyed.
Ages of the Trees.
The gold and silver trees provide light.
The Two Trees are destroyed by Morgoth and
Ungoliant. Their last light is only found in the Silmarils that were
made earlier by Feanor.
Feanor refuses to give
The last fruits
provide the beginning of the new Sun and Moon.
Ages of Darkness: Morgoth rules Middle-earth. The Sleep of
Yavanna
begins to protect plants and animals from Morgoth. Robot-like Dwarves
are
made by Aule who is overeager to see the coming of the Children of Eru.
The Dwarves are
given life by Eru who adopts them as he sees the faithful motivations
and remorse of Aule, then Eru puts them to rest until the
proper time.
Ages of the Stars: Since the Elves are about to be born into
total darkness, Varda rekindles the stars, placing the older, dimmer
stars into
constellations for greater brightness, and creates new and brighter
stars. Elves awake by Lake
Cuivienen in the starlight and starlight is seen thereafter in their
eyes. Their awakening is the beginning of the First Age.
Stars.
Feanor and his followers break the peace of Valinor
and are cursed, affecting all the history of the elves afterwards.
Curse
of Mandos by
Varda-(Valar)
Rising of the Moon.
The moon rises just as
Fingolfin's party crosses the terrible Helcaraxe and enters the lands
of Middle-earth, after their betrayal by Feanor.
The light of the Moon frightens
Melkor who puts up reeks to hide from it and sends spirits of shadow
against Tilion of the Moon, but Tilion defeats them. Not long after
this, magical flight is no longer available to Melkor or his minions,
so therefore the Moon can no longer be attacked that way. Ordinary
wings cannot fly to the Moon. It appears that only Manwe, Varda, and
their Maiar can fly magically after this time.
First Age of the Sun: 30th Valarian Age, Year 30,000. Began when
the elves awakened under the new stars and before both the Moon and
Sun. During this age, the
Sun rose and Men awoke. Ended with the Great Battle, in which the Host
of
Valinor overthrew Morgoth.
The
Battles of Beleriand
- the Elves of Beleriand, with Dwarvish and Edain aid, fought Morgoth's
forces over the Silmarils and the land of Beleriand in four great
battles. - by Fingolfin-(TV).
The
Ruin of Doriath - the destruction of Elwe and Melian's Doriath by
the dwarves. by Tilion-(Valar)
The
Fall of Gondolin - by Eonwe-(Valar)-ex.
Second Age of the Sun: Began after Morgoth was overthrown.
Founding
of Lindon and the Grey Havens. Edain arrive in Numenor. One Ring
forged.
Ended
with the first overthrow of Sauron and the taking of the One Ring by
Isildur.
Kings
and Leaders of the Lands of Men
Third Age of the Sun: Began after the first overthrow of Sauron
and
the taking of the One Ring by Isildur at the Battle of the Last
Alliance. Fading years of the Eldar. Easterling invasions. Sauron
reappears.
Witch-king in Angmar. Great Plague. Fall of Arnor. Ended after theWar
of
the Ring, signalled by the crowning of the High King of the Reunified
Kingdom, and finally ending with the sailing of Elrond to Valinor.
The
Fellowship of the Ring
Marriages
of War of the Ring notables. Includes Third and into the Fourth Age
Births
of War of the Ring notables. Includes Third and into the Fourth Age
Deaths
of War of the Ring notables. Includes Third and into the Fourth Age
Fourth Age of the Sun: Began after the War of the Ring,
officially began after the departure of Elrond. The time of Men began
under the Reunified Kingdom ruled by Aragorn.
Time
changes between the Third and Fourth Age by Varda-(Valar)
Festival
Days after the War of the Ring by Varda-(Valar)
End of Arda
The
End of All Things by Eonwe-(Valar 1998-2000) (Maia); aka
Eonwe-(T).
The
Last Battle - the final battle before the singing of the final Song
to create Arda in perfection. by Varda-(Valar)
The New Arda
The final Song is sung with all voices of all the Children of Eru
whether Ainur or from Middle-earth, now in understanding of Eru's real
intent due to having lived, creating the new Arda.
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Events page began October 16,
2003, went online Feb. 9, 2005