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J. R. R. Tolkien in Appendix D to his ''The Lord of the Rings'' (published 1955) gives an explanation of the Shire Calendar used by his fictional Hobbits of the Shire. The calendar is closely based on the historical Anglo-Saxon calendar reported by Bede. The same appendix gives more information on the Shire Calendar's background in the fictional history of Middle-earth, stating that the Shire Reckoning is a conservative continuation of the calendar of Númenór as used in Middle-earth during the Second Age, but revised in the Third Age by Mardil and Hador, the first and seventh ruling Stewards of Gondor. The Hobbits retained the unreformed ''King's Reckoning'', but introduced a reform that resulted in a fixed number of weeks (in imitation of the historical 10th-century Icelandic calendar). Appendix D further gives some information on the Reckoning of Rivendell, the calendar used by the Elves in Imladris (Rivendell), which divided the solar year into six "seasons" or "long months". The only allusion to a calendar of the Dwarves is made in ''The Hobbit'', regarding the "dwarves' New Year" or ''Durin's Day''. Tolkien repeatedly stresses that his legendarium is set in a remote past of our Earth (as opposed to a completely fictional or mythological world),〔"the year no doubt was of the same length (ours ), for long ago as those times are now reckoned in years and lives of men, they were not very remote taccording to the memory of the Earth" Appendix D.〕 and he gives intercalation methods used by the Númenóreans that amount to an average length of a year of 365.24 days and an average year in the 'Reckoning of Rivendell' of ≈365.24306 days. With the caveat "if the year was then of the same length as now" Tolkien goes on to discuss historical intercalation made by the Númenóreans and their descendants during the Second and Third Ages, assuming a tropical year of 365.2422 days.〔This was the value cited in textbooks in the 1940s, e.g. William Marshall Smart, ''Text-book on Spherical Astronomy Author'', 1947, (p. 141 ). 〕 ==Shire calendar== The ''Shire Calendar'' or ''Shire Reckoning as described in Appendix D is closely based on the Anglo-Saxon calendar reported by Bede. Year 1 of the Shire Calendar corresponded when the Shire was founded by the Bree Hobbits Marcho and Blanco in the year 1601 of the Third Age. Therefore, years of the Third Age can be converted to Shire-years by subtracting 1600. The last year of the Third Age was year 1421 on the Shire calendar. A year in the Shire was the same length as our year - 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds. The Shire's calendar year was also divided into 12 months but all of 30 days. Five additional days were added to create a 365-day year. The months followed the lunar cycle. For the names of the months, Tolkien used reconstructed names derived from the Anglo-Saxon calendar; in other words, they are Tolkien's take on what English would be actually using now if it had not adopted Latin names for the months (January, February, March, etc.). The ''Yuledays'' were the days that signify the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one, so 2 Yule was the first day of the year. The ''Lithedays'' are the three days in the middle of the year, 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In leap years (every fourth year except centennial years) a day was added after Mid-year's Day called ''Overlithe''. All these days were placed outside of any month. These days were primarily holidays and feast days. ''Mid-year's Day'' is meant to correspond to the summer solstice, which Tolkien describes as being 10 days earlier than the middle day of our year. However, since then the summer solstice has shifted slightly so it falls on a different date now, rendering the difference between ''Mid-year's Day'' and the middle day of our year eleven days, instead of ten. There were seven days in the Shire week. The first day of the week was called ''Sterday'' and the last day of the week was called ''Highday''. The Mid-year's Day and, when present, Overlithe had no weekday assignments. This arrangement was used because it caused every day to have the same weekday designation from year to year (instead of changing as in the Gregorian calendar).〔 Highday was a holiday with evening feasts. Tolkien states that Highday was more equivalent to our Sunday, and so translated the names of days used one of Bilbo's songs as "Saturday" and "Sunday" rather than Mersday and Highday. In ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the names of months and days are given in modern equivalents. For instance, Afteryule is called ''January'' and Sterday is called ''Saturday''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Middle-earth calendar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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