Untangling Tolkien


by Michael W. Perry


Here's a detailed description of the contents of Untangling Tolkien with some short quotations to illustrate its flavor. This dating is in Shire Reckoning, so you will need to add 1600 years for Third Age dating. The book's hundreds of sidebar references to Tolkien sources are not included here.

Table of Contents with Selected Quotes


Preface--This book was written to create a detailed chronology of Tolkien's tale based primarily on the narrative itself.
No one, however, should see this book as a substitute for The Lord of the Rings. It most emphatically is not. If you are reading this and haven't yet read Tolkien's great epic, stop and read no further. Read his book at least once from cover to cover before you even look at this book. Enjoy one of the best written and most widely popular books of modern times and leave details such as the chronology for later. The first rule in reading is always "Enjoy!"

1. Dating and Chronology--Understanding Tolkien's calendar, including a Shire Calendar good in all years.
At first glance, the dates you see in this book will seem familiar. There are the usual twelve months of our calendar along with seven days in each week. But if you look more closely, you'll find something surprising. All the months have exactly thirty days, no more and no less. Even February has 30 days. No Hobbit child needed to learn the rhyme about "Thirty days hath September . . ."

2. A Brief Background--Covers from before the Creation to the Watchful Peace or over 6472 Years.
C. S. Lewis said it best. The Hobbit was "a fragment torn from the author's huge myth and adapted for children," but with The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien gave us all that vastness, "in their true dimensions like themselves." "You can hardly put your foot down," he noted, "without stirring the dust of history."

3. Growing Conflict--Covers 860 to 1340 or from when the Watchful Peace ends to the treachery of Sauron--481 Years.
Tolkien needed a rationale for the great trust Gandalf later places in Hobbit resourcefulness. (Their easy-going, day-to-day lives are not impressive.) He found it in the Long Winter. After the War of the Ring, Tolkien has Gandalf describe how impressed he was with the courage and compassion Hobbits displayed during this long, cold winter, as so many of them were dying of cold and starvation. At that time he reached the conclusion that their one great lack was a forgetfulness about the past which kept them from understanding the world outside their little home and the possibility that they might play a major role in it.

4. A Chance Encounter--Covers 1341 to 1355 or from when Gandalf meets Thorin to the Fourth White Council--15 Years.
According to the Unfinished Tales reference, before leaving Bag End on April 5, Bilbo hinted to a neighbor that he was traveling in the hope of meeting Elves. For Elves, April 6 in the Shire calendar is either New Year's Day or the day before or after it (depending on the point in the 12-year leap-year cycle of the Elves), so it is likely Bilbo had gone hiking in the hope of encountering Elves celebrating in some meadow. That would lead Gandalf to assume (wrongly) that Bilbo longed for adventure.

5. A Time of Preparation--Covers 1356 to 1416 or from when Aragorn meets Gandalf to the search for Gollum--61 Years.
Tolkien was a bit taken with one member of the illustrious Took family--Gerontius Took, better known as "Old Took" for the advanced age to which he lived. No less than four of the five most important Hobbits in this story are his direct descendants.

6. Searching for the Shire--Covers 1417 to Late August 1418 or from Gollum's capture by Sauron to the Black Riders searching the Anduin Valley--20 Months.
To create a sense of drama, Tolkien must turn Sauron's attention to the Hobbit who possesses the Ring and yet not permit him to discover where the Ring is too quickly. He does that by having Gollum tell a critical lie--that the Shire from which the Baggins who stole the Ring came was near Gollum's own home on the banks of the Anduin River (that is, east of the Misty Mountains rather than west).

7. Hiking to Crickhollow--Early September to September 25, 1418 or from Aragorn's return to the Hobbits reaching Crickhollow--About 25 Days, Includes Day 1 to 3 of Frodo's travels.
Two Tolkien manuscripts say that the Black Riders arrived at Isengard two days after Gandalf escaped while only one says they came on the same day as the escape. But the earlier dating adopted here allows much needed time for the Black Riders to get to the Shire (roughly 600 miles away) at sunset on September 22, after only four days of riding. In comparison, in July Gandalf, also on horseback and in a hurry, took eleven days to make that same journey. Following after the Black Riders, Gandalf will take six days to reach Sarn Ford on Shadowfax, though he may have had to cover a greater distance.

8. Flight to Bree--September 26 to 29, 1418 or from the Hobbits entering the Old Forest to their arrival at Bree--4 Days, Day 4 to 7.
The Black Riders reached the Sarn Ford on the evening of September 22, so Gandalf was some six days behind them at that point. At first glance, that seems to make it impossible for him to catch up. However, Gandalf gets a chance to close the gap when the Black Riders fail to capture the Hobbits in the Shire and do not pursue them into the Old Forest. Gandalf began a week behind the Hobbits, but by the time he reaches Bree, he is only a few hours behind them.

9. Journey to Rivendell--September 30 to October 20, 1418 or from the Hobbits and Strider leaving Bree to their arrival at Rivendell--21 Days, Day 8 to 28.
We can determine the approximate time of the Black Rider attack from the fact that the moon is described as just rising above the mountain as it begins. On this day, the moon was two days past first quarter and rose about 4:30 p.m. in the east-southeast. But the Hobbits are in a sheltered dell on west side, so it was much later before it rose above Weathertop. It will set in the west-southwest about 2:30 a.m. Those rising and setting times mean that the moon is at its highest point about 9:30 p.m., a little south of directly overhead, so the attack may have come an hour or two before that, perhaps at 8:30.

10. Rivendell to Lorien--October 21, 1418 to February 14, 1419 or from treating Frodo to through their rest at Lorien--116 Days, Day 29 to 144.
Earlier, Tolkien mentioned in passing that when parties went out to search for the dehorsed Black Riders, Elladan and Elrohir (Elrond's twin sons) visited a mysterious place on the Silverlode River. We do not need to be brilliant literary scholars to realize that Tolkien was hinting they visited Lorien. This means they carried news of nine travelers that Celeborn and Galadriel reveal when eight travelers arrive. The fact that the sons carried news of nine travelers also meant that Elrond had decided on that number back in the fall, although who would make up their ranks was not settled until the December 18 conference.

11. Lorien to Parting--February 15 to February 26, 1419 or from the Mirror of Galadriel until the Company separates--12 Days, Day 145 to 156.
How did Tolkien intend for the travelers to transition from day to night travel? They could have taken the easy approach and rested all day on the 20th (after sleeping the night before) and begun their night travel on the evening of the 20th. But given Aragorn's haste to outrun Gollum, that seems unlikely. They probably paddled all day on the 20th and most of the following night. Tolkien seems to hint at this when, after being told by Frodo that Gollum is following, Aragorn says they will "try going faster tomorrow," and the next paragraph speaks of beginning night travel.

12. Captivity and Pursuit--February 27 to March 1, 1419 or from two Hobbits being taken captive by Orcs to the Entmoot--5 Days, Day 157 to 161.
Notice that in Tolkien's narrative, Merry and Pippin's escape on Day 4 is described in Chapter 3, after readers--reading about the pursuit of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas--were told in Chapter 2 (describing Day 5) that Hobbits were not found among the Orcs and could be presumed dead. Tolkien was a gifted writer. That delay heightens our delight when we discover the Hobbits alive and free.

13. War with Saruman--March 2 to 5, 1419 or from Gandalf motivating Thoden to the defeat of Saruman--4 Days, Day 162 to 165.
We often get clues about when Tolkien was writing a particular chapter from remarks in letters. On April 13, 1944, he wrote his son Christopher, who was with the Royal Air Force in South Africa, that the day before he had "brought Frodo nearly to the gate of Mordor." Though it is probably exaggerating the parallel, at the very time the Allies were preparing to invade Hitler's "Fortress Europe" with huge armies, two small Hobbits were searching for a way into Sauron's "Fortress Mordor."

14. Preparing for War--March 6 to 9, 1419 or from fleeing the Nazgul to Rohan receives the Red Arrow--4 Days, Day 166 to 169.
Both Tolkien and his friend, C. S. Lewis, served in the trenches of World War I. Some forty years after that war, Lewis remarked that the war with Sauron, "has the very quality of the war my generation knew. It is all here, the endless, unintelligible movement, the sinister quiet of the front when 'everything is now ready,' the flying civilians, the lively, vivid friendships, the background of something like despair and the merry foreground, and such heaven-sent windfalls as a cache of tobacco 'salvaged from a ruin.'"

15. Darkness and War--March 10 to 15, 1419 or from the Dawnless Day to victory at Minas Tirith--6 Days, Day 170 to 175.
Talented military leaders are careful not to exhaust their men's 'fighting reserve' of strength unless absolutely necessary. Here Tolkien has Aragorn recklessly expend that reserve, having his men fight all day and ride through the night. The risk he takes is great. With their very last reserves of strength, his men will still be able to fight on the 13th, but they absolutely must win that day or suffer near-certain defeat. Sauron's forces will give them no time to rest and recover. In heroic literature, this situation is called "victory or death." With Minas Tirith about to fall, Aragorn has no other choice.

16. Marching Against Sauron--March 16 to April 6, 1419 or from the March on Mordor to the defeat of Sauron--21 Days, Day 176 to 196.
There is no indication in Tolkien's writings that Sauron was told that Gollum was following the Hobbits. If he had been told, he might have realized that Gollum was following the Ring and reacted accordingly. A more aggressive search and even a small guard at Mount Doom would have made Frodo and Sam's task impossible.

17. Peace Returns--April 7 to August 22, 1419 or from the War's aftermath to dividing the Fellowship--139 Days, Day 197 to 335.
"Anguish," C. S. Lewis tells us, is "almost the prevailing note of The Lord of the Rings." But it is not the anguish "typical of our age, the anguish of abnormal or contorted souls." No, it is that of healthy-minded Hobbits who love nothing better than "a snug fireside and many an hour of good cheer." It is that of "those who were happy before a certain darkness came up and will be happy if they live to see it gone."

18. Returning Home--August 23, 1419 to late 1419 or from departing for Bree to freeing the Shire--Over 71 Days, Day 378 to 407f.
A little geography will help us understand how Tolkien calculated Saruman's journey and their own. Saruman will reach the Shire, roughly 350 miles away, on September 22, after 24 days on foot, traveling just under 15 miles a day. Going through Rivendell and traveling about twice as far in twice as long (47 days on the road), as well as staying 12 days in Rivendell, the Hobbits will take two months to reach the Shire on ponies, not arriving until October 30.

19. Rebuilding and Departing--1420 to 1541 or from the wounds of war to the last departure over the Sea--122 Years.
Tolkien gave Sam, the most down-to-earth of the Hobbits, the largest family. They fill Frodo's large Bag End home with 13 children, among them a Bilbo, Frodo, Merry and Pippin. His long and happy life included a political career in which he is elected mayor of the Shire seven times. He was, nevertheless, one of the Ringbearers and joins Bilbo and Sam over the sea when he is 99 years old.

20. Tolkien's Great Puzzle--Understanding Tolkien's writing techniques.
If Tolkien was so careful to get the dates right, why did he go to so much trouble to conceal them? The answer lies in literature. Those who call The Lord of the Rings the greatest literary work of the Middle Ages are not far from the mark. The key lies in a single word, "interlace." Understand what that means, and you have taken a giant step toward understanding what makes The Lord of the Rings so special, as well as why the story seems so real to many of its readers.


Commentary in Untangling Tolkien


In addition to comments in the chronology itself, the book also includes more lengthy commentary at the end of chapters. Sample quotes from each are included below.

"Tolkien's Heroes"
Although Tolkien expressed distaste when people drew detailed parallels between his story and events taking place at the time he was writing, it is easy to spot historical similarities. From about 1933, when Hitler took power in Germany, until World War II began in September of 1939, the political leaders of Britain and France procrastinated. They preferred to see Adolf Hitler as a Necromancer-like leader who could be appeased by letting him take over German-speaking territories such as the Rhineland, Austria and the Sudetenland. Until he attacked Poland, they failed to realize that he had a Sauron-like thirst for power and intended to dominate all Europe. Only a few spoke out with Gandalf-like warnings of danger. Chief among those was Winston Churchill, whose warnings came almost too late.

"More about the Inklings"
In 1937, hoping to help Tolkien publicize The Hobbit, C. S. Lewis wrote the the Times Literary Supplement, claiming expertise in children's stories and offering to review The Hobbit. The result illustrates the old adage that, "no good deed goes unpunished." He unhappily found himself being asked to review children's stories that did not interest him.

"Blending the Northern with the Mediterranean"
Tolkien hinted at how "Nordic" tales became linked with racism in a 1968 letter in which he associated his dislike for the word "Nordic," with "racialist theories" of "French origin." He is referring to Count Arthur de Gobineau's 1853, Essai sur l'Inegalite des Races Humaines. As Hannah Arendt noted, Gobineau's basic idea was "that the fall of civilizations is due to the degeneration of races and the decay of races is due to a mixture of blood" with inferior races.

"Phases of the Moon"
The lunar cycle repeats every 29.5 days. If you think of the sun and moon racing one another across the sky, then the moon is the slower one, falling behind about 13 degrees or roughly an hour a night. When the moon is new, it rises (almost invisible) with the sun at dawn and sets at sunset. At first quarter it has fallen back, rising at noon and setting at midnight. At full moon it rises at sunset and sets at dawn. Finally, the last quarter moon rises at midnight and sets at noon.

"Tolkien's Natural World"
Tolkien's natural world is intrinsically people-centered. It needs people to guide its growth, much like a garden needs a gardener or sheep need a shepherd. The Shire is a marvelous place because pastures, forests, Hobbits and wild animals live in harmony, with none an enemy of the others.

"The Significance of the Ring"
In today's context, you might say that Tolkien believed that the strength of a nation rests in the character and wisdom of its people, rather than in its Ring-like wealth and technological prowess. That is why the Council of Elrond chose to send nine lightly armed volunteers, including four small Hobbits, against the great might and vast armies of Sauron. In the end, Tolkien is telling us, the struggle between good and evil will not settled by which side has the most power or by which regiments its people the most ruthlessly. It will be won by those who place the greatest reliance on ordinary virtues such as friendship, kindness, courage and honesty.

"Tolkien and Lewis"
Along with that came an idea about what the art of writing meant. Tolkien's term for the process was "sub-creation." With his tales he was imitating, ever so feebly in literature, what God did on a much larger scale in history. God created true myth. Tolkien was creating myth that, while not strictly true, was intended to have the ring of truth, hence his obsession with detail and accuracy.

"No Generation Gap"
Finally, the happiness most Hobbits find in their lives means they have no need to blame the Shire's few social ills on others, be that the "old fogies" in charge or "rebellious" youth. Displaying a common sense that really was common, Hobbits knew where society should set its limits and where it shouldn't. They took troublemakers to their borders and tossed them out without a twinge of guilt. But they were also tolerant of things that didn't matter. Sam may have met with more murmurs of approval when he married Rose than the partying Merry and Pippin. But the two were left to ride about, dressed in outlandish military outfits, with no more than a few smiles of amusement. Perhaps this stability over time and the lack of a generation gap are among the reasons why today's readers, whatever their age, are attracted to Hobbits and their peaceful little Shire.

"The Testing of Hobbits"
Using all these experiences, Tolkien has taken the Hobbits through four stages. The first was their childlike innocence about the dangers that surrounded them, illustrated by the first hours of their hike to Crickhollow. Pursued by Black Riders, they grew up quickly, learning that the world can be a dangerous place, and that danger must be met with courage and good sense.

"A Different Tale"
Perhaps nothing provides us with a better indication that Tolkien got his tale just right, than the reaction of many readers when they are told of characters and plots that Tolkien considered but rejected. "Change that?" they react, "You can't change that. That's the way it really happened!"

"A Duty to Disobey"
It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Middle-earth hinged on the willingness of a few to disobey foolish or wrong orders. Contrary to some in the England into which he was born, Tolkien did not accept the idea--which sounds so pretty in poetry--that: "Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die." Those who fight in The Lord of the Rings know why they risk death. They fight as free men with minds and wills of their own and not as the brutalized slaves of Sauron or the cleverly manipulated machines of Wells and Webb.

"The Humanity of Ancient People"
Sadly, some of the bile directed against Tolkien for setting his tale in the ancient past is the fury of a Whig, angry to see people from an age that is distant beyond all counting portrayed with talents and virtues that are rare even in our own and presumably more enlightened age. If Tolkien has done nothing more than impress on us the humanity of our distant ancestors, he has accomplished quite a bit.

"Tolkien, War and Cynicism"
World War I forever altered the lives of millions of men who fought in its trenches and on its battlefields.... The result is still with us. Many modern cynics, two generations or more removed from the suffering in those trenches, now believe that all wars are meaningless and futile.
Tolkien would not have agreed.... For Tolkien, if the cause was just and the foe evil, even death in battle had meaning. You see that in Rohan's brave ride to aid its southern ally and in the desperate fighting at Helm's Deep.

"Tolkien and Technology"
In short, Tolkien did not dislike technology as such. But he did fear that, if we are not careful, we could become the servants of our machines rather than their rulers. Put in literary terms, he feared that a Ring would be discovered with the power to shape us to its will, leaving us with the most terrible of choices. We could rule like the Nazgul, we could become enslaved like the pitiful Gollum, or we could live in misery, hating this new age of repression much like the fearful Hobbits. The alternative to all three is to fight for freedom whatever the cost.

"Gondor's Pony Express"
Is this possible? Could a message be taken from Minas Tirith to Dunharrow in such a short time? Gandalf on Shadowfax takes three full nights of travel to reach Minas Tirith and the Rohirrim will take just over five days. Yet the errand-rider bearing the Red Arrow reaches Theoden in 30 hours at most.

"More than Chance"
From what seems to be a chance meeting between Wizard and Dwarf in 1341 Bree to the arrival at the last possible moment of Gondor's calvary at Minas Tirith in 1419 after the long ride that begins in this chapter, the timing of events in Tolkien's story point to an often recurring theme. In them there is a sense that Someone is working out of sight to achieve much larger ends than any of the participants realize.

"Tolkien's Writing Interrupted"
There are, however, hints in his May 31 letter, that he was pushing himself unusually hard. ("By sitting up all hours, I managed it.") That may explain why a disproportionate share of the chronological difficulties in the entire tale come in Book 4, and particularly in its troublesome last two chapters: "Shelob's Lair" and "The Choices of Master Samwise." We take up their chronological difficulties in the next chapter.

"Tolkien's Chronology in Shelob's Lair"
Frodo and Sam's movements from March 10 to 14 form perhaps the most difficult chronological problem in the entire book. Their weariness and the continual darkness in the sky, on the stairs, and inside Shelob's Lair deprive readers of most clues about the passage of time--an effect Tolkien seems to have deliberately exaggerated by giving readers so few clues as to the time.

"Freedom or Slavery"
Perhaps the best illustration of Tolkien's attitude comes in The Two Towers at the end of "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbits." Faramir has attacked the dark-skinned Southrons who are allied to Sauron. "Ah," Tolkien's critics might say, "Here is his racism. Dark-skin bad, light skin good. What a bigot!" Hardly. In the battle, one Southron escapes the fighting and dies at Sam's feet. Does Sam gloat over his racial superiority? No. Does he sneer at an inferior race being slain like a wild beast? No. He wonders what the man's name is and where his home might be. Most important of all, he wonders if the man really wanted to go to war, or if he was forced to fight and die in a strange land.

"The Ring and Totalitarianism"
For Arendt, the critical factor that prepares modern societies for totalitarian rule is loneliness or, as she puts it elsewhere, the "atomization" of society. Loneliness, she stresses, is different from solitude. In solitude we talk with ourselves, in loneliness we lose the ability to talk with anyone about what really matters. But our ability to talk with ourselves and remain sensible, she emphasizes, is dependent on our relationship to others. It is in talking to others, that we learn to talk wisely with ourselves. When a totalitarian state destroys genuine communication between people, individuals are left with no "self" with whom they can talk.
To see that in concrete terms, think of the dark nights Sam experiences on the plains of Mordor and how, in solitude, he faced the fact that his journey across that blasted landscape would be one way, ending with his death. That alone would be enough to drive some to madness and still more to despair. Only a sense of himself and his place in the world, nurtured over many years by his fellow Hobbits, enabled him to go on, giving his life on a mission that, as far as he knew, would provide him with no benefit.

"Different Reactions to Sauron"
The Hobbits, newcomers to Middle-earth history, are the great unknown in Tolkien's tale. He will use the War of the Ring to test their character, and in the end they do surprisingly well, much as Gandalf had hoped.

"Tolkien and 'Lunatic' Aryan Myths"
From an early age, Tolkien was fascinated by northern European mythology. As a result of that interest, he became an Oxford professor and literary scholar. With that background, it is hardly surprising that there are numerous parallels between his stories and those myths (particularly the Finnish epic Kalevala). That has led some to link Tolkien with those who used those same mythologies for evil purposes, particularly in Germany during the 1930s. The link is an unfair one.

"Black and White in Tolkien"
Finally, the Black Riders are used by some to demonstrate Tolkien's alleged racism. They are, these people tell us, both black and unspeakably evil. But at the risk of stating the obvious, those particular servants of Sauron are called black because of the clothes they wear and the horses they ride rather than the color of their skin. When Frodo uses his Ring on Weathertop, he sees them as they really are--with "white faces."

"Never Absent and Never Named"
Why did the book have such an impact on her? "Soviet people have been raised as atheists," she explains today. "Tolkien's books offered me hope for our world, the hope that Tolkien's Elves call estel. Tolkien does not mention God in The Lord of the Rings at all, but you feel something really wonderful when you read it. Later I recognized it as faith."

"Tolkien's Outline of the Book"--Describes the various names Tolkien considered for his tale's six books and three volumes.

"A Quick Reference to Important Dates"--Find important dates at a glance.

All quotations © Copyright 2003 by Michael W. Perry. All Rights Reserved.