Re: Calendar Systems

Hallo!

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 23:27:58 +0200,
Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> wrote:

> On Dec 1, 2004, at 11:13 PM, Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> > [...]  There is no attested historical event corresponding
> > to that date, it is the date of the legendary land-taking of the Elves
> > in Britain (according to the myth, they arrived in 144 ships, each
> > carrying 144 persons).  Long (historical) periods of time are reckoned
> > in 144-year cycles.
>
> Cool!
> I like the 144 x 144... do they count in base 12?
Yep.

And you might want to know how they came up with that 1823 BCE
starting point.  In earlier times, dates were reckoned by the office
terms
of chieftains and other events of local significance, which was
of course unsatisfactory, and a team of scholars set forth to come
up with a reckoning of years that all Elves could use and encompassed
all of Elvish history.  They concluded that the landtaking of the Elves
was the best choice for that.  However, that event was legendary and
no exact date known.  Thus, they picked a major event (I don't know
yet what it was) which was said to have occured "seven gross years
after the landtaking", and that event was in the year 815 BCE.
Seven gross years before 815 BCE is 1823 BCE, hence the starting
point of the calendar.  (The classical period of Old Albic civilization
was some time about 600 BCE.)

> >> The Rokbeigalmki calendar is soli-lunar, containing 13 months in
> >> normal
> >> years and 14 months in leap years.
>
> > Surely you mean 12 months in normal years and 13 months in leap years?
> > AFAIK, Middle-earth has the same month and year lengths as our world.
> > Greetings,
> > Jörg.
>
> Nope, 13/14! :-D
> Although from one Dzu"Fa"Ri (New Year's Day; Southern Hemisphere Winter
> Solstice) there are only ever 12 or 13 lunar cycles, the (one) lunar
> cycle that surrounds New Years Day itself is split up into *two
> separate months* - Jalág before Dzu"Fa"Ri and Ghalúb after it.
I see.  Now that I look at your post again, I see that you labelled
the first and the last month in your list as half-months.

Greetings,

Jörg.