Fourth Age
History of Arda | ||
---|---|---|
Before the Creation | ||
Before the Ages | ||
Days before days | ||
Years of the Trees (up to Y.T. 1050) | ||
Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar | ||
First Age (begins in Y.T. 1050 and overlaps with the Years of the Trees up to Y.T. 1500) - Years of the Sun begin in F.A. 1 | ||
Second Age - Arda made round in S.A. 3319 | ||
Third Age | ||
Fourth Age | ||
Later Ages (up to present day) | ||
End of Arda | ||
Timeline of Arda (See: Round World version of the Silmarillion for a later conception of Tolkien's cosmology) |
The Fourth Age began after Sauron was finally defeated, when his Ruling Ring was destroyed, and all the Elves but one left Middle-earth for the Uttermost West.
History
There is no information on more than the first few centuries of this age, so it is not known when it ended, if it ever did.
This age was (presumably) marked by the recovery of the Númenorean kingdoms in exile (Arnor and Gondor), the final ascent of Men and the total wane of the Elves.
Further future?
Tolkien said that he thought the distance between the end of the Third Age and the 20th century A.D. was about 6000 years, and that in 1958 it should have been around the end of the Fifth Age if the Fourth and Fifth Ages were about the same length as the Second and Third Ages. He said, however, in a letter written in 1958 that he believed the Ages had quickened and that it was about the end of the Sixth Age/beginning of the Seventh.[1]
For a complete list of events during the Fourth Age, see the Timeline.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 211, (dated 14 October 1958).