Later Ages

This article describes a concept which is mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien's works, but was never given a definite name.

"...It is a long tale..." — Aragorn This article or section needs expansion and/or modification. Please help the wiki by expanding it.

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)

This article concerns the later Ages, defined for the purposes of this article as the Ages that took place after the ending of the Fourth Age.

According to one of the drafts of the Appendices, it is said of the Fourth Age:

Of Eldarion son of Elessar it was foretold that he should rule a great realm, and that it should endure for a hundred generations of Men after him, that is until a new age brought in again new things; and from him should come the kings of many realms in long days after.
—The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Tale of Years of the Third Age"

History

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

In the Letter 211 that Tolkien wrote on 14 October 1958 to Rhona Beare, he writes that the time gap between the fall of Barad-dûr (in T.A. 3019) and the present-day (as in 1958, at the time that Tolkien wrote the said letter) was c. 6,000 years.

Therefore, Tolkien concluded that in 1958, the world was nearer to the end of the Fifth Age, if the subsequent Ages were of the same length as the Second and the Third Ages.

However, he ultimately concluded that the Ages have "quickened", and that the world was now (in 1958, that is) at the end of its Sixth Age, or maybe even in the Seventh.

The Nature of Middle-earth

In a 1960 text called The Awaking of the Quendi, Tolkien explicitly calls the year 1960 AD (the year in which he was writing the text) as the year 1960 of the Seventh Age.

In that text Tolkien connects the beginning of the Seventh Age (i.e. Se.A. 1) with the incarnation of Ilúvatar (that is, the birth of Jesus Christ in 1 AD according to the real-world Anno Domini reckoning of the Catholic Church).

Tolkien also goes on to say that the time-gap between the year 1960 of the Seventh Age (i.e. 1960 AD) and the Year of the Sun 310 of the First Age was 16,000 years.

This makes it possible to calculate when some of the in-universe Ages happened in relation to the real-world chronology:

• 1) The end of the First Age (F.A. 590) corresponds to the year 13,760 BC
• 2) The end of the Second Age (S.A. 3441) corresponds to the year 10,319 BC
• 3) The end of the Third Age (T.A. 3021) corresponds to the year 7,298 BC

While the average duration of the Fourth through Sixth Ages would be c. 2,430 years.

Other versions of the legendarium

"...there is much else that may be told." — Glóin This article or section is a stub. Please help Tolkien Gateway by expanding it.

Inspiration

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