Notes on The Hobbit - Durin's Day Part I
Durin’s Day:
Nobody seems to know when Durin’s Day - the day that the door on Mount Erebor opened - was. The only relevant conversation in The Hobbit occurs after Elrond’s reading the moon-letters on the map:
‘"Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond.
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first, day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But this will not help us much, I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."
"That remains to be seen," said Gandalf. "Is there any more writing?"’
Elrond seems unfamiliar with the term ‘Durin’s Day’, despite his ability to read the runes. The dwarves know that it is the first day of the Dwarves’ New Year, which they can no longer calculate. They ‘still call’ something Durin’s Day but Thorin doesn’t claim that identification is authentic (see next paragraph). Gandalf may know more but consider it useless to discuss so far from the mountain.
‘When the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together' does not describe a single day, rather it applies to all of the days that the waning moon is visible when it rises later than the sun. There is no suggestion in Thorin’s words of the exact configuration that Bilbo saw - which is likely not visible from anywhere else in the world. The descendants of the dwarves of Erebor must have kept the words and applied them to an approximation of the real thing so as to keep the memory alive that they once had meaning.
It is not clear whether ‘Durin’s Day’ is a Dwarvish term or an Aduni one. What language were the moon-letters? (This is something which JRR seems not to have thought about.) Were they meant for only Dwarves to read? If so, why can Elrond read them so easily? In both The Hobbit and LoTR, he seems no expert on dwarvish matters. Perhaps he had learned some Dwarvish words but didn’t know much about their culture. Perhaps he translated haltingly. Perhaps the map was meant to be accessible to anyone who could read Aduni, thus ‘Durin’s Day’ might be an Aduni term for a day with entirely another name in Dwarvish. It is more likely that a map meant to be passed from father to son would be written in the native language of both, but not impossible that a less secret tongue would be used if the father foresaw that the son might need help reading the map.
Neither is it clear why the dwarves should be unable to calculate when the last moon of Autumn can be expected, however the fact that they can’t strongly hints that they lack experience in sky-watching. This is consistent with their underground way of life. In JRR's writings, the palaces and strongholds of the Elves of Nargothrond, Menegroth and Mirkwood live underground but the Elves themselves are constantly depicted in the woods, whereas Dwarves are not. Dwarves appear above ground only to travel for specific purposes. Living in caves must have been normal for both races, but the Elves' love of stars and trees called them outside while the Dwarves' love of stone inclined them to stay inside.
Another possibility is that Durin’s Day is a strictly local phenomenon, observed only at Mount Erebor, and the reason Thorin and his companions don’t know when it will next come is that they are too geographically removed to know when Winter will begin there.
Lalaith (in an essay no longer available on line) is said to have calculated that it was October 14th (Winterfilth 22nd in the Shire calendar), but this may apply only October 14, 2004.
Hookbill the Goomba posted this analysis to Barrowdowns Forum, based on The Enclyclopedia of Arda:
‘Dwarvish New Years
A selection of modern Dwarvish new years: all dates are shown in the modern (Gregorian) calendar
2001 16 October
2002 6 October
2003 26 September
2004 14 October
2005 3 October
2006 22 September
2007 11 October
2008 29 September
2009 18 October
2010 7 October
2011 27 September
Thursday 14 October 2004 is a definite Durin's Day: not only do the Sun and Moon appear in the sky together, but a partial solar eclipse occurs. The occurrence of other Durin's Days will depend on longitude.
Reading the article besides this on the Encyclopaedia reveals that Durin’s day will be different in which country you are in. I suppose this applied to the Dwarves of Middle Earth as well. This got me thinking, Dwarves in, say, The Blue Mountains, would have a different day to those in the iron hills, if its further enough away. It must be confusing.’
I think he is quite right about the effect of differences in longitude and the potential for confusion. Lalaith, along with the Encyclopedia of Arda, assumes that the astronomically unsophisticated dwarves used a strict lunar calendar. In such a calendar the months are out of sync with the solar year. For instance, the strictly lunar nature of the Muslim calendar explains why Ramadan occurs both annually and during every season of the year. The Jewish soli-lunar calendar keeps months in relative sync with seasons by introducing frequent leap-months. The Encyclopedia of Arda speculates that the Dwarves adopted the same expedient, but I am not convinced.
It is more consistent with The Hobbit to assume that the dwarves could not name the month in which Durin’s Day would reliably fall because it would be different every year, and thus the year would not always begin with the same month. Nor would it begin the same time in different parts of Middle-earth, since the beginnings and endings of the seasons change in a journey from North to South, as LoTR illustrates. Keeping the names of months constant would give dwarves of different regions their best shot at a shared time frame, at least in the short term: ‘Two Octobers ago’ is easily calculated.
Nobody seems to know when Durin’s Day - the day that the door on Mount Erebor opened - was. The only relevant conversation in The Hobbit occurs after Elrond’s reading the moon-letters on the map:
‘"Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond.
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first, day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But this will not help us much, I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."
"That remains to be seen," said Gandalf. "Is there any more writing?"’
Elrond seems unfamiliar with the term ‘Durin’s Day’, despite his ability to read the runes. The dwarves know that it is the first day of the Dwarves’ New Year, which they can no longer calculate. They ‘still call’ something Durin’s Day but Thorin doesn’t claim that identification is authentic (see next paragraph). Gandalf may know more but consider it useless to discuss so far from the mountain.
‘When the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together' does not describe a single day, rather it applies to all of the days that the waning moon is visible when it rises later than the sun. There is no suggestion in Thorin’s words of the exact configuration that Bilbo saw - which is likely not visible from anywhere else in the world. The descendants of the dwarves of Erebor must have kept the words and applied them to an approximation of the real thing so as to keep the memory alive that they once had meaning.
It is not clear whether ‘Durin’s Day’ is a Dwarvish term or an Aduni one. What language were the moon-letters? (This is something which JRR seems not to have thought about.) Were they meant for only Dwarves to read? If so, why can Elrond read them so easily? In both The Hobbit and LoTR, he seems no expert on dwarvish matters. Perhaps he had learned some Dwarvish words but didn’t know much about their culture. Perhaps he translated haltingly. Perhaps the map was meant to be accessible to anyone who could read Aduni, thus ‘Durin’s Day’ might be an Aduni term for a day with entirely another name in Dwarvish. It is more likely that a map meant to be passed from father to son would be written in the native language of both, but not impossible that a less secret tongue would be used if the father foresaw that the son might need help reading the map.
Neither is it clear why the dwarves should be unable to calculate when the last moon of Autumn can be expected, however the fact that they can’t strongly hints that they lack experience in sky-watching. This is consistent with their underground way of life. In JRR's writings, the palaces and strongholds of the Elves of Nargothrond, Menegroth and Mirkwood live underground but the Elves themselves are constantly depicted in the woods, whereas Dwarves are not. Dwarves appear above ground only to travel for specific purposes. Living in caves must have been normal for both races, but the Elves' love of stars and trees called them outside while the Dwarves' love of stone inclined them to stay inside.
Another possibility is that Durin’s Day is a strictly local phenomenon, observed only at Mount Erebor, and the reason Thorin and his companions don’t know when it will next come is that they are too geographically removed to know when Winter will begin there.
Lalaith (in an essay no longer available on line) is said to have calculated that it was October 14th (Winterfilth 22nd in the Shire calendar), but this may apply only October 14, 2004.
Hookbill the Goomba posted this analysis to Barrowdowns Forum, based on The Enclyclopedia of Arda:
‘Dwarvish New Years
A selection of modern Dwarvish new years: all dates are shown in the modern (Gregorian) calendar
2001 16 October
2002 6 October
2003 26 September
2004 14 October
2005 3 October
2006 22 September
2007 11 October
2008 29 September
2009 18 October
2010 7 October
2011 27 September
Thursday 14 October 2004 is a definite Durin's Day: not only do the Sun and Moon appear in the sky together, but a partial solar eclipse occurs. The occurrence of other Durin's Days will depend on longitude.
Reading the article besides this on the Encyclopaedia reveals that Durin’s day will be different in which country you are in. I suppose this applied to the Dwarves of Middle Earth as well. This got me thinking, Dwarves in, say, The Blue Mountains, would have a different day to those in the iron hills, if its further enough away. It must be confusing.’
I think he is quite right about the effect of differences in longitude and the potential for confusion. Lalaith, along with the Encyclopedia of Arda, assumes that the astronomically unsophisticated dwarves used a strict lunar calendar. In such a calendar the months are out of sync with the solar year. For instance, the strictly lunar nature of the Muslim calendar explains why Ramadan occurs both annually and during every season of the year. The Jewish soli-lunar calendar keeps months in relative sync with seasons by introducing frequent leap-months. The Encyclopedia of Arda speculates that the Dwarves adopted the same expedient, but I am not convinced.
It is more consistent with The Hobbit to assume that the dwarves could not name the month in which Durin’s Day would reliably fall because it would be different every year, and thus the year would not always begin with the same month. Nor would it begin the same time in different parts of Middle-earth, since the beginnings and endings of the seasons change in a journey from North to South, as LoTR illustrates. Keeping the names of months constant would give dwarves of different regions their best shot at a shared time frame, at least in the short term: ‘Two Octobers ago’ is easily calculated.