In the Shire Calendar, the year begins on 21 December, for we read that ‘Mid-year’s Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice’, which falls on 21 June.

The same is true for the Kings’ Reckoning: ‘The Hobbits ... continued to use a form of Kings’ Reckoning adapted to fit their own customs.’ The Stewards’ Reckoning being only a revised version of the former, it also had a year beginning on the winter solstice.

As for the New Reckoning, there is the indication that ‘the year began on March 25 old style’, here interpreted to mean 25 Rethe, or Gregorian 16 March. In fact, ‘Yavannië 30 ... corresponded with former September 22’, that is, 22 Halimath.

We read that ‘the yestarë ... in the Calendar of Imladris ... corresponded more or less with Shire April 6.’ This is 6 Astron, equivalent to Gregorian 27 March. As the Imladris reckoning did not involve the addition of a leap-day every four years, as with the other four calendars (and our own), but rather doubling the enderi every twelve years, a 12-year cycle for its concordance with ours is proposed. In this cycle, 27 March is the mean yestarë, as according to the year considered yestarë might be equivalent to 26, 27 or 28 March.

For the Shire Calendar, as well as the Kings’, Stewards’ and New Reckoning, it has been assumed that the leap-years of each one are more or less coincident with those where we would have a 29 February. Dates in brackets refer to such years. The fact that, in the Gregorian calendar, no century year is a leap-year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 has been left out of consideration for the purposes of this essay; thus also the lack of enderi-doubling in the last year of every third yén, in the Calendar of Imladris.

The appended tables show the relationship among the various mentioned calendars, as deduced from Prof. Tolkien’s works and the above considerations.

The numerals I to XII refer to the twelve years of the Calendar of Imladris that comprise a cycle with eleven years having three enderi each, the twelfth having six enderi. Years IV, VIII and XII start in March of a Gregorian year immediately preceding a leap-year, and end in March of a Gregorian leap-year, therefore including a day called 29 February in the Gregorian calendar.

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