Determining the ages, Tolkien's great use of Mathematics and Historic Events.

[THE Ka]

I found this today while i was reading over some material in the Encyclopedia of Arda... It caught my eye and made me wonder about how Tolkien deturmined the end of each age by the fall of a tyrant or great battle, and that if we were to recon and imagine the time from today and the forth age how would we deturnime the amount of years for each age.

Although we have no records of the later Fourth, or any following Age, Tolkien makes a brief allusion to the future of Middle-earth in a letter written in 1958: "I imagine the gap [between the Fall of Barad-dûr and modern times] to be about 6000 years; that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S[econd] A[ge] and T[hird] A[ge]. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh."

( "Forth Age". The Encyclopedia of Arda.2004)

Hope you enjoy, i found it very interesting. Digging up a good mystery now and then and pondering it until you see its possiblities threw are many highlights of many peoples lives, including mine.

Do you have any comments on this? I would be glad to hear any member's wisdom or opinion. Blessed Be, THE Ka.