Fourth, Fifth, Sixth (and Seventh?) Ages

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by JRR Tolkien - Letter 211

*I imagine the gap 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.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

It's clear that Tolkien wasn't deeply invested in the 6000 years/Sixth Age idea, since he only mentioned it the once. But... given that he did mention it, and given that he's Tolkien, it's hard to imagine he didn't put at least some thought into it. With only two or three Age-defining events to get us from Aragorn to the present, he surely had something in mind, right?

Today I stumbled across Boris Shapiro's calendar discussion, which baldly states the following:

Originally Posted by Shapiro

Here only the common sence can help us. We know that each Age began and ended with events of global scale which importance for the whole Middle-earth deserved starting reckoning a brand new Age. Such events were the First Sunrise, the Fall of Morgoth, and the Fall of Sauron etc. Alas, we do not know for certain what did Tolkien thought about the Seventh Age, but I will proceed from the assumption that such an even can only be the Birth of Christ.

Tolkien was a roman catholic, and the meaning of Christmas for him cannot be overestimated. I am sure too that there will be no event of greater importance "tenn' Ambar-metta" and it deserves to call the Ages before it "the Elder Days". I am sure that Tolkien would agree.

I'm inclined to quibble over whether Tolkien would pin an Age change to the birth or resurrection of Christ, but I think Shapiro's point is well made. The Incarnation of the One is the only event in historical-time that gets a mention in the mature Legendarium (in the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, found in HoME X), so I agree that Tolkien would likely have used it.

The one thing I do object to is using it for the beginning of the Seventh age. That would mean Ages 4-6 span only 4000 years combined, with 7 at 2000 and counting; precisely the opposite of "they have, I think [read: state in authorial voice], quickened"! No - the "Old Hope" of the Edain must mark the end of the Fifth Age, and the beginning of the Sixth.

That leaves us a span of 4000 years for the Fourth and Fifth Ages, with the changeover somewhere around 2000 BC. I took a look at some of the historical (and "historical") events around that time, and there's something of an embarrassment of riches:

2181/2160 BC: Fall of the Old Kingdom of Egypt
2104 BC: Biblical Flood under the Hebrew calendar (Christian tradition places it ca. 2350 BC)
2091 BC: Traditional date for Abraham, the first Biblical Patriarch
2055/2040 BC: Restoration of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt
(1710 BC: Fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt)

With Tolkien being Catholic, I'm tentatively discounting the Flood date. Abraham I don't think would qualify by himself - compared to Biblical figures like Moses or Noah, he doesn't take part in epoch-changing events. But Egypt... I'm quite taken with Egypt.

Part of my liking for the idea comes from Letter 211 again. Not long before the '6000 years' footnote, Tolkien explicitly compares Numenoreans to Egyptians, and specifically the Crown of Gondor to the Crown of Egypt (with pictures!). If we assume that '6000 years' was invented as it was written - and there's no evidence that it existed beforehand - then the Egypt he was already thinking of could have worked its way in.

I've speculated before about Egypt as a successor-state to Gondor; now I'm suggesting that Tolkien thought the same way. Egypt is one of the most ancient states in the world, and I think Tolkien would have liked to imagine that Gondor continued, rather than just vanishing from history.

So, which collapse of Edainish civilisation would be the end of the Fourth Age? If we take 1AD as the start of the Sixth Age, the calendar when Tolkien wrote his letter would look like:

Old Kingdom collapse: 4th Age ca. 1882 yr; 5th ca. 2160 yr; 6th 1958 yr.
Middle Kingdom collapse: 4th Age ca. 2332 yr; 5th ca. 1710 yr; 6th 1958 yr.

Either scenario does not strictly follow "they have, I think, quickened". We could salvage the first by stretching the '6000 years' a bit, but we'd want to add at least 500 years. We could also salvage the second, by assuming the Seventh Age has already begun - but it would have to be at least 250 years before Tolkien wrote.

I think the Old Kingdom date is most plausible for Tolkien to have been thinking of; it ties in nicely with Abraham, so includes a 'religious change' like the banishment of Morgoth and the destruction of Sauron, and it doesn't require there to be an epoch-defining event around AD 1700, which are fairly sparse. There was also a climate-change event around the fall of the Old Kingdom, which also caused the Akkadian Empire to collapse. Interestingly, there was also a climate event around 6000 years ago, when the Sahara dried up - and one theory places the start of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 BC. Could it be as simple as Tolkien seeing this and going "sure, that can be the Fourth Age calendar"?

hS