There are five commonly designated "ages" of the world:

The Time Before Time - from the creation and the beginning of the world until the Fall of the Faere - an unknown number of years, but speculated to be around 25,000 or more.

The Time of Strife - from the Fall of the Faere until the beginning of the reign of King Silmain of Vanara, an unknown number of years, but speculated to be around 7, 000.

The First Age - from the reign of Silmain until the overthrow of Parthais, when Serith Ellyn ascended the throne of Vanara

The Second Age - from the reign of Queen Serith Ellyn until the Remaking of the World

The Third Age - our present epoch.

This essay primarily pertains to the development and use of calendars and timekeeping during the Second Age of the world.

As of the year 870 of the Second Age, there were two commonly known calendar systems, the Royal Calendar and the "standard" Calendar of Duinnor, the former being for ceremonial purposes. It is the Royal Calendar, not the standard calendar, from which the names of years are derived (see below).

Until the middle of the Second Age, there were a variety of calendars in use in the world. The Dragonkind, Vanarans, Duinnor, and Glareth all used different calendar systems. It was common practice in the Eastlands Realm to use the Glareth Calendar, while Tracia and Masurthia used the Duinnor Calendar. Altoria used its own calendar before adopting that used by Vanara. All of these systems changed over time in various ways and used a variety of schemes when it came to the months of the year and the days of the week. Most were based on the lunar cycles, with Duinnor being a notable exception, using a solar calendar instead (as the Dragonkind consistently did throughout their history).

Realizing that trade depended upon some agreement on a consistent calendar system, in Year 246 S.A., the Council of Time was formed of scholars from all Realms. Their purpose was to discuss, debate, and decide on a new system. Vanara was chosen as a meeting place due to its many observatories.

For twenty years, scholars pored over documents, consulted with astrologers and time-keepers, and debated over proposed schemes. Eventually three systems were considered, and the Duinnor Calendar was accepted with a few minor changes to it. Politically, this was an easy choice since Duinnor exerted little power and the choice of its system was deemed a compromise between vying representatives allied to Glareth, Vanara, and Masurthia (the most powerful Realms of that time).

The Duinnor Calendar (not to be confused with the Royal Calendar, see below) itself is something of an amalgamation of previous conventions. It consisted of twelve months of thirty days. Certain days of the year were not to be counted as part of a month. These were: (1) the first day of each year, called New Year's Day, (2 & 3,) the days of Winter and Summer Solstice, and (4 & 5) the days of Spring and Autumn Equinox. These made a year consisting of 365 days.

The names of the months were to be called Firstmonth, Secondmonth, Thirdmonth, et cetera.

This system had the advantage of retaining the general references to the lunar calendars of the other Realms, but was, in fact, based on a solar year. Unlike the old calendars prevalently used, New Year's Day would begin a week and two days after Midwinter's Day, rather than on the following day.

There are twenty-three standard hours in each calendar day, each consisting of sixty minutes. Each day of the calendar begins at sunrise. The twenty-fourth hour of each day, called the Endhour, was the last hour before dawn, consisting of the remaining minutes until sunrise. Thus, the Endhour was sometimes the longest, and sometimes the shortest hour of the day. Dissatisfaction with this continued to mount, but those who viewed sunrise as the start of each day held sway over others who wanted the day to begin at midnight, which would allow a consistent length of minutes in every hour.

A standard hour was based on the time between sunrise on the day of and after the vernal equinox, divided by twenty-four. Although hours were not commonly used until the invention of accurate and cheaply produced clocks in the late Second Age, scholars understood them to be based on a standard of sixty minutes (each of sixty seconds). When clocks came into use, the daily adjustment of them by their owners became a sunrise ritual. Because of this and other irregularities, new calendar systems were being discussed by scholars in the late Second Age, systems that would do away with the inconvenient Endhour and compensate for seasonal drift that was taking place in spite of the intentions of the current system. It was noted, for example, that the length of each day was actually a tiny bit longer than 24 hours, which gradually added up so that the alignment of the stars and the date of the Vernal Equinox drifted. By 865, a new calendar had been devised, but languished without approval by the King or adoption by Duinnor or other realms.

The Royal Duinnor Calendar, which pertains only to the King's Year, starts on the day after the Spring Equinox, sometimes called Spring Day, and is a ceremonial calendar for the regnal year of the Unknown Kings. On the morning of the Spring Equinox, the Unknown King of Duinnor goes forth to the Temple of Beras and returns from there with a new Avatar. From thenceforth the year is named after the shape of the King's Avatar. Hence, the Year of the Snowflake, the Year of the Red Door, et cetera. Why the Avatar takes a different shape each year, and the meaning of the shape, remains a mystery. This calendar was begun by the First Unknown King and persists although its value is primarily ceremonial.

Since the Vernal Equinox is the most important day for this calendar, and due to the problems of drift mentioned earlier, there was some discussion among scholars that it was perhaps best to do away with the Royal Duinnor Calendar altogether, except for ceremonial references, and to use a corrected standard calendar (as mentioned above) to determine the correct date of the King's renewal ceremonies.

When it came to timekeeping, it was traditionally left up to a town or village to designate a timekeeper, normally the mayor or other head person. Many regions used no system whatsoever for daily timekeeping, except that provided by the sun, moon, and stars. But as industry developed, including the need to regulate daily events, timekeeping grew in importance. Various instruments were developed over the ages to do this, from sandglasses, to water clocks, to pendulum systems. By the 850s of the Second Age, clocks that used springs were being produced, and larger towns and cities erected a central clock, tended to by a timekeeper, that other clocks would be set to. By the year 870, clocks were being manufactured in every realm. In Glareth special attention and a great deal of resources given to making seaworthy clocks to aid in the problems of navigation, but by the end of the Second Age no clock had yet been devised that could survive sea conditions and remain even relatively accurate.

For more about calendars, see Why Do Years Have Names

Courtesy of The Reader's Companion to the Year of the Red Door
© 2024 by William Timothy Murray