Merry Rivendell Departure!
 

And a happy 2 Yule!

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Remarkably, the Company’s setting out on our Christmas Day was indeed originally a mere matter of arithmetical convenience. In early work, and in Time-scheme I, the Company set out on November 24, but later Tolkien noted “Too much takes place in winter. They should remain longer at Rivendell... Frodo should not start until say Dec. 24th”, and accordingly set the date back by a month. However, instead of December 24 he had used December 25, simply because accounting for December’s extra day compared to November meant that he would not have to correct all his dates in what had become January. Original coincidence notwithstanding, though, Tolkien when recasting the calendar of Book II regarded its symbolism as important, and preferred to change his timeline yet again rather than lose it. As he later wrote, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision”.