Quote:
Tar-Palantir wrote:
Hi Tar, What I mean by 'prove' is to provide some dates or definitions.
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There are no 'specific' dates provided by JRRT. JRRT calls it "the longest", and "the long First Age".
The section of Letter 131 that refers to "the long First Age", begins with JRRT writing of how the "Cycles begin with a cosmological myth: The Music of the Ainur". He then writes "It moves then swiftly to the History of the Elves, or the Silmarillion proper; to the world as we perceive it, but of course transfigured in a still half-mythical mode: that is it deals with rational incarnate creatures of more or less comparable stature with our own" and continues with the nature and making of Elves and Men. The section ends with him writing about the overthrow of Morgoth and Earendil being placed in heaven as a star.
By this letter it would seem to me, though this is speculation, that the First Age likely began with the Awakening of the Elves (followed soon there after by Men and Dwarves 'historically' atleast, if not in 'mannish myth') or between then and the time when they made it to Aman. The time of the cosmological myths could be the earlier ages implied by the mention of the First Second and Third Ages being 'later ages' in the Tale of Years drafts in PoME.
[ February 16, 2003: Message edited by: Tar Elenion ]
[ February 18, 2003: Message edited by: Tar Elenion ]