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Raynor · 12-25-2006, 05:06 AM

Ok, this is going to be a long one:

Quote:

Hammond and Scull's Reader Companion, page 264, notes on the Chapter "The Ring Goes South"

It was a cold grey near the end of December:
According to the Tale ofe years, it is 25t December 1418. As this chapter was first written, the Company departed on 24 November, but Tolkien decided to move the event later in the year. "Too much takes place in winter, he noted. "They should remain longer in Rivendell. This would have additional advantage of allowing Elrond's scouts and messengers far longer time. He should discover Black Riders have gone back. Frodo should not start until say Dec. 24th". Christopher Tolkien comments that "it seems likely that 24 December was chosen "numerically" one month later than the existing date... and it was changed to 25 December to make new dates agree "numerically" with the existing time-structure (since November has 30 days but December 31) [before Tolkien introduced the concept of thirty-day months in the Shire Reckoning]" (The Treason of Isengard pp. 422-3).

Hery Resnik reported that during an interview with Tolkien in early March 1966 he had commented to Tolkien on the date of the departure from Rivendell, and on certain aspects of Frodo which seemed to parallel Jesus Christ. To the question "How do you feel about the idea that people might identify Frodo with Christ?" Tolkien replied:

Quote:

Well, you know, there've been saviours before; it is a very common thing. There've been heroes and patriots who have given up for their countries. You don't have to be Christian to believe that somebody has to die to save something. As a matter of fact, December 25th occured strictly by accident, and I left it in to show that this was not a Christian myth anyhow. It was purely unimportant date, and I though, Well there it is, just an accident. ["An interview with Tolkien, Niekas 18 (Spring 1967), p. 43]

In Nomenclature, however, Tolkien wrote that:

Quote:

the midwinter festival as not an Elvish custom, and so would not have been celebrated at RIvendell. The Fellowship, however, left on Dec. 25, which [date] had then no significance, since the Yule, or its equivalent, as tehn the last day of the eyar, and the first of the next year ["Yule"=the two Yule days between 30 December and 1 January in the Hobbit calendar, which were holidays and times of feasting]. Though Dec. 25 (setting out) and March 25 (accomplishment of quest) were intentionally chosen by me.