The timeline is
restored! Making use of the now-accepted order of the NoME part 1 texts, I've constructed it from the latest sources back.
A lot of it fits together really nicely - the founding of Tirion (from the Annals of Aman) falls naturally at the beginning of a
yen, and things like Melkor's release and the making of the Silmarils can be made to do so too. There are three main things I've missed off entirely:
- The Awakening of Men. Tolkien wanted this to be both well before the fall of the Trees,
and at least 50 (long) Valian Years after the Awakening of the Quendi. But he also wanted only 38 VY between Elves awakening and the Trees going dark. It doesn't fit; I'd have to invent a date.
- The birth of Galadriel. With the timelines we have, she cannot simultaneously be pre-adult at the Darkening, and older than the Silmarils, but that's what the two latest sources tell us. If Tolkien wanted to reconcile them, he would have needed to dramatically reduce the timeline between those two events, and he never indicated such a change.
- The birth of Aredhel. I'm annoyed by this, because it's actually one of the last dates Tolkien added to the Annals of Aman. But the Annals make the Aman years about 1.5x the length they are in later timelines, and I just can't fit her in before the Silmarils are created without pretty much inventing dates for all Finwe's descendents. So she has been excluded.
I also see from this thread that there's a mention of the March crossing Caradhras somewhere in NoME 3. I'm... just gonna hope that's earlier than the timelines that say otherwise.
hS