Elf years to Human years ratio

[burrahobbit]

144 Elf years to 1 Human year. Is that correct?

No, it isn't. There really isn't any such thing as an "Elf Year." There is a different amount of time that is called a "yén" which is 144 years long. a yén, though, is no more an "Elf Year" than a regular year is an "Elf Month."

Elves used yéni (the plural for yén) to tell time because when you live for ever the year becomes inconvenient.

To give you an idea of exactly how inconvenient I've just created an imaginary unit of time that I'm going to call the "woop." The woop is about two and a half days long, which is just about 1/144th of a year. I am 2644 woops old. It took me at least 5 minutes to figure that out. If I wanted to remember that number I'd have to keep it written on my hand. I'd much rather use the year, thanks. An elf would rather use the yén for the same reason, though after a while even the yén would become inconvenient.

Finally, the elves also had two seperate units of time that are about the same length as out year, one astronomical and the other biological. The solar year is called a coranar, which means "sun-round," and the bological year is a loa, which is "growth."

I hope this helps you (and everyone else) understand.

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: burrahobbit ]