Tears of Mirrormere Discussion Thread

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

First: Yay, your secondary character seems even better than I thought, Lommy. I say, great to have her there. (And as for me, yes, I did have to pick those names What's wrong with them? They are Dwarvish a lot!)

Second:

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

Holiday of the Dwarves, Durin's Day, occurred only when the Moon and the Sun were in the sky together on the Dwarves' New Year's Day - which was the first day of the last Moon of autumn. By the end of the Third Age, the Dwarves no longer had the ability to calculate when such a phenomenon would occur. According to my calculations, the Autumn in the northern hemisphere is assumed to start on the autumnal equinox, generally on September 22nd, the season runs until about December 21st. The first day of the last new moon of Autumn could thus take place any time between about November 22 and December 21

I cannot count at all and I did not count this by myself, but if that may be of any help to anyone (who could for example deduce something from it ):

On the year Bilbo came to Erebor (2841), Durin's Day was not later than on 30th October (according to Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth) - and certainly somewhat later than 9th October, when the Dwarves left the Lake-Town.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arda, "The first day of the Dwarves' year was calculated according to the last new moon of autumn (that is, the new moon that occurs within two weeks of 6 October, on a modern calendar)." That would be, according to the same website, 15th October in LotR calendar, which is the number relevant for us.
The page also shows the Durin's Days for the current time, and the dates shown are between 22 Sept - 18 Oct (in LotR counting that would be 13 Sept - 27 Oct).
(Does this seem curious to anyone? Just asking. But at least, the datum of Durin's Day in TH fits - very closely - the timeframe set here.)

So, I have no idea about this and all and I am saying only what I read from these resources: it seems that usually, Durin's Day would occur rather sometime during late October or such. And thus, not by the time we need it. Bah. Horrible, actually. (I shouldn't have started with that anyway.) I haven't even managed to think (by trying to switch the date of 10th November into various calendars ) of any trick how to make the date fit into the timeframe of our tale.

In any case, together with Gwath I would say that I am inclined to think there was some special reason for Balin to go to look into the Mirrormere on that particular day.