Ages of the Valinor and the Ice Ages.

[James the Just]

The Annals of Aman take us deep into the past, especially if we assume a Valian Year is 144 of our own. What was it like back then? Here are some charts that can give us an idea with a quick glance. Some of these periods are hot, like in our present time, while others can be quite cold, with most of the northern lands covered in glaciers.

The Valian Years start near the beginning of the geological Ionian Age, when the Earth last experienced a pole shift. We can date this precisely if we set the Fall of Barad-dûr to 4502 BC.
Here are the dates in Before Present (before 1950) for the Ice Ages back then. MIS stands for Marine Isotopic Stage.

774000 BP Ionian Age.

761000 BP Cromerian (MIS 18).
712000 BP Cromerian (MIS 17).
676000 BP Cromerian or Donian (MIS 16).
621000 BP Cromerian (MIS 15).
563000 BP Cromerian (MIS 14).
533000 BP Cromerian (MIS 13).
478000 BP Anglian or Elsterian (MIS 12).
424000 BP Hoxnian or Holsteinian (MIS 11).
374000 BP Wolstonian (MIS 10).
337000 BP Purfleetian (MIS 9).
300000 BP Fuhnian (MIS 8).
243000 BP Dömnitzian (MIS 7).
191000 BP Drenthian (MIS 6).

The chart shows the Ages of the Valinor in different colours. They began in 733500 BP (exactly) and lasted for 100 Valian Years each, or 14400 of ours.



After the Ionian came the Tarantian Age. Here are the dates for the stadials (cooler periods) and interstadials (warmer periods). Peaks or mid-points are shown by a thin line.

129000 BP Tarantian Age.

129000 BP Eemian (MIS 5e).
115000 BP Herning (MIS 5d).
106000 BP Brörup Interstadial (MIS 5c).
93000 BP Rederstall Stadial (MIS 5b).
85000 BP Odderade Interstadial (MIS 5a).
71000 BP Early Middle Weichselian (MIS 4).
57000 BP Late Middle Weichselian (MIS 3).
28000 BP Late Weichselian (MIS 2).
15070 BP Oldest Dryas.
14670 BP Bølling oscillation.
14100 BP Older Dryas.
13900 BP Allerød oscillation.
12900 BP Younger Dryas.

11650 BP Holocene Epoch.

11650 BP Greenlandian.
8186 BP Northgrippian.
4200 BP Meghalayan.

Is it just me or do the Ice Ages seem to correspond pretty closely to the Ages of the Valinor and Middle-earth?

128700 BP Y.T. 701.
114300 BP Y.T. 801.
107100 BP Y.T. 851.
92700 BP Y.T. 951.
85500 BP Y.T. 1001.
71100 BP Y.T. 1101.
56700 BP Y.T. 1201.
27900 BP Y.T. 1401.
15084 BP Y.T. 1490.
14652 BP Y.T. 1493.
14076 BP Y.T. 1497.
13932 BP Y.T. 1498.
13500 BP Years of the Sun.
12910 BP Second Age.
9469 BP Third Age.
6449 BP Fourth Age.
4109 BP Fifth Age.
1949 BP Sixth Age.
5 BP Seventh Age.



Note that the Morgoth is up for release in 2850 AD!