Tale of Years

The Tale of Years is a timeline of events in Middle-Earth, but it is by no means exhaustive. Many events, such as the full lines succession of Kings in Arnor and Gondor, are not enumerated in the Tale of Years (or not only so), but have their own timelines, such as the Kings of Numenor, Line of Isildur and Line of Anarion

The Tale of Years itself is broken up for ease of viewing into multiple sections, each detailing the events of one of the Ages of Arda.


At the current game-date, there are five primary epochs in the history of Arda, the Years of the Lamps, Years of the Trees, and the three Ages of the Sun. The primary difference in tracking of time between the Ages of the Sun and the time before the first rising of the sun is the use of ‘Valian Years’, which are equivalent to approximately 9.582 solar years. Thus, the time between, for example, the arrival of Tulkas (1500 Valian Years after the creation of Arda) and the raising of the Two Lamps (1900 Valian Years after the creation of Arda), although only 400 Valian Years, is actually approximately 3,800 solar years.

Thus, while the Moon first rises in the Valian Year 5000, to our sense of time, it would actually have been 49,260 (solar) years since the creation of Arda. Once the Sun had risen, though, and the seasons of the year passed in accordance with its travels, the counting changed over to solar years for the First, Second, and Third Ages. In addition to those published sections of the Tale of Years, in keeping with the format established for ‘The Great Years’ of 3018-3019 of the Third Age in The Lord of the Rings, this edition of the Tale of Years includes a separate entry for the Campaign Years.

Tale of Years

The Last King DEM