LOTR Dates to Help Mark Your Journey

Note: Hobbit months have 30 days, plus a Midsummer’s Day and two accompanying days that do not fit into any month. To accommodate this, I have moved Entmoot back by two days (it occurs on Feb. 30 in TTT), and treated June 30 and July 1 as Midsummer’s Eve and Day, respectively. All dates come from The Tale of Years, appendix B in ROTK, and stretch from 3018 Third Age (the year FOTR begins) to 3021 Third Age (the year ROTK ends); there are many dates that I have omitted for reasons of space, and that one could use as goal dates. Because much of the action of LOTR happens between September and March, this is where most of the dates fall.

January 8: Fellowship reaches Hollin (3019).

January 13: Fellowship enters Moria (3019).

January 15: Fall of Gandalf in Moria (3019).

January 17: Fellowship reaches Caras Galadhon in Lorien (3019).

January 25: Gandalf defeats the Balrog and passes away (3019).

February 14: Gandalf returns to life. Mirror of Galadriel. (3019).

February 16: Fellowship leaves Lorien (3019).

February 26: Breaking of the Fellowship (3019).

February 28 (approx): Entmoot begins (3019).

March 2: Gandalf and company reach Edoras and heal Theoden. Ents reach Isengard (3019).

March 3: Battle of Helm’s Deep (3019).

March 5: Theoden, Gandalf and company reach Isengard (3019).

March 7: Frodo meets Faramir (3019)

March 9: Gandalf and Pippin reach Minas Tirith (3019).

March 13: Frodo captured by Orcs after being wounded by Shelob (3019).

March 15: Battle of the Pelennor Fields (3019).

March 18: The Army of the West leaves Minas Tirith (3019).

March 25: Downfall of Sauron (3019). Birth of Elanor and beginning of the reckoning of the Fourth Age in Gondor (3021).

April 6: The mallorn tree flowers in the Party Field (3020).

April 8: Field of Cormallen (3019).

May 1: Crowning of King Ellesar (3019). Sam marries Rosie (3020).

May 8: Eomer and Éowyn leave Minas Tirith to return to Rohan (3019).

May 20: Elrond and Arwen arrive in Lorien (3019).

June 20: Gollum escapes from Thranduil (3018).

June 25: Aragorn finds the White Tree (3019)

June 30 (approx): Arwen arrives in Minas Tirith. (3019)

July 1 (approx): Marriage of Aragorn and Arwen. (3019)

July 4: Boromir sets out from Minas Tirith (3018).

July 10: Gandalf imprisoned in Orthanc (3018).

August 10: Funeral of Theoden (3019).

August 22: Gandalf, Aragorn, and company come to Isengard (3019).

September 18: Gandalf escapes from Orthanc (3018).

September 21: The hobbits and Gandalf return to Rivendell (3019).

September 22: Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday.

September 29: Frodo reaches Bree (3018). The Ringbearers depart over the Sea (3021).

October 3: Gandalf attacked at Weathertop (3018).

October 5: Gandalf and the hobbits leave Rivendell (3019).

October 6: Aragorn and the hobbits attacked at Weathertop (3018).

October 18: Gandalf reaches Rivendell (3018).

October 20: Escape across the Ford of Bruinen (3018).

October 24: Frodo wakes up in Rivendell. Boromir reaches Rivendell (3018).

October 25: Council of Elrond (3018).

October 28: The hobbits return to Bree (3019).

November 3: Battle of Bywater, and the end of the War of the Ring (3019).

December 25: Fellowship of the Ring leaves Rivendell (3018)

Submitted by TORN walker Miradan.