Fourth Age

The Third Age was held to have ended when Elrond left Middle-earth on 29 September of Third Age 3021.

This age was marked by the recovery of the Númenorean kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor, while the House of Durin retook Moria until the race of Dwarves failed. The Last Ship of the Elves, carrying Círdan, Celeborn, and all remaining Elves of the First Age left Middle-earth some time after Fourth Age 171. Eventually that would lead to the final Dominion of Men over Arda, coming together with the total waning of the Elves and other dwindling races, such as the Ents and probably the Dwarves.

Eldarion's reign would have lasted for about 100 years after the death of Aragorn.

There is no concrete information on more than the first few centuries of this Age, so it is not known when it ended, although it was probably shorter than 3 millennia, around c. 2,430 years or more, and was followed by the Fifth Age.

Additionally, according to one of the drafts of the Appendices, it is said:

Not all calendars in Middle-earth reset their count of years to Fourth Age 1 in the same year, on the same date, or indeed at all. As such, years given for certain events in the Fourth Age differ according to the calendar used.

The Shire-reckoning is the calendar system used for all dates in the Red Book, with corresponding to Third Age 1601. Years in Shire-reckoning did not restart at the end of the Third Age; they continued uninterrupted from to , and "in so far as the Hobbits took any account of the change of Age, they maintained that it began with 2 Yule 1422." This means that is also Third Age 3022 and Fourth Age 1 as far as dates in the Red Book are concerned.

However, in Gondor and the rest of the Reunited Kingdom outside the Shire, the New Reckoning calendar entered use starting in Third Age 3019. Under this calendar, 25 March Third Age 3021 is the first day of Fourth Age 1, some 9 months earlier than the new year in the Shire. The Shire Calendar and the New Reckoning begin their years on different days: 2 Yule for the Shire and 25 March for the rest of the Reunited Kingdom.

There are few dates given in the legendarium that require the reader to account for this difference, because most dates of the Fourth Age are already explicitly expressed in terms of the Shire Reckoning. For example, Legolas and Gimli's departure from Middle-earth is given as . The exceptions are both from the Note on the Shire Records and are as follows:

• Tolkien explains that the text of The Lord of the Rings descends from a copy of the Red Book made in Gondor that bore the note "Findegil, King’s Writer, finished this work in IV 172." The accompanying text notes the equivalent year , which is Fourth Age 171 in the Shire Reckoning, so this note must have been written with regard to the New Reckoning calendar before 7 Narvinyë.
• In the same paragraph, Tolkien refers to Peregrin Took's retirement to Gondor in "IV 64." We are told elsewhere that Peregrin and his companion Meriadoc Brandybuck arrived in Gondor sometime between the autumn and the ending of , which is Fourth Age 63 in the Shire Reckoning. As such, the stated "IV 64" must be in reference to the New Reckoning calendar, again, prior to 7 Narvinyë.

The Prologue of the first edition of The Lord of the Rings mistakenly mentions that the Third Age "ended with the great years and of the Shire." whereas the Age ended in and . This reference was removed in the second edition.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 25/05/2026.