Was the First Age marked by the awakening of 🧝Elves?

[Agrippa]

For example, this is the entry "First Age" from The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Rober Foster:​

FIRST AGE The first of the recorded ages of Middle-earth. The First Age may have begun with the completion of Arda or with the awakening of the Elves. Its early history, save for the Battle of the Powers and the Great Journey, is obscure, for most of the Eldar were in the West, and other races kept few records. Moreover, until the rising of the Moon and Sun there seems to have been no count of years in Middle-earth.
This was the Age of the Eldar and of Morgoth. It ended with the Wars of Beleriand and the Great Battle, in which Morgoth was cast out of Eä.
Also called the Elder Days and the Eldest Days.​

And there're this remark of Christopher Tolkien in his foreword to The War of the Jewels:​

The title of this second part, The War of the Jewels, is an expression that my father often used of the last six centuries of the First Age: the history of Beleriand after the return of Morgoth to Middle-earth and the coming of the Noldor, until its end.​

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I think partially where the misconception arises is a lot of casual readers associate the first year of the F.A. with the rising of the sun/moon because they separate this from what they think is a previous age called Year of the Trees (Y.T.). Y.T. is associated with the First Age, partially. Years of the Sun (Y.S.) is not equivalent to the start of the F.A. but is within some of it and continues on after the F.A.
I think the simplest way to divide the timeline up would be as follows:

Y.T. Prior to the F.A. (from creation of the Trees to last of the Creations of the Valar)

Y.T. of the F.A. (awakening at Cuiviénen through the destruction of the Trees to Fingolfin's host crossing the Helcaraxë)

Y.S. of the F.A. (from, of course, the sun's first rising, and continues).

Hope this made sense!

 

[Olorgando]

What began with the first rising of the moon and the sun was measured time as we know it (well ... more or less): months and days. How to calculate years is not quite so clear to me. JRRT tried out several variants of "Valian years" and how to convert them to sun years without reaching a final settled state. What Christopher Tolkien put into the published "Silmarillion" were editorial choices of his.
To add to @Glorfindel Goldtress 's list, before the creation of the Two Trees, there was the time of the Two Lamps (and a time before that), when the Valar still lived in the center of Arda, only retreating (fleeing 🤨) to Valinor in the far west after the destruction of the lamps, where the two trees were then brought into being. But the "time" as measured by the Valar back then would mean nothing to us, be incomprehensible to us - and perhaps to the Elves, too.

 

[Tar-Elenion]

I have been pointing it out online for 23+ years now.
I still get people trying to argue with me about it, even in the face of direct quotes:

A close reading of App. F will indicate that the Length of the First Age is greater than from the return of the Noldor and the mythological first rising of the sun:
"The High-elven was an ancient tongue of Eldamar beyond the Sea, the first to be recorded in writing. It was no longer a birth-tongue but had become, as it were, an 'Elven-latin', still used for ceremony, and for high matters of lore and song, by the High Elves, who had returned in exile to Middle-earth at the end of the First Age."
LotR App. F
The Noldor return to Middle-earth, in exile, at the END of the First Age (i.e. the final ca. 600 years).

Tolkien refers to the length of the First Age:
"...but it ends with catastrophe, and the passing of the Ancient World, the world of the long First Age."
Letter 131
"The First Age was the longest."
PoMe, Tale of Years

Tolkien also directly states when the First Age began:
"Those were the Days of Bliss. In those days, in the Year one thousand and fifty of the Valar, the Elves awoke in Kuiviénen and the First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar began."
Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman

CT notes:
"In the manuscript as it was originally written the Elder Days began with the Awakening of the Elves: 'Here begin the Elder Days, or the First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar'; but 'the Elder Days' was struck out and does not appear in the typescript."
War of the Jewels, Tale of Years

Any number of the manuscripts published in Nature of Middle-earth e.g.:
"First Age 1. Quendi awake in the Spring (144 in number)."
"Days of Bliss. End of Waiting Time. First Age begins.
VY 865/1 Awaking of Quendi (Spring). 1"
"The First Age begins with the Awaking and ends with the Downfall of Angband."

 

[Olorgando]

I have been pointing it out online for 23+ years now.
I still get people trying to argue with me about it, even in the face of direct quotes:

Well, that was 23 years ago - maybe even in the previous millennium???
We now live in the age of "alternatives". 😈

 

[Agrippa]

I have been pointing it out online for 23+ years now.
I still get people trying to argue with me about it, even in the face of direct quotes:

A close reading of App. F will indicate that the Length of the First Age is greater than from the return of the Noldor and the mythological first rising of the sun:
"The High-elven was an ancient tongue of Eldamar beyond the Sea, the first to be recorded in writing. It was no longer a birth-tongue but had become, as it were, an 'Elven-latin', still used for ceremony, and for high matters of lore and song, by the High Elves, who had returned in exile to Middle-earth at the end of the First Age."
LotR App. F
The Noldor return to Middle-earth, in exile, at the END of the First Age (i.e. the final ca. 600 years).

Tolkien refers to the length of the First Age:
"...but it ends with catastrophe, and the passing of the Ancient World, the world of the long First Age."
Letter 131
"The First Age was the longest."
PoMe, Tale of Years

Tolkien also directly states when the First Age began:
"Those were the Days of Bliss. In those days, in the Year one thousand and fifty of the Valar, the Elves awoke in Kuiviénen and the First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar began."
Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman

CT notes:
"In the manuscript as it was originally written the Elder Days began with the Awakening of the Elves: 'Here begin the Elder Days, or the First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar'; but 'the Elder Days' was struck out and does not appear in the typescript."
War of the Jewels, Tale of Years

Any number of the manuscripts published in Nature of Middle-earth e.g.:
"First Age 1. Quendi awake in the Spring (144 in number)."
"Days of Bliss. End of Waiting Time. First Age begins.
VY 865/1 Awaking of Quendi (Spring). 1"
"The First Age begins with the Awaking and ends with the Downfall of Angband."

When I was reading the published Silmarillion for the first time, I clearly identified the beginning of the First Age with the first flowering of the Two Trees, since according to the text iit was a time when the Count of Time began in the first place. So, it was a sheer surprise for me to see frequent statesments as if the First Age began with the first sunrise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ZehnWaters]

When I was reading the published Silmarillion for the first time, I clearly identified the beginning of the First Age with the first flowering of the Two Trees, since according to the text iit was a time when the Count of Time began in the first place. So, it was a sheer surprise for me to see frequent statesments as if the First Age began with the first sunrise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Didn't they imprison Melkor for 3 ages (1000 Valian years)? That might have been the source of some of the confusion.

 

[Tar-Elenion]

"And the Valar doomed Melkor there to abide for three ages of Valinor..."
MR, AAm
"Melkor was condemned to Mandos for three ages (three hundred Valian Years)..."
ibid.
That would be: 300 x 9.586 = 2875.8 sun years.

 

[ZehnWaters]

"And the Valar doomed Melkor there to abide for three ages of Valinor..."
MR, AAm
"Melkor was condemned to Mandos for three ages (three hundred Valian Years)..."
ibid.
That would be: 300 x 9.586 = 2875.8 sun years.

My point still stands, which was that 3 ages ostensibly pass during his captivity. That's the source of the confusion.

 

[Olorgando]

MR, AAm

The first part takes us from the entry of the Ainur into Arda, and up to an entry "3500", after the destruction of the Two Lamps, the flight of the Valar & Co. to Valinor in the uttermost west, and the awakening of the Two Trees under the song of Yavanna and the tears of Nienna.

Then there's a "restart", "Here begins a new Reckoning in the Light of the Trees", taking us to the entry 1050 and the awakening of the Quendi, 1100 and the Chaining of Melkor, 1400 and his release from the Halls of Mandos, 1495 and the destruction of the Two Trees, and 1500 with the creation of the moon and sun.

Taking a Valian Age as 100 Valian Years (I'll pass over the contradictions in the conversion of VY into SY), there were 35 Valian Ages before the creation of the Two Trees, and 14.95 Valian Ages from their creation to their destruction, then 0.05 of a Valian Age before the rising of the moon and the sun, beginning the Years and Ages of the sun.

FAotS being about 600 years, SAotS a bit over 3400, and TAotS a bit over 3000.

But in the background lurks the concept of the sun and the moon having been created at the same time as Arda ... for which I suppose JRRT would have had to consign the AAm to the shredder - or some confused mannish tradition ... 🤢

... gotta ask my wife where we keep our friggin' aspirin ... 😖🤯🥴🤒

 

[ZehnWaters]

The first part takes us from the entry of the Ainur into Arda, and up to an entry "3500", after the destruction of the Two Lamps, the flight of the Valar & Co. to Valinor in the uttermost west, and the awakening of the Two Trees under the song of Yavanna and the tears of Nienna.

Then there's a "restart", "Here begins a new Reckoning in the Light of the Trees", taking us to the entry 1050 and the awakening of the Quendi, 1100 and the Chaining of Melkor, 1400 and his release from the Halls of Mandos, 1495 and the destruction of the Two Trees, and 1500 with the creation of the moon and sun.

Taking a Valian Age as 100 Valian Years (I'll pass over the contradictions in the conversion of VY into SY), there were 35 Valian Ages before the creation of the Two Trees, and 14.95 Valian Ages from their creation to their destruction, then 0.05 of a Valian Age before the rising of the moon and the sun, beginning the Years and Ages of the sun.

FAotS being about 600 years, SAotS a bit over 3400, and TAotS a bit over 3000.

Thank you! I think most people get confused because, again, his statement of previous ages existing before the rising of the Sun and Moon and simply assume the First Age refers to "the First Age of the Sun and Moon" and other ages (such as the 3 ages of Melkors chaining) being "ages of the trees" or "ages of the lamps". This is how I conceived them. Why would the defeat of Sauron in the Third Age constitute the starting of a new age any more than previous cataclysmic events such as the destruction of the Lamps? Why would they fall under the First Age?

But in the background lurks the concept of the sun and the moon having been created at the same time as Arda ... for which I suppose JRRT would have had to consign the AAm to the shredder - or some confused mannish tradition ... 🤢

... gotta ask my wife where we keep our friggin' aspirin ... 😖🤯🥴🤒

DON'T. EVEN. GET. ME. STARTED. I HATE that he even thought of walking any of that back. He already had a handle on it by moving the world into another sphere of existence at the end of the Second Age. There was no need for this revision.

 

[Agrippa]

Didn't they imprison Melkor for 3 ages (1000 Valian years)? That might have been the source of some of the confusion.

I noticed that J.R.R. Tolkien almost never used the word "century" in his narratives. If there is the word "ages" without the capitalization in the text, this means just indefinitely long period of time so the "ages of the Stars" in fact means the "centuries of the Stars", but if the word "Age" is written with capitalization, this means specific historical period of Arda.

 

[Elthir]

But in the background lurks the concept of the sun and the moon having been created at the same time as Arda ... for which I suppose JRRT would have had to consign the AAm to the shredder - or some confused mannish tradition ... 🤢

Why suppose?

"Here begins the "Annals of Aman", Rumil made them in the Elder Days, and they were held in memory by the Exiles. Those parts which we learned and remembered were thus set down in Numenor before the Shadow fell on it." JRRT, Morgoth's Ring

DON'T. EVEN. GET. ME. STARTED. I HATE that he even thought of walking any of that back. He already had a handle on it by moving the world into another sphere of existence at the end of the Second Age. There was no need for this revision.

Who handled what after when? Or in another words, can you expound on this please?

 

[ZehnWaters]

Who handled what after when? Or in another words, can you expound on this please?

How Tolkien handled the matter of the Sun and Moon existing as they do nowadays: objects existing in space.

In the original the world was flat. When Eru changed the world with the sinking of Númenór, the world was "made round". I simply assumed it was shifted into another sphere (literally) of reality, hence why Elves can still take the "straight" path back home. They pass out of the "round world" reality and into the "flat world" reality. Regardless of how Tolkien conceived of the specifics, the point stands that he'd already handled the idea that we now live in a world with a real sun and moon and not one made from the Fruit of Laurelin and the Flower of Telperion.

Tolkien's later writings tried to correct for the existence of space by making the world always round and always having a Sun and Moon. I VERY MUCH dislike this alteration to his mythology.

 

[Elthir]

In the original the world was flat.

But Tevildo and kats kept knocking things off the "World's Edge". . . so Tolkien discarded the idea.

Regardless of how Tolkien conceived of the specifics, the point stands that he'd already handled the idea. . .

Originally I thought you might have been referring to Tolkien musing/writing about this concept at some point when he considered a once flat world problematic. I see now that that's not what you were saying in any case.

Tolkien's later writings tried to correct for the existence of space by making the world always round and always having a Sun and Moon. I VERY MUCH dislike this alteration to his mythology.

I would only add that a multi-perspective Legendarium (as found in late writings) was a way for Tolkien to keep the idea of a once flat world (and the Sun as a flower from a tree) within the matter of Middle-earth.

Even if Treebeard seems to agree with certain Elves that the Sun was already in the sky before the Two Trees were slain. Wink!

 

[ZehnWaters]

But Tevildo and kats kept knocking things off the "World's Edge". . . so Tolkien discarded the idea.

😂🤣

 

[Olorgando]

But Tevildo and kats kept knocking things off the "World's Edge". . . so Tolkien discarded the idea.

This sounds (reads) like you stole it from Terry Pratchett. 😜😜😜