Elves gestation - NoME

[gilgaladriel]

i'm reading the nature of middle earth and i don't understand part of the text in "Time Scales"
at the *same* text tolkien says elves are pregnant for 9 loar and after that it says they are pregnant for 108 MY.
isn't loar and MY mean the same? according to this text is it 9 or 108 years what am i missing?
i enclosed the page.

Thanks!

 

[Odola]

i'm reading the nature of middle earth and i don't understand part of the text in "Time Scales"
at the *same* text tolkien says elves are pregnant for 9 loar and after that it says they are pregnant for 108 MY.
isn't loar and MY mean the same? according to this text is it 9 or 108 years what am i missing?
i enclosed the page.

Thanks!

Tolkien had several concepts of gestation lenghts for elves as he had to account for different stories - e.g. the growth of Maeglin, and the birth date of Elrond's wife and his sons. He kept adjuting it - the minimum was human normal 9 months - as there was a version where he saw the desychronisation between humans and elves starting after reaching aduldhood - the maximum being 108 years - which creates huge problems for Maeglin and children from mixed marriages. There were several versions in between, I am no longer sure which of those was the latest concept. Have you watched the NoME podcast form Tolkien Professor? - it has been discussed at lenght there.

 

[gilgaladriel]

thanks, have not listned yet to the podcast.

but my question is regarding only for the single text that includes both 9 and 108 years at the same writing.

can it be that 108 years meaning all the fertility period?

 

[Odola]

thanks, have not listned yet to the podcast.

but my question is regarding only for the single text that includes both 9 and 108 years at the same writing.

can it be that 108 years meaning all the fertility period?

108 was specific a 3/4 of a Valian year of 144 sun years = 9 months of gestation equivalent.

 

[gilgaladriel]

108 was specific a 3/4 of a Valian year of 144 sun years = 9 months of gestation equivalent.

but that's not my question.
i ask how can the 9 years pregnant and 108 years pregnant can be settled while written at the same text, not two diffrent texts or from different time. same text that first says 9 years and after few paragraphs says 108 years.
please look at the page i enclosded to the post.

 

[Odola]

but that's not my question.
i ask how can the 9 years pregnant and 108 years pregnant can be settled while written at the same text, not two diffrent texts or from different time. same text that first says 9 years and after few paragraphs says 108 years.
please look at the page i enclosded to the post.

There in the text you have one elvish youth-year being 12 sun years - then 9 sun yeas being the gestation and then one (general) elvish year being 144 sun years and in this case 108 sun years being the gestation. The latter passage in the text has not yet the differentation between the youth years passing faster than the aging years, while the former one already does.