The Lord of the Rings timeline runs across three Ages of Middle-earth. The First Age, told in The Silmarillion, ends with the defeat of Morgoth. In the Second Age, Sauron forges the One Ring around year 1600, Númenor is drowned in 3319, and Sauron is overthrown in 3441 when Isildur cuts the Ring from his hand. In the Third Age the Ring is lost for nearly 2,500 years, found by Déagol in 2463, taken by Gollum, and found by Bilbo in 2941 during The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings itself covers 3001 to 3021: Bilbo's party, Frodo's journey, the Ring destroyed on 25 March 3019, and the Fourth Age beginning.

This guide follows Tolkien's books: The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954 to 1955), its appendices (especially Appendix B, "The Tale of Years") and The Silmarillion (1977, edited by Christopher Tolkien). It does not follow the films or the television series, which compress and move events. It contains spoilers for The Hobbit and all of The Lord of the Rings.

Three Ages on one line

The single most useful picture is the whole history on one horizontal line, with the three Ages as long blocks. Most people who are confused about Tolkien's chronology are confused because they imagine The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as far apart and the Second Age as close. It is the other way round.

Only the last 80 years of the Third Age are in the two novels. Drawn to scale, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are a sliver at the far right of a line about 7,000 years long, and they sit only 60 years apart.

The Second Age: why there is a Ring at all

The Second Age is background in The Lord of the Rings, told by Elrond at the Council and in the appendices, but every problem in the novel starts here.

• Year 32: Númenor is founded. The Men who fought against Morgoth are given an island in the western sea. It becomes the greatest kingdom of Men.
• Around 1500: the Rings of Power are made. Sauron, in a fair disguise, teaches the Elven-smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor. They make the Seven and the Nine. Celebrimbor makes the Three alone, without Sauron's hand.
• Around 1600: the One Ring is forged by Sauron in the fire of Orodruin, Mount Doom. The Elves sense it and take off their rings. War follows.
• 3262 to 3319: the fall of Númenor. Sauron is taken to Númenor as a prisoner and corrupts it from within. In 3319 the king sails to attack the Undying Lands, and the island is drowned. A faithful few, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, escape and found Arnor and Gondor.
• 3441: the Last Alliance. Elendil and the Elf-king Gil-galad besiege Sauron. Both die overthrowing him. Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand and refuses to destroy it.

The Third Age: three thousand years, and a lost Ring

The Third Age is long, and most of it happens offstage. These are the dates that matter for the books.

Two gaps surprise readers. Sixty years pass between The Hobbit and Bilbo's party. Then seventeen more pass between the party and Frodo leaving home, while Gandalf searches for proof of what the Ring is. The novel moves through those years in a single chapter, "The Shadow of the Past".

The War of the Ring, by month

From Frodo leaving Bag End to the Ring's destruction is just over six months. Appendix B dates almost every chapter, and the Fellowship splits so that two stories run at once. A two-lane timeline is the clearest way to show it.

3018

• 23 September: Frodo, Sam and Pippin leave Bag End (Merry is waiting at Crickhollow).
• 6 October: Frodo is stabbed by the Witch-king on Weathertop.
• 20 October: Frodo crosses the Ford of Bruinen and collapses at Rivendell.
• 25 October: the Council of Elrond.
• 25 December: the Fellowship of nine leaves Rivendell.

3019

• 15 January: Gandalf falls with the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-dûm.
• 26 February: the Breaking of the Fellowship. Boromir dies; Frodo and Sam go east alone; Merry and Pippin are taken by Orcs.
• 3 to 4 March: the Battle of the Hornburg, Helm's Deep; the Ents have already overwhelmed Isengard.
• 13 March: Frodo, stung by Shelob, is captured by Orcs, and Sam carries on with the Ring.
• 15 March: the Battle of the Pelennor Fields before Minas Tirith.
• 25 March: the army of the West at the Black Gate; Gollum takes the Ring and falls into the fire of Mount Doom.
• 1 May: Aragorn is crowned King Elessar.
• 3 November: the hobbits defeat Saruman's men at the Battle of Bywater, the last battle of the war.

The two lanes are Frodo and Sam heading into Mordor, and everyone else in Rohan and Gondor. The book tells them in separate halves of each volume; laid side by side, you can see that the battle at the Black Gate is a distraction staged on the same day Frodo reaches the mountain.

Two calendars

Tolkien gives the hobbits their own count, Shire Reckoning, which is Third Age minus 1,600. So Bilbo's party in Third Age 3001 is Shire Reckoning 1401. The prologue and some appendix entries use Shire years. If a date seems wildly off, check which calendar it is in before deciding it is wrong.

The Fourth Age, in Gondor's reckoning, counts from 25 March 3021. Appendix B carries on briefly after the main story: Aragorn dies in Fourth Age 120, and Sam is said to have sailed West after his wife Rose died, in Shire year 1482.

Drawing it so it makes sense

A Tolkien timeline is mostly a problem of scale, and that is exactly what a drawn video can solve and a list cannot. A scene list for a four minute class video might be:

1. The full line, about 7,000 years, three blocks labelled First, Second and Third Age. A tiny marker at the far right labelled "both novels".
2. Zoom into the Second Age: Númenor rising as an island, the rings being made, the One Ring drawn last and alone.
3. The island going under in 3319; three ships escaping east.
4. The Last Alliance: Isildur's hand, the Ring, the refusal.
5. The long empty stretch of the Third Age, drawn with a visible break, the Ring lying in a river.
6. Déagol, then Gollum in the dark, then Bilbo in the same cave in 2941.
7. Zoom into 3018 and 3019 as two lanes, Frodo and Sam on one, the rest of the Fellowship on the other.
8. 25 March 3019 at the end of both lanes, the Black Gate and Mount Doom on the same day.
9. The ships leaving the Grey Havens; the line labelled Fourth Age.

Make your own version for class

A class video or book report works better if the timeline serves one claim, not just the dates. Strong claims: the Ring's history is a history of people who would not let it go; the Third Age is a long decline that the War of the Ring ends; Tolkien's two-lane structure makes the reader feel the suspense the characters feel. How to make a video summary of a novel for English class covers building the argument, and how to explain a timeline in a video covers gaps, lanes and scale in general.

Use your own drawings, not film stills, and keep quotations short with book and chapter references.

1. 1

   Pick the claim and the range

   Decide whether your timeline covers all three Ages or only 3018 to 3019. A whole-history video wants nine scenes; a War of the Ring video wants two lanes and fifteen dated events.

2. 2

   Check every date against Appendix B

   Use the Tale of Years in your own copy, and note which dates are Shire Reckoning. Write each date once, with what happened and why it matters to your claim.

3. 3

   Write one paragraph per scene

   Follow the scene list above. About 600 words is four minutes at 150 spoken words a minute. Name the scale out loud: sixty years, seventeen years, six months.

4. 4

   Paste the script into openCanviz

   Choose Keep my wording so every date is said as you wrote it, and set a target length. Painted or poster styles suit a legendarium; the drawings are original, not film lookalikes.

5. 5

   Check names and numbers on each scene

   Pause on every scene. Drafted labels can misspell Númenor or Khazad-dûm or put 3019 where you wrote 3018. Fix them in the editor before you present.

If your class video is about the books more than the dates, how to make a Harry Potter explainer video shows the same approach for another fantasy world: explain a system, not the plot.

Common questions

How long after The Hobbit does The Lord of the Rings take place? The Hobbit's quest ends in Third Age 2941. Bilbo's party, which opens The Lord of the Rings, is 60 years later in 3001, and Frodo does not leave the Shire until 3018, 77 years after The Hobbit.

How long did the journey to Mordor take? From leaving Bag End on 23 September 3018 to the Ring's destruction on 25 March 3019 is a little over six months. The Fellowship spends about two of those months in Rivendell.

Is the Rings of Power series part of the book timeline? It draws on the Second Age but compresses thousands of years and invents characters and events. For a school project on the books, use Appendix B and The Silmarillion as your source and say so.