Dates

The time before the War of Wrath and the expulsion of Morgoth from the world; the First Age long predated the first rising of the Sun, but after this point years can be numbered from I 1

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Updated 30 April 2026
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First Age

The Age of the Wars of Beleriand

Years of the TreesFirst AgeISecond AgeIIThird AgeIIIFourth AgeIV

The first of the four Ages chronicled by Tolkien. Unlike the Second and Third Ages, there is no detailed chronicle of the events of the First Age, at least in any canonical sources, and so some dates must be inferred from references in the text - hence many dates in this Age are necessarily approximate. We do have two sources for dating this period, The Annals of Aman and The Grey Annals, in volumes X and XI of The History of Middle-earth respectively. While not formally canonical, in the absence of any other comparable material, these sources are especially useful in dating events of the First Age.

The First Age ended with the War of Wrath, the destruction of Beleriand and the final defeat of Morgoth. The end of the First Age was marked by the return of many of the Noldor, accompanied also by many Sindarin Elves, into the West to dwell on Tol Eressëa.

Key Events of the First Age

The history of the First Age runs back to a time long before the making of the Sun. In this early period, with no Sun to mark the course of a year, events before its making are instead chronicled in long 'Valian Years' (listed below as 'VY'). To help put these Valian Years into perspective, the equivalent dates in solar years are shown below as negative values (representing years before the first rising of the Sun, with these solar dates captioned below as 'YS' for 'Years of the Sun'). Note that converting Valian Years to solar years is not a simple matter, and various different calculations might be used, so these solar equivalents should be taken as indicative only.

Valian Years are themselves counted from the making of the Two Trees (and those shown here are strictly 'Years of the Trees' or 'YT'). There was, however, an expanse of history before the Trees were made. So, the earliest events in the table below contain negative values in both the 'VY' and 'YS' columns, starting with the descent of the Valar into the newly-made world of Arda, 3,500 Valian Years before the Two Trees were created. That equates to a stretch of time covering more than fifty thousand solar years before the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age of the Sun.

VY	YS	Events
-3500	-47912	The Valar descend into the newly made Arda; their long conflict with Melkor begins.
-1600	-29706	Having defeated Melkor, the Valar settle on the isle of Almaren in Middle-earth, and the Lamps of the Valar are raised.
-50	-14853	Melkor returns and overthrows the Lamps, wreaking ruin on Middle-earth; the Valar abandon Almaren and remove into the West
1	-14364	The Valar establish themselves in Valinor beyond the Great Sea. The Two Trees of Valinor are created, and the count of Valian Years begins.
1050	-4312	The first Elves awaken at Cuiviénen. They will be discovered some centuries later by the spies of Melkor, and then by the Vala Oromë in VY 1085.
1090	-3929	The Valar go to war against Melkor in the Battle of the Powers. Melkor is defeated in VY 1099 and taken as a captive back to Valinor. With the Captivity of Melkor, three ages of peace begin.
1106	-3785	The ambassadors Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë, having travelled to Valinor and returned, encourage the other Elves to travel into the West. The Great Journey begins, separating the Eldar from the Avari who remain behind in Middle-earth.
1130	-3546	By this date, after some two centuries, most of the Eldar had reached the last stage their Great Journey and become spread across Beleriand. At this time Elwë wandered into the wood of Nan Elmoth and encountered the Maia Melian, becoming lost to his people. When Ulmo carried the Vanyar and the Noldor away across the Sea in 1132 (or -3526), the Teleri in Beleriand remained behind, seeking their lost lord or lingering by the coasts.
1150	-3354	Ulmo makes a second journey across the Sea to Middle-earth and back, carrying many of the Teleri into the West, where they remain for a time on the Lonely Isle in the Bay of Eldamar. Many others of this clan remain behind in Beleriand, including those seeking their lost lord Elwë.
1152	-3335	Elwë and Melian emerge from their enchantment, and become King and Queen of the Sindar that remain in Beleriand, founding the land of Eglador (later known as Doriath) in the great central forests of the land.
1200	-2875	The first of the three ages of the Captivity of Melkor comes to an end. In Beleriand at this time, Lúthien is born to Elwë and Melian in Eglador.
1300	-1916	With the aid of the Dwarves, who had newly arrived in Beleriand, Thingol completes his stronghold of Menegroth, the Thousand Caves. At about this time, beyond the Sea in Valinor, Turgon and Finrod are born.
1350	-1437	A band of the Nandor, who had abandoned the Great Journey long beforehand, is led over the Blue Mountains by Denethor. They settle in the vale of Ossiriand, where they will become known as the Laiquendi or Green-elves.
1362	-1322	Birth of Galadriel, daughter of Finarfin and Eärwen, in Eldamar.
1400	-958	Melkor is unchained and released from his long confinement in Mandos. At first he feigns friendship with the people of Valinor.
1495	-48	The Darkening of Valinor: Melkor and Ungoliant destroy the Two Trees and escape with the Silmarils into Middle-earth, where Morgoth returns to his ancient fortress of Angband in the North.
1496	-38	Fëanor and a great part of the Noldor pursue Melkor, and as they reach the far North of the world, ready to make their own way back into Middle-earth, the Doom of Mandos is pronounced.
1497	-29	While the Noldor are still making their way toward Middle-earth, Morgoth launches a sudden assault from Angband against the Elves in Beleriand, and the First Battle is fought. The Orcs are held at bay, but not without great loss to the Elves, and the Girdle of Melian is raised to protect the central kingdom of Doriath.
1497	-22	Seven years after Morgoth's assault, the Noldor make their return to the shores of Middle-earth. Morgoth immediately attacks this new host, but the Elves defeat the Orcs in the Battle-under-Stars. Fëanor advances toward Angband, but is mortally wounded, and dies shortly afterward.

After the first rising of the Sun, events are dated in familiar solar years, starting with I 1, the first Year of the Sun. This final part of the First Age is a great deal shorter than the preceding millennia of the Valian Years, coming to an end with the final defeat of Morgoth and his expulsion from the world in I 590. The Years of the Sun continued, with the end of the First Age transitioning directly to the beginning of the subsequent Second Age.

YS	Events
1	The first rising of the Moon and the Sun; Awakening of Men; Fingolfin leads his Noldor across the Grinding Ice into Middle-earth
60	Dagor Aglareb
116	Completion of Gondolin
c. 305	Arrival of Men in Beleriand
455	Dagor Bragollach
465	Beren and Lúthien achieve the Quest of the Silmaril
471	Nirnaeth Arnoediad
495	Sack of Nargothrond
510	Fall of Gondolin
545	Beginning of the War of Wrath
587	End of the War of Wrath with the capture of Morgoth
590	Expulsion of Morgoth from the world; end of the First Age

For a full account of dated events from the Years of the Sun of the First Age, see the Chronicle of Arda

Dating the First Age

Establishing the point where the First Age began is not as simple as might be imagined. The only really definite statements are in the drafts of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, which originally included this comment, relating to the time of the awakening of the Elves:

'Here begin the Elder Days, or the First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar.'

The History of Middle-earth volume XI, 3 V The Tale of Years

According to this dating, the First Age began about 4,312 years before the rising of the Sun, making the entire Age some 4,902 years long. This calculation is backed up by a further comment from other drafts of the Appendices:

'The First Age was the longest.'

The History of Middle-earth volume XII, 1 VI The Tale of Years of the Second Age

It's perhaps notable that no direct comment on the beginning of the First Age, or its length, survived into the published version of the Tale of Years (which indeed does not attempt to provide a chronicle of the First Age at all). It's hard to be sure why this should be, but part of the problem was doubtless the complication of having two dating systems: one before the rising of the Sun, and one after.

The whole notion of measuring time in 'years' is of course dependent on the existence of the Sun, so before it was created, a different dating system was needed. This worked on so-called 'Valian Years', dating from the making of the Two Trees; on this system the first Elves awoke in 1050. However, Valian Years were rather longer than solar years, so 1050 is equivalent to about 10,062 conventional years (actually there are various ways of making this calculation, so this is necessarily an approximation). We might imagine that the beginning of the First Age would restart the count of years, but in fact that did not happen until the Sun was created 1500 Valian Years (about 14,374 solar years) after the making of the Trees. From that point the First Age is dated in normal years.

So, a full chronicle of the First Age would involve two dating systems, using two different types of years; first a period of 450 Valian Years (4,312 solar years) starting in (Valian Year) 1050, then a period of 590 solar years starting at year 1 (the rising of the Sun).

Dates using the former system fall within the period known as the Years of the Trees (where they are used in entries here, they are given in Valian Years, usually with a suitable conversion to solar years). Dates after the rising of the Sun began a new sequence known as the Years of the Sun (sometimes abbreviated to 'YS').¹

To keep dates consistent in form, these Years of the Sun in the First Age - from the first rising of the Sun to the end of the Age - are here given the prefix 'I' (followed by 'II' for the Second Age, 'III' for the Third Age, and so on). Thus the year 'I 1' refers to the appearance of the Moon and Sun, and to the Awakening of Men. By most definitions it was not the actual first year of the First Age, but it was the first measurable Year of the Sun in that Age.

Notes

These solar years are used by Tolkien himself, for example, in the Grey Annals and various associated genealogies published in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth. The Grey Annals describe events both before and after the rising of the Sun, so they necessarily include the changeover from one dating system to the other. In that source, the first year of the new system is labelled 'YS 1', and thereafter no further prefix is used (since these annals never extend beyond the First Age, there is no risk of confusion with later Ages).

First Age

The Age of the Wars of Beleriand

Key Events of the First Age

Dating the First Age

Notes

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