Allyn Gibson » Shire-Reckoning

On the Start of the New (Hobbit) Year

Allyn — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:21:32 +0000

Happy New Year!

In the Shire, anyway.

If we were Hobbits, if we lived in the Shire, today would be the first day of the new year, the 2nd of the month of Yule.

Yule is a strange month. It’s only two days long. The first of Yule is the last day of the year. The second of Yule is the first day of the year. And the Hobbits have a winter festival called the Yule Days that lasts from 29 Foreyule (in other words, three days ago) to the 2 Afteryule (which is two days hence and corresponds with our Festivus).

Those Hobbits. They need to lay off the pipeweed, obviously.

So go forth and party. Do festive things. Drink spiced cider and egg nog and eat cookies. And maybe even watch a Lord of the Rings film. It’s the new year, and let me offer my fervent wish that the new year is magnificent.

On Long-Expected Parties

Allyn — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:08:06 +0000

I fired up Opera this morning, looked at my own website, and there, in the sidebar, was the usual “this day in Middle-Earth” feature. And lots of things happened in Middle-Earth today.

A few years ago I wrote a BASIC program to convert Gregorian dates into Shire dates. No, I can’t tell you why — it seemed like a fun little project to work on, and one afternoon’s work later it was done. A few years later I took that BASIC program and rewrote it as PHP, and then turned it into a WordPress plug-in, and later a widget. Shire Reckoning has turned up on a number of WordPress-powered blogs.

Today is September 22nd, as Tolkien would put it, according to the Shire Calendar. To us, it’s merely September 12th — there’s a difference of roughly twelve days between our calendar and the Hobbits, the Hobbit calendar being based around June 21st and the summer solstice, and Hobbit months aren’t at all the same length as our months.

September 22nd. Halimath, really. Things start happening.

On this day in 1401 SR, Bilbo holds his Long-Expected Party and vanishes from Hobbiton.
On this day in 1418 SR, the Black Riders reach Sarn Ford at evening; they drive off the guard of Rangers. Gandalf overtakes Shadowfax.
On this day in 1421 SR, Frodo and Samwise meet the Last Riding of the Keepers of the Rings in the Woody End.
On this day in 1482 SR, Master Samwise Gamgee rides out from Bag End. He comes to the Tower Hills, and is last seen by Elanor, to whom he gives the Red Book afterwards kept by the Fairbairns. Among them the tradition is handed down from Elanor that Samwise passed the Towers, and went to the Grey Havens, and passed over the Sea, last of the Ring-Bearers.

Wait! September 22nd? Why, today is Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday!

Cue up the music! Light some fireworks. Drink lots of ale and smoke some pipeweed!

On the Need for Hobbies

Allyn — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:03:55 +0000

Being the hot, miserable day that it is, I worked on a Word macro coding project for work I’d started (and finished–or at least got something that runs) last week, to clean up the code, strip out some redundancies, and replace a brute-force search-and-replace with a much cleaner looped search-and-replace.

And then, I turned my attention to something completely frivolous.

I wrote the “Shire Reckoning” procedure for WordPress into a Word macro. So, now, I can add the current Shire date to any sort of document.

I think I’ll turn my attention next to integrating it with a letter template I created and enjoy using. No, not the Sherlock Holmes letter template for MS-Word. I’m talking something else.

Hobbies. Could use hobbies.

Again, On Shire Reckoning

Allyn — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:03:25 +0000

I’ve been asked if my Shire Reckoning WordPress plug-in would ever be available as a WordPress widget.

As of today, it is.

Installation is a snap. Download the .zip file. Extract the file and upload it to your widgets directory. Activate the Shire Widget plug-in. Then on your widget management screen, drag it to your sidebar.

No fuss, no mess, just the current date according to the Hobbit calendar and, occasionally, what happened on that day in Middle-Earth history.

On Shire Reckoning… Again

Allyn — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:11:44 +0000

The strange little box in the sidebar is now fixed.

I’ve written my first WordPress plug-in.

As you can tell, it generates a date in Shire Reckoning. I’ve done this before, but as a BASIC program. Now I’ve rewritten the program in fairly simply .php code.

Interested parties may download the plug-in here.

How does one call the plug-in? I inserted the following code into my sidebar.php file:

It can take two arguments–’auto’ or ‘now. Now will give you the current date in Shire Reckoning. Auto can be used to replace the_date function with shire_reckoning('auto') in your WordPress loop if you want to have your blog’s dates given in Hobbit terms.

Here’s my main page on Shire Reckoning.

On Nothing

Allyn — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 04:42:07 +0000

Nothing to say today, not really.

Some may have noticed a strange, new box in the sidebar. A little project of mine. As of right now it’s broken, but not to fear–I’ve found the error.

December’s Greatest Hits

Allyn — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 20:35:19 +0000

The top fifteen reasons people checked out allyngibson.net in the month of December.

15. “John Lennon atheist.” I wouldn’t call Lennon an atheist, per se, but he certainly had his issues with organized religion. Witness this quote–”Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I am right, and have been proven right. We’re bigger than Jesus, now.” Witness his song “God” on Plastic Ono Band. I don’t know what Lennon believed, but I can say that he had deep thoughts on the existence of a diety.

14. “Hobbit Calendar.” The Hobbit calendar isn’t like our own. It’s similar, but not the same.

13. “British Impressment Literature 1812.” I admit, I like nautical fiction. I wanted to join the Navy out of high school, but medical conditions intervened.

12. “Requiem for a Martian.” The reputedly lost third season Star Trek episode in which Kirk is transported to late-1800s San Francisco, while McCoy and Sulu are trapped in the 21st-century Martian colonies.

11. “Bleacher Creatures.” A Doctor Who drabble.

10. “Bill Leisner blog.” Star Trek author. Not the first time a Trek author has been one of the top draws to my website; for a six-month period people must have thought I ran Kevin Dilmore’s official fan club because Dilmore’s name was the top search draw.

9. “Bart Faulwell.” In Star Trek: SCE Faulwell serves as the linguist aboard the USS daVinci, and I would say he’s my favorite character in the group. Why? Because he’s the tourist in the group. I like tourists.

8. “Oneders Where are They Now.” The Wonders, the band from Tom Hanks’ film That Thing You Do!, went at one point by the moniker The Oneders. Where are they now? I’ve got nothing.

7. “Lord of the Rings Christmas Cards.” Don’t look at me–Hobbits don’t celebrate Christmas.

6. “Federation starships.” Erm, okay. No snarky comments here.

5. “The Wonders Playtone.” See number 8.

4. “Khan Noonien Singh.” 20th-century genetically engineered superman who ruled a quarter of the Earth under his iron fist in the mid-1990s in an alternate history.

3. “Allyn Gibson.” Curious. This search term seems familiar, but I can’t place it….

2. “Daleks.” The tin-plated pepperpots from the planet Skaro.

And for number one….

1. “Kzin.”. I seem to be some sort of expert–I wrote an essay about fitting the Kzin into the post-Star Trek: First Contact Star Trek universe, and it’s my biggest draw.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, but here’s one–be less of a nerd in 2005. Who’s with me?

For Geekoid Fanboys Only

Allyn — Sun, 21 Nov 2004 02:48:55 +0000

In the summer of 1999 I reread The Lord of the Rings for perhaps the dozenth time. With that particular reading I studied, really studied, Appendix D on the calendrical systems in use in Middle-Earth in the Third Age. I was drawn, in particular, to the Hobbit calendar and decided to write a quick-and-dirty computer program to convert our dates into Hobbit dates.

Today, November 20th, is in Shire Reckoning, the first of Foreyule.

What made me think of this, today, of all days? Maybe it’s playing The Third Age, EA’s Lord of the Rings turn-based RPG on the XBox. How is the game? I’ll save that for another post.

But for those who want to see the program, after the cut is the BASIC source code. Yes, I wrote it in BASIC. You have a problem with that?

100 CLS
110 GOSUB 1000
120 GOSUB 2000
130 GOSUB 2500
140 REM PRINT “JULIAN DATE”; JL
150 REM PRINT “SHIRE JULIAN DATE”; SJ
160 GOSUB 3000
170 GOSUB 3500
180 GOSUB 4000
190 GOSUB 4500
200 PRINT “Your date is “;W$;”, “;D$
210 REM PRINT DT
999 END
1000 REM Input date
1010 PRINT “Year”;
1020 INPUT Y:Y=INT(Y)
1030 IF Y<0 THEN GOTO 1010
1040 GOSUB 1500
1050 PRINT “Month”;
1060 INPUT M:M=INT(M)
1070 IF M<1 OR M>12 THEN GOTO 1050
1080 PRINT “Day”;
1090 INPUT D:D=INT(D)
1100 IF D<1 THEN GOTO 1080
1110 IF M=2 AND D>28+LP THEN GOTO 1080
1120 IF (M=4 OR M=6 OR M=9 OR M=11) AND D>30 THEN GOTO 1080
1130 IF M>31 THEN GOTO 1080
1140 RETURN
1500 REM Leap Year Check
1510 LP=0
1520 IF Y/4=INT(Y/4) THEN LP=1
1530 IF Y/100=INT(Y/100) THEN LP=0
1540 IF Y/400=INT(Y/400) THEN LP=1
1550 RETURN
2000 REM Julian Date conversion
2010 JL=0
2020 IF M=2 THEN JL=31
2030 IF M=3 THEN JL=59
2040 IF M=4 THEN JL=90
2050 IF M=5 THEN JL=120
2060 IF M=6 THEN JL=151
2070 IF M=7 THEN JL=181
2080 IF M=8 THEN JL=212
2090 IF M=9 THEN JL=243
2100 IF M=10 THEN JL=273
2110 IF M=11 THEN JL=304
2120 IF M=12 THEN JL=334
2130 JL=JL+D
2140 IF M>2 THEN JL=JL+LP
2150 RETURN
2500 REM Shire Julian Date conversion
2510 SJ=0
2520 SJ=JL+11
2530 IF SJ>365+LP THEN SJ=SJ-(365+LP)
2540 RETURN
3000 REM Shire Date calculation
3010 SD=0:SM=0
3020 IF SJ=1 THEN SD=2:SM=13:RETURN
3030 IF SJ=182 THEN SD=1:SM=14:RETURN
3040 IF SJ=183 THEN SM=15:RETURN
3050 IF SJ=184+LP THEN SD=2:SM=14:RETURN
3060 IF SJ=184 AND LP=1 THEN SM=16:RETURN
3070 IF SJ=365+LP THEN SD=1:SM=13:RETURN
3080 SJ=SJ-1
3090 IF SJ>182+LP THEN SJ=SJ-(3+LP)
3100 SM=INT((SJ-1)/30)+1
3110 SD=SJ-((SM-1)*30)
3120 RETURN
3500 REM Shire month string
3510 IF SM=1 THEN M$=”Afteryule”
3520 IF SM=2 THEN M$=”Solmath”
3530 IF SM=3 THEN M$=”Rethe”
3540 IF SM=4 THEN M$=”Astron”
3550 IF SM=5 THEN M$=”Thrimidge”
3560 IF SM=6 THEN M$=”Forelithe”
3570 IF SM=7 THEN M$=”Afterlithe”
3580 IF SM=8 THEN M$=”Wedmath”
3590 IF SM=9 THEN M$=”Halimath”
3600 IF SM=10 THEN M$=”Winterfilth”
3610 IF SM=11 THEN M$=”Blotmath”
3620 IF SM=12 THEN M$=”Foreyule”
3630 IF SM=13 THEN M$=”Yule”
3640 IF SM=14 THEN M$=”Lithe”
3650 IF SM=15 THEN M$=”Midyear’s Day”
3660 IF SM=16 THEN M$=”Overlithe”
3670 RETURN
4000 REM Create date string
4010 D$=”"
4020 IF SM>14 THEN D$=M$:RETURN
4030 D$=STR$(SD)+” “+M$
4040 RETURN
4500 REM Shire day of week calculation
4510 GOSUB 2500
4520 DT=0
4530 IF SJ=183 OR (SJ=184 AND LP=1) THEN DT=8:RETURN
4535 IF SJ>183 THEN SJ=SJ-LP-1
4540 DT=SJ-7*INT(SJ/7)
4550 IF DT=0 THEN W$=”Highday”
4560 IF DT=1 THEN W$=”Sterday”
4570 IF DT=2 THEN W$=”Sunday”
4580 IF DT=3 THEN W$=”Monday”
4590 IF DT=4 THEN W$=”Trewsday”
4600 IF DT=5 THEN W$=”Hevensday”
4610 IF DT=6 THEN W$=”Mersday”
4620 RETURN

For all you Hobbits

Allyn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Today is Mid-Year’s Day.

So, drink merrily, smoke some Old Toby pipeweed, have a safe summer solstice, and do the things that all you Hobbits do.

The Magical Worlds of the Lord of the Rings

Allyn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

David Colbert’s new book, The Magical Worlds of the Lord of the Rings bills itself as a reference to the “amazing myths, legends, and facts behind the masterpiece.” Colbert is no stranger to this sort of book having authored a similar book last year on Harry Potter. At a slim 196 pages (including bibliography, suggested readings, and index) the book does not provide a complete reference to The Lord of the Rings; rather, it provides an introduction to J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy through a series of essays related to various topics, characters, and settings found therein. Each essay leads off with a question, typically something akin to “Could Middle-Earth be more magical?”, then proceeds to examine the topic at hand with examples from the books themselves, history, literature, or Tolkien’s own background.

In some cases Colbert’s information or conclusions are incorrect or misleading. As an example, on page 172 Colbert writes, “Just as Tolkien picked December 25–Christmas–as the beginning of Frodo’s journey, he chose a significant date for the Ring’s destruction. Sauron is defeated on March 25, which once marked what we now celebrate as Good Friday; the day Christ died to overthrow Satan.” While Colbert does cite the date from The Tale of Years in Appendix B to Return of the King, he ignores Tolkien’s analysis of Shire Reckoning, the dating system used in Lord of the Rings. While both our modern calendar and the Shire calendar work on similar terms, the two calendars are not entirely compatible–months are of different lengths, some days in the Shire calendar fall outside of months, and the Shire year begins near the Winter Solstace. What Tolkien records as December 25th on the Shire calendar would be December 14th on our calendar. Further, while Good Friday may fall on March 25th, it also falls on many other dates, as Good Friday is tied to Easter, a moveable feast.

For the newcomer to Middle-Earth, either through reading Tolkien for the first time or seeing the films, Magical Worlds can be helpful. For the devoted Tolkien fan, however, the shallowness with which some topics are explored makes this book unessential when other guides, such as Robert Foster’s or J.E.A. Tyler’s, cover Middle-Earth in far more detail.