Frodo Baggins thinks he’s dead - consumed in the belching lava of Mount Doom as it writhed in agony upon the destruction of the One Ring. But he wakes up in the gardens of Ithilien to find Gandalf the White smiling down at him. As with many who waken from a virtual coma, he asks, “What day is it?”
(Frodo awakens in Ithilien in “Return of The King”)
“The fourteenth of the New Year,” replies the wizard. “Or, if you like, the 14th of April in the Shire reckoning. But in Gondor the New Year will always now begin upon the 25th of March when Sauron fell, and you were brought out of the fire to the King.”
So why did J.R.R. Tolkein choose that particular date as the ‘new’ New Year in the kingdom of Gondor?
Two intriguing reasons offer themselves.
Firstly, perhaps, because Tolkein was a devout Catholic and March 25th was called “Lady Day” in the old Catholic calendar, as it celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would bear Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This blending of the human and the divine was a major theme in The Lord of The Rings - the blending of immortal Elf blood with that of mortal humans as symbolized in the wedding of the Elven princess Arwen to Aragorn, son of Arathorn, newly crowned King Elessar of Gondor.
(The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will bear the Christ)
And secondly, it may be that Tolkein, as a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, had a nostalgic longing for early Middle Ages customs - before the catastrophe of the Norman invasion of 1066 wiped out and “French-ified” much of original English culture. Lady Day has ancient pagan origins tied to the Vernal Equinox, the rebirth of Spring, and was sacred to the Goddess in pre-Christian celebrations.
(Aragorn and Arwen and their son, Eldarion)
March 25th was observed as Lady Day for centuries in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the old Julian calendar, and even served a contractual function in legal issues for farmers.
It was only as late as the year 1752 that March 25th lost its status as New Year’s Day in the United Kingdom, and the January 1st tradition was established.
The dating of such feasts was once a matter of grave controversy. In fact, two sects of Irish monks who followed differing methods of determing Easter Sunday (itself, curiously, named after a pagan goddess) would actually engage in protracted fisticuffs or even bloody violence over the issue. A legend tells of how the two sects, each determined to convert the famed Scottish isle of Iona to Christianity, agreed that they should race from Ireland to Iona and whoever reached the shores first would have the right to establish a monastery there. Seeing that he was about to lose the sacred privilege, the trailing monk (so goes the tale), thinking quickly, hacked off his finger and threw it ahead of the rival monk onto the shores of Iona, thus winning the race.
On second thought, let’s go with your date for Easter, okay?
I have a special place in my heart for this date, as my father, a devout Catholic, passed away on Lady Day Eve. And, of course, I have long been a Tolkein devotee, even playing Kili the Dwarf at age fourteen in a local production of “The Hobbit.” Long before the wondrous film trilogy, as a true Middle Earth geek, I could recite from memory the inscription on the One Ring in Orkish, the “Black Speech” of Mordor:
“Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.”
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.”
Though, of course, I preferred (and still prefer) to remember the inspiring rhyme that Bilbo Baggins composed to honor his friend Aragorn (aka “Strider”) in his retirement at the idyllic Elven haven of Rivendell:
All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither. Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be King.
(The Consecrated Sword of the Johannine Templars)
And as one who holds in keeping a sacred sword of my own, and who honors the ancient union of the Chalice and the Blade, I look forward to the renewal of the Blade and the restoration of reverence for The Lady - for the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine within each soul and the world at large, for the healing and restoration of the Earth.
blessings,
Michael
Adonai. We are One. The Law of One. LoVe, Light and UnitY Thank Q. WWG1WGA. Gratitude. Namaste