The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
In use in approximately III 21001 (c. 500 by the Shire-reckoning)
Race
Cultures
Shire-hobbits, Bucklanders (probably also used in the Bree-land)
Pronunciation
ste'rrendie (the last syllable is as in English 'die')
Meaning
'Day of the stars'
Other names

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About this entry:

  • Updated 23 December 2014
  • This entry is complete

Sterrendei

An archaic day-name

Days of the week

The ancient name in the Common Tongue for the 'Day of the Stars' that began the week. Its origins lay in the Elves' tradition of a six-day week, but by the time it came to be used in Middle-earth, the week had come to incorporate seven days. After Sterrendei, these archaic day-names followed the sequence Sunnendei, Monendei, Trewesdei, Hevenesdei, Meresdei and Hihdei.

In later conventional use, by the time of the War of the Ring, Sterrendei had become shortened to Sterday. This is coincidentally similar to modern 'Saturday', and can be treated as a convenient translation. However, its function in the week was quite different from our own Saturday, and as the first of the seven week-days, a Hobbit would have seen it as more closely equivalent to modern Monday.


Notes

1

The only definite dating we have for the ancient day names of the Hobbits is in Appendix D to The Lord of the Rings, where we're told that they were in use 'at least nine hundred years before Frodo's time', hence the approximate date of III 2100 above. The fact that the words have a commonality with the language of the Rohirrim implies that their roots went back much farther, to the time when the ancestral Hobbits still dwelt alongside Men in the Vales of Anduin (though the precise form of the name Sterrendei probably underwent some evolution over that period).

See also...

Elenya, Orgilion, Sterday

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 23 December 2014
  • This entry is complete

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