The long-lived Elves typically measured the passage of time in periods they called yéni, with each yén lasting for one hundred and forty-four solar years. They also measured individual years, and they had two names for these: coranar and loa. Of these the coranar or 'sun-round' was a year considered in astronomical terms (while a loa was concerned with the cycles of nature). Each of the long yéni contained a total of 52,596 days which, divided by the 144 solar years of each yén, made a coranar last 365¼ days, the precise length of a solar year.
Notes
1 |
Though the words coranar and loa each refer to a single year, the two terms have subtly different meanings. A coranar is an astronomical measure, indicating the time (in modern terms) for the world to complete a circuit around the Sun. A loa, by contrast, measured the time from one season of growth to the same season a year later.
|
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 22 February 2019
- This entry is complete
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2001, 2011, 2019. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.
SHARE
