The Sindarin word for the Númenórean measure also called a lár. The name comes from the Elvish root meaning 'stop' or 'pause', because a marching army would usually pause to rest after travelling a distance of one daur.
The daur was reckoned based on the Númenórean measure of the ranga, which corresponded to the length of a single stride. The Dúnedain as a people were notably tall, and this stride length was correspondingly long, equating to thirty-eight inches (or 0.97 metres). The daur, the longest unit on the Númenórean system of measurement, represented a distance of five thousand of these rangar or strides. In modern terms that would correspond to a distance of 5,277 yards, 2 feet and 4 inches (or exactly 4,826 metres). This would make a daur only fractionally less than three miles in length, and for this reason it is usually translated as a 'league' (which also typically equates to three miles).
A standard day's march for an army of the Dúnedain would cover eight of these leagues, resting briefly after each (and it was this rest-stop that gave the daur its name). So, at normal pace, such an army would expect to march for twenty-four miles (nearly thirty-nine kilometres) each day, but they were capable of forcing a greater pace than this for a time when haste was needed.
Notes
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Our evidence for dating the use of the daur is slim, based on a single explanatory note relating to its use by the soldiers marching with Isildur from Gondor toward the North-kingdom in III 2. It was evidently well established at that time, so it would seem to have arisen among the Númenóreans at some point during the Second Age, or perhaps been adopted from earlier usage by the Elves.
We do not know how long the term continued in use, but it is notable that characters in The Lord of the Rings (set at the end of the Third Age) regularly measure distance in 'leagues'. We might reasonably take the use of the word 'league' here as a translation of Elvish daur, implying that the word (or perhaps a later derivative) was still in use into the Third Age and beyond.
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- Updated 10 September 2024
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