New Age

The New Age is the era that dawns after the War of the Ring, when the One Ring is unmade and Sauron is overthrown for ever. It is the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, the age of the Dominion of Men, in which the power of the Three Rings passes away and the Elder Kindred—Elves, Dwarves, and Ents—fade or depart from the mortal lands. The transition is not merely a change of calendar but a fundamental shift in the nature of the world: the time of magic and long memory gives way to the time of mortal rule, and the great works of the Elder Days become legend.

The End of the Third Age and the Beginning of the New

The Third Age is held to have ended when the Three Rings lost their power in September 3021, but for the purposes of record in Gondor, the Fourth Age began on March 25, 3021, the anniversary of the Ring's destruction. The New Reckoning, adopted in the restored Kingdom, set the year's start on that date in commemoration of the fall of Sauron and the deeds of the Ring-bearers. In the Shire, the Hobbits retained their own calendar and considered the Fourth Age to have begun with 2 Yule 1422. The transition is thus marked by a dual reckoning: one for the great realm of Gondor and Arnor, and another for the quiet, insular life of the Shire.

The Dominion of Men and the Fading of the Elder Kindred

With the destruction of the One Ring, the Three Rings of the Elves also lost their power. Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf—the Keepers of the Three—departed over Sea, and with them went the last living memory of the Elder Days in Middle-earth. Celeborn dwelt for a time in Rivendell but eventually sought the Grey Havens. The Elves of Lothlórien faded, and the land became silent. Legolas, the Elf of the Fellowship, built a grey ship in Ithilien and sailed over Sea, taking with him Gimli the Dwarf, a sign that even the deep friendship between Elf and Dwarf could not hold back the tide of the New Age. The Ents, too, felt the change: Treebeard said that the world was changing, and that he did not think they would meet again. The Dominion of Men had begun, and all the other speaking-peoples of Middle-earth were in decline.

The Reunited Kingdom and the Rule of King Elessar

Aragorn Elessar, the heir of Isildur and Anárion, was crowned King of Gondor and Arnor, reuniting the two kingdoms that had been sundered for centuries. He ruled for a hundred and twenty years, a reign of peace and renewal. He rebuilt the city of Minas Tirith, planted a new White Tree in the Court of the Fountain, and restored the ancient glory of the North-kingdom. He made peace with the peoples of Harad and the East, released the slaves of Mordor, and gave them lands of their own. The Shire was made a Free Land under the protection of the Northern Sceptre, and the Thain, the Master of Buckland, and the Mayor of Michel Delving were made Counsellors of the North-kingdom. The New Age was thus an age of healing and rebuilding, but also of loss: the great and beautiful things of the Elder Days passed away, and the world became a place for Men alone.

The Significance of the New Age in the Story

The New Age is the final resolution of the long struggle against Sauron, but it is also a bittersweet conclusion. The victory is won at the cost of the fading of the Elves and the departure of the Ring-bearers. Frodo, Bilbo, and Samwise—the last of the Ring-bearers—passed over Sea, leaving the Shire behind. The world that Frodo saved was not a world in which he could find rest; his wounds were too deep. The New Age is thus a time of both triumph and sorrow, a world made safe for ordinary life but emptied of the extraordinary. It is the age in which the story of the Ring becomes a legend, told by the fireside, and the great deeds of the Fellowship pass into memory.