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Notinole from Babylon to Middle-earth - Page 3

© Michael Martinez

For example, in Aragorn's letter we have the phrase nelchaenen uin, "thirty-first". Helge derives nelchaenen from two roots: nel, "three", and kayan, "ten". In a duodecimal format, such a number would have to be "twenty-seventh": 2 twelves (24) and 7. So the Dunedain, who were heavily influenced by the Eldar in matters of calendars, language, and counting (so far as we know), were using a decimal system. The number would have been written as 13, were it provided in numeral rather than extended (written or named) form. If Sindarin had the name nelchaenen uin, then there would be no need for the language to use "one thirty", un nelchaenen. There has to be a reason for the reverse order of digits. As a philologist Tolkien would have been quite familiar with the fact that ancient languages, such as Latin, lacked sophistication where numbers are concerned. The ancient Romans (and many but not all of their contemporaries) did not use the zero. They had no symbol for it, no name. If two quantities were equal the ancients understood that taking one from the other left nothing. The Roman numeral system did not construct larger numbers by moving digits either to the left or right and placing a zero. "Fifty" in the Roman system was represent by the letter "L"; "one hundred", or a "centuria", was represented by the letter "C". One thousand by the letter "M" (from "mille"). There is a pattern, of course. Complex numbers would have different meaning based on the position of the letters: e.g., MC = 1100 and CM = 900. The Doughan-Bradfield system of numeric tengwar assigns the zero a character which looks like a backwards "c". The numbers 1, 2, and 3 are built on a luva, the curved bow, hanging down. One luva was used for "one", two luvar for "two", and three luvar for "three". The numbers 4, 5, and 6 were created by using a telco, stem, which looked like a backwards capital "J" and then adding first one luva (for "five") and two luvar (for "six"). The numbers 7, 8, and 9 reversed the telco. This system assumes that a zero will be used to increment orders of significance, and that position will denote value. Historically, the Babylonians developed a character which became the zero sometime around the years 300-200 BCE. The concept of a zero amount had been known for about 1,800 years but no one really had much use for it. Zero started out as a place holder, a means of showing an increase in magnitude for other digits in a number. Hence, "5" could become "50", and people didn't have to figure out if "155" really meant "1550" or "155". The modern Arabic system actually comes to us from India, which developed numerals for 1 through 9 and the zero around the year 500 CE. The Arabs imported the decimal system from India, and the Crusaders imported it from the Islamic world.

J.R.R. Tolkien's depiction of 6431 in Tengwar.

J.R.R. Tolkien's depiction of 61 in Tengwar

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