Home » Reading & Literature » J.R.R. Tolkien » Notinole from Babylon to Middle-earth - Page 4

Notinole from Babylon to Middle-earth - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

But we have introduced a method of insanity in our numbering system. We look at 1436 and read it either as "one thousand four hundred thirty-six" or "fourteen thirty-six". Yet, even more insanely, if we combine this number with another number, we start the operation from the right-hand side and work our way to the left. The Eldarin system doesn't require that. You simply start on the left-hand side of the number and work your way forward. So how did they read the numbers? Quite likely, I think, they read them by names. If we did that, we should say "one four three six". And, perhaps not coincidentally, that is another appropriate method for reading a number in English. But in the Eldarin system, we would read "six three four one". Although one who has been raised on the English system intuitively wants to know that the highest order digit is in the thousands before reading the rest of the number, that is not absolutely necessary. The way the English system works is just one possible way for denoting and understanding numbers. The ancient Egyptians read numbers from right to left, but they also stacked digits within a number. And they only used 7 symbols to manipulate their decimal system. The Babylonians, on the other hand, had fifty-nine characters for their sexagesimal (base sixty) system. But those characters were constructed from (surprise!) two symbols. Just like the Eldarin tengwar numerals (not including the zero). The Babylonian system, however, was not as elegant as the Eldarin system. The Babylonians had to repeat the first symbol (which resembled a "Y" with a closed top) up to nine times to denote 1 through 9. 10 was denoted by a "<"-like symbol with a curve inside the angle (yes, the Babylonians understood trigonmetry many centuries before Pythagoras was born). The "ten" symbol was prefixed to the "ones" symbol in up to five multiples. These composite symbols were then used as 59 unique digits. Numbers were constructed from left to right. Nonetheless, Eldarin numeric tengwar look like an interesting cross between the Egyptian and Babylonian systems. And, as I've pointed out in previous discussions, Tolkien was not so enamoured of the Medieval period that he ignored the classical world. In Letter 297 Tolkien wrote: "Since, naturally, as one interested in antiquity and notably in the history of languages and 'writing', I knew and had read much about Mesopotamia...." Years later, in Letter 344 (written in the last year of Tolkien's life), he wrote: "With regard to the numerals, the use of duodecimals, especially such main figures as 12 and 144, has no reference to fingers at all. The English use duodecimals and have special words for them, namely dozen and gross. The Babylonians used duodecimals."

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

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

The copyright of the article Notinole from Babylon to Middle-earth - Page 4 in J.R.R. Tolkien is owned by Michael Martinez. Permission to republish Notinole from Babylon to Middle-earth - Page 4 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.