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Durin's Day was a yearly event noted by the Dwarves, "when the last moon of Autumn and the first sun of Winter appear in the sky together" (i.e. until sunset) on the first day of the Dwarves' New Year, which was "the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter."[1]

Since each lunar cycle takes about 29.5 days and autumn (by the American definition of winter) in the northern hemisphere runs until about December 21, the first day of the last new moon of autumn could take place any time between about November 22 and December 21. However, as seen in The History of The Hobbit, Tolkien set October 19 as Durin's Day, placing the start of winter for the Dwarves of Erebor at the beginning of November.

In The Hobbit, the writing on the map that Gandalf had received from Thráin II, as read by Elrond, instructed, "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole" (of the secret side-door into the Lonely Mountain).[1] When arriving at the Mountain weeks later, Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and the Dwarves at first misunderstood the meaning of "the last light", finding no key-hole in the daylight, even at sunset, until in the last hours of Durin's Day the moon's light revealed it. The group unlocked the door and entered the Mountain.[2]

Translations[]

Foreign Language Translated name
Arabic يوم دورين
Azerbaijani Durinın Gün
Basque Durinen eguna
Catalan Dia de Durin
Danish Durins Dag
Dutch Durins Dag
Faroese Durins dagur
Finnish Durinin päivä
French Le Jour de Durin
Frisian Dei fan Dúrin (Western)
Galician Día de Durin
Georgian დურინის დღე
German Durinstag
Greek Ημέρα του Ντουρίν
Hebrew יום דורין
Hmong Hnub ntawm Durin
Icelandic Durins Dagur
Irish Gaelic Lá Durin
Italian Giorno di Durin
Luxumbourgish Dag vun Durin
Macedonian Cyrillic Денот на Дурин
Norwegian Durins dag
Polish Dzień Durina
Portuguese Dia de Durin
Romanian Ziua lui Durin
Russian День Дурина
Sinhalese ඩුරින්ගේ දවස
Slovak Durinov deň
Spanish Dia de Durin
Swedish Durins dag
Turkish Durin'un Günü
Welsh Dydd Durin
Yiddish יוֹם דּוֹרִין

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Hobbit, Chapter III: "A Short Rest"
  2. The Hobbit, Chapter XI: "On the Doorstep"
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