December in the Tolkienian Imagination: The Waning Light and the Hallowed Stillness In a rendering of Middle-earth shaped for mortal understanding, the month that corresponds to December stands beneath the long shadow of the year’s turning. Though the Eldar do not reckon time by the same divisions as Men, they nonetheless perceive this portion of the cycle as an interval of profound quietude—a deep inhalation of the world itself before the sun begins its slow return. Among the Eldar, this season aligns with the late passage of Hrívë, the Winter season, when the air lies sharp with memory and the light thins like pale gold upon frost-covered lands. For the…