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While investigating this excellent timeline resource for the Wheel of Time series, I noticed the invented names of months in the leftmost column: Aine, Adar, Saven, Amadaine, Tammaz, Maighdal, Choren, Shaldine, Nesan, Danu, Taisham, Jumara, and Saban.

What is the canonicity of these month names, and where did they originate?

I don't recall any reference to them in the main text, and certainly can't imagine all of them being mentioned (one or two maybe, offhandedly, but not all thirteen listed out). Unlike Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time series doesn't have lengthy appendices in which such issues as calendars and family trees are covered in detail. It does have per-book glossaries, but I had a quick look there and found only a description of the year-numbering scheme, not the months used within each year.

I'd be interested in any canonical info that exists about this calendar system: where it's used (in-universe), when it originated, and so on.

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  • I actually can't remember any means of telling time beyond years and then only in the past tense (in the so and so year so and so happened sort of thing) if the Wheel of time novels.... :/
    – Rincewind
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 13:56
  • there not in the books afaik
    – Himarm
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 14:08
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    Note that Adar, Saven,Tammaz, Nesan Saban are connected to the Hebrew months Adar, Sivan, Tamuz, Nisan, Sivan with spelling distorted to sound different. While the months are not used in the books, it seems that whoever invented the names picked them by looking at a Hebrew calendar and mangling the spelling. You would need to check the time of year in the timeline against the Hebrew calendar useage to see if they correlate.
    – sabbahillel
    Commented Jun 15, 2016 at 17:43
  • Never heard of them in the books, perhaps they were used more commonly during the Age of Legends, before the breaking. @Rand al'Thor maybe you could have one of those 'talks' with Lews Therin and see if he knows.
    – Theyna
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 4:46

2 Answers 2

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Those are the "official" names of the months in the calendar that Randland uses, since about the end of the War of a Hundred Years. You can see in The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time a description of the calendar:

The current calendar is the Farede Calendar. [...] Recording years of the New Era (NE), the Farede Calendar sets the first year after the War of the Hundred Years as 1 NE.

The Darede Calendar sets 10 days to the week, 28 days to the month, and 13 months to the year. The months are: Taisham, Jumara, Saban, Aine, Adar, Saven, Amadine, Tammaz, Maigdhal, Choren, Shaldine, Nesan, and Danu.

This book is considered a "secondary" canon source: it was written by someone other than Jordan (or Sanderson), but is based on notes that Jordan provided. Much like The Lord Of The Rings, it's written from the perspective of an in-universe encyclopedia. In cases where the book conflicts with the novels, the book is considered to be "in error" both in- and out-of-universe.

With the calendar, though, the book explains why you never see these names in the novels:

The calendar's named months are used almost exclusively in official documents. In everyday life, everyone from nobles to commoners reckons time by seasons, and fixes dates by days or weeks from or to this or that feastday, usually major holidays.

Since the people on Randland never really use this calendar, we never hear anyone say one of the month's names out loud. It would only have been used by scribes recording official documents, and we never really see any of those.

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According to The Word of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (Chapter 31, "Holidays and the Calendar"):

The Darede Calendar sets 10 days to the week, 28 days to the month, and 13 months to the year. The months are: Taisham, Jumara, Saban, Aine, Adar, Saven, Amadine, Tammaz, Maigdhal, Choren, Shaldine, Nesan, and Danu.

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  • Actually the first time I remember seeing the calendar explained was the glossary in the back of one of the novels.
    – Harlemme
    Commented Dec 12, 2016 at 17:45

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