The heroic age of hackerdom (roughly, pre-1980) the era of the PDP-10, TECO, ITS and the ARPANET. ThiS term haS been rather conSciouSly adopted from J. R. R. Tolkien' S fantaSy epic "The Lord of the RingS". Compare Iron Age. See alSo elviSh and Great Worm. [Jargon File]