ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the history of the timeline as well as the ways in which history, as conveyed through timelines as the raw material of narrative, is founded on certain notions of thought established in modernity. It discusses how imaginary worlds make use of history and how timelines support this use but also raise significant and difficult questions about such history. It then moves to a discussion of the emergence and development of the timeline as a historiographic tool for visualizing and organizing time since antiquity. The history of the timeline suggests the manner in which historical thought involves narration, but also the facts that stand behind narration, a relationship imported into imaginary worlds that subsequently conditions the ways in which they develop. The chapter concludes with brief discussions of chronologies and timelines from several imaginary worlds, both those offered in official/canonical materials and those developed by fans.
