Latest News
New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
Newest Fanworks
Borondir carries Steward Cirion's urgent request to Eorl the Young, with the help of his horse but at great personal cost.
A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
One Flesh, One Soul. Part I by FellFireFan
As beautiful as he is dangerous, Aegnor, an elven prince, stands against the looming shadows of Angband. Brother to Galadriel, he commands the siege with a fierce intensity, a duty that exacts a heavy toll on him. Beneath the iron walls he has built lies a broken soul, haunted by a devastating trauma and a well of deeply guarded secrets.
Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Child of Kings by singing-sorrowless
Gil-galad's life has been marked by both grief and love, in abundance. This is the story of his birth and childhood, told through the eyes of six elves who loved and raised him.
New in References
Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.
Newest Artwork
A private audience by skywardstruck
After wandering through the forests of Oromë, Maitimo and Makalaurë discover a quiet clearing, stopping to rest. With lyre in hand, the private audience begins— for this song, Makalaurë will only allow his brother to hear.
Rating: GeneralWarnings: No warnings listed
More than Memory by StarSpray
"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory." - The Return of the King
Stitched for the Famous Last Words challenge for the prompt: "And with that, they stepped into the gateway, together." - Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi
Rating: GeneralWarnings: Character Death
He chanted a song of wizardry by elennalore
Sauron defeats Finrod in their song battle.
Rating: GeneralWarnings: No warnings listed
Around the World and Web
Celedriel Week 2026
A Tumblr event week focusing on the relationship between Celeborn and Galadriel.
Esoteric Tolkien Week 2026
A fandom event dedicated to the strange, otherworldly, and inexplicable in Middle-earth and beyond.
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026 to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.”
