Around the World and Web

Tolkien Sea Week 2026

Have you ever noticed how many of Tolkien's characters are connected to the sea? Or that quite a few water-related events take place throughout the ages? Have you ever wanted to explore elven sea-longing or the vast mystery of what goes on underneath the waves in your work? Do you love characters like Ulmo, Elwing, Maglor and Tuor? then come join Tolkien Sea Week! A week for celebrating the repeated water and sea motifs in Tolkien's work. The event will run on Tumblr and AO3 from February 22-28, 2026.

Rules

Prompts

Tolkien Seminar 2026 – Call for Papers [EN] & Scholarship

Environment, the World around us, and the Connatural World in Tolkien’s Works

Call for Papers for the 22^nd Tolkien Seminar of the German Tolkien Society 16-18 October 2026,
at the Environmental Education Centre in Augsburg

Paper requirements

“I am home among the trees.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter “The Old Forest”)

Forests, rivers, mountains and meadows are much more than mere backdrops in Middle-earth: they are carriers of history, mythological significance and ethical orientation. At the same time, many stories in Tolkien’s oeuvre are marked by environmental destruction, industrialisation and the loss of ways of life close to nature – topics that are gaining new relevance in light of current ecological crises.

The 22^nd edition of the Tolkien Seminar is dedicated to the topic of “Environment, the World around us, and the Connatural World in Tolkien’s works”, because Tolkien always constructs ‘world’ as a multi-layered structure of ‘environment’, ‘the world around us’ and ‘connatural world’. His narrative structure and ethical orientation are based on an interplay of these dimensions: the environment calls for preservation, the ‘world around us’ calls for critical reflection on boundaries, and the ‘connatural world’ calls for solidarity and responsibility. This semantic differentiation not only allows for deeper insights into Tolkien’s narrative worlds, but also links them to contemporary discourses on ecology, community and transcendence.

Tolkien addresses ecological issues early on, particularly in his portrayal of nature and technology, for example in the contrast between the Ents and Saruman’s industry. In this light, ‘the world around us’ becomes a poetic admonition: the world is not just our surroundings, but our ‘fellow beings’. At the same time, the semantic differentiation highlights Tolkien’s philological thinking, in which the deconstruction and revitalisation of language functions as an act of cognition. Reflection on ‘the world around us’ and ‘connatural world’ can thus be understood as a Tolkienesque approach to the ethical, linguistic and ecological depth of his world-building.

The aim of this seminar is to bring together academic contributions from various disciplines that deal with questions of the relationship to nature, ecological ethics and the representation of the environment in Tolkien’s works. An interdisciplinary view of Tolkien can offer a holistic perspective on sustainability issues in their ecological, economic, social and cultural complexity. Both textual analyses and interdisciplinary approaches – for example from ecology, sociology, philosophy or media studies – are welcome.

The conference will take place at the Augsburg Environmental Education Centre, the central location for questions of sustainability, environmental issues and the future in Augsburg. The Environmental Education Centre is located on the edge of Augsburg’s city centre, but also borders one of the largest urban drinking water and nature reserves in Europe, thus enabling spatial proximity to complex questions about the ‘environment’ and ‘connatural world’.

Possible starting points for lectures could be:

• What surrounding, engulfing and separating significance do rivers, lakes and seas have in Tolkien’s mythology?
• How are they staged symbolically, narratively or geographically?
• To what extent can ideas of sustainable economic and living practices be recognised in Tolkien’s depiction of rural life, for example in the Shire?
• What ideals and warnings does the work convey with regard to the treatment of the natural environment?

Seminar and entry informations

The 22^nd Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format (predominantly in person but with online options) at the Environmental Education Centre Augsburg on 16-18 October 2026.

Interested applicants are requested to send a short abstract (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance in person or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 31 May 2026: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de

DTG Conference Scholarship

The DTG offers one conference scholarship for early career researchers in the field of Tolkien studies for the 22^nd DTG Tolkien Seminar (Augsburg, 16 to 18 October 2026).

The following specifications apply:

• Applicants must be students, PhD candidates, or PostDoc researchers with (at the time of application) no more than one academic publication in the field of Tolkien studies, and be no older than 35 years.
• Applications, consisting of a brief CV and a short presentation of any Tolkien-related research or other activities, can be submitted together with the abstract for the conference presentation.
• The Board of Editors of Hither Shore, in consultation with the Board of the DTG, awards the scholarship. The Board of Editors of Hither Shore decides about the acceptance of submissions for the conference independently, so that applicants who did not succeed in securing a scholarship may still be invited to present their paper at the conference.
• The scholarship is meant to cover all travel and accommodation expenses connected to the conference, as well as the conference dinner costs, up to but not exceeding € 500. The scholarship holder is reimbursement after the seminar and once the receipts have been submitted. Each scholarship holder receives a certificate of achievement at the conference.
• The scholarship holder is to submit his/her paper for publication in Hither Shore. It undergoes the same peer-review process as all other submissions.

Please send scholarship applications for the 22^nd DTG conference on ‘Environment, the World around us, and the Connatural World in Tolkien’ (Augsburg, 16 to 18 October 2026) till 31 May 2026 to:

Thomas Fornet-Ponse: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de

A Very Angbang Valentine's

A Very Angbang Valentine's: Prompt List

For each day, starting February 14, 2026, there is a set of five prompts that correspond with the five senses. You can choose one prompt, all of them, mix and match, or ignore them, the choice is yours! This event is open to all forms of human-made fandom expression, from fics to gifsets to headcanons, so please feel free to spend as much or as little time/energy as you want.

Saturday, Feb 14 - Red, Blankets, Blood, Wine, Heartbeat

Sunday, Feb 15 - White, Snow, Soap, Chocolate, Silence

Monday, Feb 16 - Pink, Fur, Flowers, Honey, Wind

Tuesday, Feb 17 - Purple, Scales, Smoke, Metal, Fire

Wednesday, Feb 18 - Black, Oil, Ozone, Salt, Thunder

Thursday, Feb 19 - Orange, Glitter, Spices, Pepper, Laughter

Friday, Feb 20 - Free Space!

Rules

• Contribute however you like! Digital art, doodles, fics, drabbles, headcanons, moodboards, music recs, and more are all welcome! There is no minimum wordcount or time spent to participate.
• Feel free to mix and match prompts, do different prompts on different days, or completely ignore the prompt sets.
• Works made for this event must be your own, focus on Melkor/Morgoth and Sauron/Mairon, and be previously unposted.
• @ this blog in your posts, so that I can find and reblog them for this event! You can also use the event tags: #veryangbangvalentines and #very angbang valentines.
• This event is not strictly fluff or SFW, but if you do contribute something that is NSFW or that has common TWs, please tag it properly. Posts that do not follow this rule will not be reblogged on this blog.
• Do not use generative AI for anything in relation to this event.
• Do not shame or harass fellow participants, bash characters, or bash different interpretations of Angbang. Posts that do this will not be reblogged on this blog, and repeatedly breaking this rule will get you blocked.
• Please send asks if you have a question or would like something clarified.

Back to Middle-earth Month 2026

Back to Middle-earth Month 2026

Project Pengolodh & Fellowship Fest

Who was Pengolodh?

Pengolodh was an Elven Loremaster of the First Age and beyond.  He is attributed with keeping history, traveling to places, and providing translations or allowing others to copy his works so that this history of ages past remained known to future generations. 

What is Project Pengolodh? 

Project Pengolodh will be an ongoing call to document fandom information.  While it is encouraged to add information as one is interested in doing so, the intent is to provide events every ten years, matching with the anniversary year of Back to Middle-earth Month, when the fandom is encouraged to collect information and add it to or create relevant Fanlore articles and to document their personal journeys in fandom. Project Pengolodh starts February 14, 2026! 

2026: Save the Dates!

February 1, 2026:

Fellowship Fest form opens: In late March, there will be a weekend of live events hosted on discord. This casual convention will be free to attend!  Volunteers are needed to deliver presentations, host roundtables and drop-in discussions, for live fanfiction readings, and to lead games and other activities. The volunteer form opens today!

Fanlore Ideas form opens: This form allows anyone to submit ideas for Fanlore articles which need updating, or Fanlore articles which have yet to be created. This spreadsheet will be available to anyone who wishes to participate. 

February 14, 2026: 

We <3 Tolkien Day: A day to gather with others in text and voice chats to brainstorm ideas for the Fanlore Ideas form, or to hold other fandom events celebrating Tolkien.  As B2MEM is an overarching fandom event not limited to one group, so too will We <3 Tolkien Day be such an event, and it is encouraged that groups across the fandom host We <3 Tolkien Day events.  (Events can be cross-posted to the Spring Into Arda discord server.) 

Fanlore Additions form opens: This form is a place to document the updates to entries or entries which become newly created (if you wish - not required).  Information submitted to this form will be used for the 2027 Back to Middle-earth Month TCG event in March of 2027, which will recognize the work of the Project Pengolodh participants. 

March 1, 2026:

B2MEM 2026: Back to Middle-earth 

In celebration of the 20th anniversary, you are invited to revisit the past 20 years of B2MEM and to use and reuse prompts to create new fanworks, but also to recommend past fanworks of your own and others.

You can find the information on previous B2MEM prompts at Fanlore and on the Spring Into Arda website. 

For anyone who decides to use bingo cards from any year when bingo was the theme, bingo numbers will be called daily on the Spring Into Arda Tumblr! 

Throughout the month, there will be ‘fandom history sprints’, encouraging those participating in Project Pengolodh to add to and create entries for the fandom on Fanlore. 

Fellowship Fest Registration Form Opens: Those wishing to attend Fellowship Fest will be able to register beginning today.  This virtual convention is free! 

March 25, 2026:

Tolkien Reading Day: An event of the Tolkien Society, this is a yearly occurrence.  Find out more here! 

March 27-29, 2026: (may vary slightly depending on your time zone)

Fellowship Fest!: 

Celebrating the destruction of the One Ring, and the Fellowship of Fandom, Felowship Fest will include both text and voice chats at scheduled times, and rooms for drop-in fun.  There will be roundtables, time for organized crafting, writing, or arting, presentations, cosplay contests, fun and games, live fanfiction reading, excerpt discussions and booktalks, and other fun.  Connect with other fans in real time! This online convention/moot is completely free!

April through December, 2026:

Reminders will be sent out on the Spring Into Arda discord and on Tumblr to add to Fanlore. 

February Challenge - tolkienshortfanworks

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for February.

Thematic prompt:

Your piece should feature the Sea or contain a significant mention of the Sea.

Here are a couple of optional quotation prompts:

(1)
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea. (From: Bilbo's Last Song)

(2)
To great grey waters heaving round the rocks where sea-birds swim. (From: The Horns of Ylmir)

(3)
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan. (From: The Lay of Nimrodel)

(4)
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling,
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling (From: To the Sea, to the Sea! - Legolas's poem in ROTK)

(You can find musical renditions of prompts 1, 3, and 4 on YouTube.)

Some further related suggestions: you could incorporate a diary from a ship's log, use lines from a sea shanty, or include an encounter with an unfamiliar marine creature,

I am bearing in mind the following event on Tumblr later this month, which has its own set of prompts:
Tolkien Sea Week, 22 - 28 February:
https://www.tumblr.com/tolkienseaweek/792778458436681728/welcome-to-tolkien-sea-week-2026


Formal challenge:

I'm keeping it simple again this month: word count of multiples of 50 (so 50, 100, 150 etc.)


As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

Fresh Femslash Salad Bar - Multifandom

Femslash February is quickly approaching, and I'm pleased to announce the third year of FFSB, inspired by runaway_tales \o/

The way it works is you select two or more prompt tables. One prompt from each table will make up your final prompts for a fill. Past tables are available, as well as some new tables for this year. Prompts can be interpreted as you wish, with the exception of the bowls based on word/time counts. The more tables you select, the more prompts each fill will need to use. For example, if you pick bacon, nuts, and figs, each of your fills would use one bad ending prompt, one noir prompt, and one fluff prompt (ex. the corrupted hero, revenge & waking up together). There are two modes, the default regular mode where you select which prompts you want to match up together. There's also a hard mode, in the comments of this post let me know which prompt tables you want to use and I will randomize a final table for you. (Fills do not need to be completed in order.)
 

See the page itself for prompt tables.

A few basic rules:
-Femslash ships from any fandom, including RPF and original works are welcome. Note for RPF, characters must be over 18 and famous in their own right. (Genderbends and/or rule 63 characters are not eligible.) 
-Fills can be done in any medium or mix. 
-Fills need to be newly created, they can also be used in other events as long as there is no anonymous period.
-Fill minimums are 100 words, or the equivalent in your medium. 
-There is no maximum for fills, however they need to be complete. 
-Please do not kinkshame, bash ships, etc. 
-Table claiming is open now until the end of February, fills open February 1st. Weekly posts will be made for active table claims, progress check-ins and chatting. There will be a round up post after the event's end, February 28th. 
-There are optional badges to earn, based on total fills (1/4/10) and difficulty mode. There's a leftovers badge for finishing last year's table. 
-There is also an optional table if you're aiming for multiple fills, which you can share to be added to the weekly posts. 
-Fills linked in a shared table and/or in the weekly fills thread will be in the final wrap up post.

Tolkien Time Warp

February 2-9, 2026

Tolkien Time Warp 2026 FAQs

Hello, and welcome to the first ever Tolkien Time Warp! This event is a celebration of everything time travel, eldritch, and Tolkien. Bring your fix-its, your angst, your fluff, your chaos! Open to all Tolkien fandoms!

To Participate:

• Create art, post fanfics, mood boards, epistolary, recipes, filks, or anything that sparks your interest in regards to time loops, time travel, eldritch themes, and Tolkien!
• Share your creations using the hashtag #tolkientimewarp2026 and mentioning the blog @tolkientimewarp!
• Submit your creation to the Ao3 collection if you wish. The collection will be revealed February 2!
• See if any of the prompts spark interest.
• Reblog and like others' work! Spread the love!

Rules and Requirements:

• No minimum and maximum word count or tagging requirements other than what Ao3 requires. Please tag any Ao3 archive requirements on your posts if you post them to Tumblr and your fic falls under Mature or Explicit!
• Live and let live, ship and let ship. If you see something you don't like, scroll onward. Don't harass, shame, or police others' content.
• No genAI, please.

This is the official prompt list for the Tolkien Time Warp 2026! All prompts are optional and meant to spark inspiration.

• Day 1: Time Loops
• Day 2: Changing Eras
• Day 3: Lost and Found
• Day 4: Out of Time
• Day 5: Family and Friends
• Day 6: Eldritch
• Day 7: Rebirth

Tolkien Femslash February

Welcome to Tolkien Femslash February!

This is a femslash-centric February prompt fest open to all Tolkien fans from all the different sub-fandoms: Whether you enjoy the Silmarillion, the Hobbit movies, the Rings of Power or are into some entirely different part of the Tolkien fandom - you're welcome here as long as you enjoy femslash!

There is a FAQ here for all your questions. New prompts will posted daily in February, with a complete prompt list here. Feel free to fill none and work on whatever femslash you want to work, fill one, fill several or fill all, with no limits to the type of your fanwork. You're welcome as a writer, artist, graphics maker, podficcer, fanmixer, cosplayer or whatever else. The only qualifying factor is that your fanwork must center around a F/F relationship.

For any fanwork you create, please tag #tolkienfemfeb and @tolkienfemfeb so it can be found and reblogged here. There also is an AO3 collection to post your works to here.

Teitho Prompt - January/February

Our prompt for January/February 2026 is BACK TO THE START.

There are so many ways to approach this challenge—will you use a first chapter from one of Tolkien’s works for inspiration? Or will you choose a story’s beginning and take it in a different direction, choose a new perspective, a fresh viewpoint, alter one small detail and see how that changes the story?

Or perhaps back to the start will mean traveling back in the history of Middle-earth? 

Or starting a familiar story in a different place. 

Back to the start could also be revisiting a friendship, returning to a familiar place, tracing one’s steps back while on a journey, or even running into a time loop that keeps circling back! 

As we start the new year we can’t wait to see where you start your story for this challenge! 

Please submit by February 28, 2026 to teitho.contest@gmail.com
 

Filiori Fest 2026

Filiori Fest (2026) is open to writers, artists, gif makers, edit makers, fic recommendation list makers, moodboard/aesthetic makers, music playlist makers, and every sort of fan content in between.

Rules

1. Above else, be respectful: No hate speech or bigotry.
2. No: AI-generated submissions of any kind, or incest.
3. Content should be majority focused on the pairing in question.
4. Past works are welcomed, and late posting is okay!
5. When fanfiction or art is complete, feel free to add it to the Filiori Fest 2026 collection on AO3, which can be found here:
6. NSFW content IS allowed, but please tag appropriately! (Utilize the cuts, and proper warnings, etc. Thank you!)
7. Use the tag "FilioriFest2026" if you'd like to have your works or posts reblogged! If it is missed by the mod, please feel free to tag @filiorifest or @skatesfullofsunshine to get that rectified!
8. Please credit your sources, when necessary!

Prompts

These are entirely optional prompts! (Take as much or as little as you need from what follows; mix and match, or change them up to your liking, to fit your creation style. Or don't even use them at all! These are just here for those who work better off of prompts. I may add more as we get closer, but for now here are 31 different prompts for those who'd like them.)

• "I thought you were dead."
• "Take whatever you want, just please don't hurt him/them."
• "Have you ever been in love?"
• "You know him?" ........ "I thought I did, once."
• "We've got to stop meeting like this."
• 4 Times X Did This (and 1 Time they Didn't)
• "Well, this is unexpected."
• "I'm trying to protect you." ......... "Well, don't."
• In Vino Veritas
• "And they were roommates!"
• "I thought I'd never see you again."
• "Loser has to take the other on a date." .... "You're on."
• "Draw me like you love me." <- Said jokingly. .... *Character takes a breath* "Okay."
• "You read my mind like a book," said disbelievingly.
• "Well, that escalated quickly."
• Angels & Demons
• Flowershop AU
• Rule 63 (F/F)
• Carnival
• Sickfic
• Wings
• Unorthodox (marriage/getting together) proposal - (Like, think Ring Pop ring in place of an engagement ring, because one of them wanted to propose on the spot, and did so impulsively but all they had was X to use. The more ridiculous the better, imho, but do with this what you will if you want to. Lol.)
• Fairytales
• Immortality
• Reincarnation
• Role Reversal
• Road trip
• Prank gone right/wrong.
• Fandom fusion or crossover (Think like placing them in St*r Wars or something like that.)
• Demigods
• Mythology