Around the World and Web

Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.

Teitho May/June Challenge: Joker

The time has come for a Joker Theme for May/June!

In a game of cards, you can use the Joker card to replace any other. Now you can pick ANY of our past challenges that stir your imagination and write a story or create art for it!

You can finally write that story you wanted to write for that challenge once but didn't have time for it, or never quite got polished to your satisfaction.

You could even write a story for some of the challenges that Teitho had before you knew about its existence! Or any of our recent ones!

We’d love to see your stories!

Please submit your stories before June 30, 2024, to teitho.contest@gmail.com.

Rules for the Teitho Contest can be found here.

Monstrous May 2024

Monstrous May was first established in 2021, and I've arranged prompts for each May since - for each day of the month of May, there is a prompt involving and invoking the monstrous.

Create art, sculpture, write fiction, poetry, make whatever you feel inspired to! Create for as many or as few days as inspire you, collaborate with friends, and have fun.

Fan creations are just as welcome as original ones, and naturally, erotic and adult creations are as well as SFW ones!

Prompts are available on Tumblr.

Have some questions? Here’s the FAQ from 2021 or ask on Tumblr.

Fellowship of the Fics: Modern AU May

You know what doesn't get enough love? Modern AUs! This event is a trope mash-up of sorts. You (or your followers) can combine an AU setting, character occupation, and dialogue prompt. You have all month to make as many different combinations as you want!

Prompts are available on Fellowship of the Fic's tumblr.

And, of course, don’t forget to send us your fics when you are done so we can put them in our queue using this form!! Happy writing!

May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks

The May challenge has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. 
The thematic challenge for May is: name.
Tolkien has some interesting thoughts on naming.
Elves, depending on their background, can have mother names, father names and later given or adopted names, as well as adaptations of their names into other languages. Galadriel has all of these!
Dwarves, depending on the period, may have their own secret internal names and outward-facing names in Mannish languages.
Aragorn and Gandalf canonically both have multiple names, too.
The Quenya word for "name" is also the name of a Tengwa.
The Long List of the Ents has at its core a list of names.

The formal challenge is: acrostic.
This means that the first letters of your lines, sentences, paragraphs or sections should spell a word (or name!).
There is a selection of examples (prose and poetry) from the Tolkien fandom here on AO3.

Acrostics often spell out names or phrases containing names, but they can spell out any other word you like.
Also, as usual for these challenges, you can write about names or write an acrostic entirely independently of each other.
They can also be freely combined with prompts from other challenges, such as SWG's.

More details on the challenge at the linked entry.

New participants welcome!

 

May 2024 Calls for Papers

Oxonmoot 2024

Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together over 500 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2024 will be our 51st, and will be held over four days, from the afternoon of Thursday 29th August until the afternoon of Sunday 1st September, and will be held at St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford and Online.

We are pleased to welcome contributions of all types to the programme for Oxonmoot 2024.

The Talks and Papers strand will run through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Papers may be presented in person in Oxford or online via Zoom.

The Call for Papers is now open! Presentations may be submitted here. Deadline to submit a talk or paper is midnight UK time on May 12th.

The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. The Call for Activities will open later in the year.

Participants with questions may contact the Activities Programme Co-Ordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Co-Ordinator.

See the Oxonmoot 2024 page for more information or to register!

Mythcon 53: Fantasies of the Middle Lands

The Mythopoeic Society’s annual conference, popularly called “Mythcon,” will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year, from 2-5 August 2024. The idea of “middle-ness” can suggest stability—the center of an object is less likely to break than its edges. It can also suggest the opposite: something in a state of change can be said to be “in the middle”—neither one thing nor another. Mythcon 53, located in the middle of the continental U.S., welcomes papers exploring the concept of “middle-ness” as it is worked out in fantasy, science fiction, and related genres. Paper topics can cover a wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to the following:

  • Locations: This could mean the implications of a place name including the word “middle,” such as Middle-earth or Midgard; places in our world that either shape or appear in fantasy such as the English Midlands or Middle America as in Stranger Things or American Gods; or even liminal places that appear in fantasy such as train stations, purgatory, or The Wood Between the Worlds.
  • Characters: the middle child in a family (Arya Stark, Edmund Pevensie); adolescents negotiating that in-between space (Luce in The Owl House; Ged in Earthsea); individuals or people groups who are a mix of others (Tolkien’s Númenóreans; Percy Jackson).
  • Textual middle-ness: intertextuality, genre-crossing, multiple media, even the middle books/movies of a trilogy (The Empire Strikes BackThe Two Towers).
  • Authors: considering the location of the con, Midwestern authors and scholars such as Tim O’Brian, Jack Zipes, Lois McMaster Bujold, or Philip Jose Farmer.

We also welcome papers on the work of either of our Guests of Honor, Brian Attebery and Eleanor Arnason. Because this conference is happening in conjunction with Diversicon, a multicultural, multimedia event dedicated to improving contacts among groups and individuals interested in speculative fiction, we are also interested in papers on their traditional Posthumous Guest, who this year is L. Frank Baum. And, as always, we welcome papers focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), and other fantasy authors and themes. Papers from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome.

Each paper will be given a one-hour slot to allow time for questions, but individual papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Panels are also welcome, and both papers and panels may be presented virtually or in person. Paper abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at papers@mythcon.org by May 15, 2024. Please include your A/V requirements and the projected time needed for your presentation. If your programming interests are more in line with Diversicon’s focus (see http://www.diversicon.org/), then please send your proposal to scottl2605@aol.com.

Additional Links:
Mythcon 53 Conference Page
Mythcon 53 Registration

German Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien and His Editors

Tolkien, in paratextual parts of his main work The Lord of the Rings, introduced himself as the editor and translator of the Red Book of Westmarch. A similar conjecture can be found in Farmer Giles of Ham, which comes with a scholarly preface and purports to be the translation of a medieval manuscript. These rather playful examples should be set alongside the real-world editors of Tolkien’s works. In his will, Tolkien made his youngest son Christopher (1924-2020) his ‘literary executor’ with “full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto” (official copy of Tolkien’s will, 23 July, 1973). Until his death (16 January 2020), Christopher actively fulfilled his role as ‘literary executor’ and edited and made available to a wide audience countless texts from Tolkien’s estate – and thus strongly influenced the perception and understanding of the works already published during Tolkien’s lifetime. Above all, The Silmarillion (1977), which he edited and, as was established in retrospect (Kane 2009), was heavily modified by him, had a major influence on Tolkien research.

In addition to the central figure of Christopher Tolkien, who could have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024, the roles of the editors Stanley and Rayner Unwin, the biographer Humphrey Carpenter (BiographyLetters), the student and later colleague Alan Bliss (Hengest and Finn), the daughter-in-law Baillie Tolkien (The Father Christmas Letters) or the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship should also be examined.

The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to explore the various questions and problems posed by the publication of Tolkien’s work.

Possible starting points for presentations would be:

  • Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as ‘co-author’ of Tolkien’s work
  • Censorship and restriction: the search for the ‘true’ Tolkien biography
  • Tolkien’s posthumous academic work
  • The publication of the works on the Elvish (and other) languages
  • Access to and handling of Tolkien’s manuscripts and notes in the Bodleian and the Marquette

The 20th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format at the RWTH Aachen from 11-13 October 2024. 

Interested applicants are requested to send a short synopsis (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 2024: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de

See the full call for papers here.

Signum University Regional Moots

These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.


Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!

Angbang Week 2024

 

Welcome one and all to the third annual Angbang appreciation event! Angbang Week will run 6-12 May 2024 on Tumblr.

We will be accepting any and all original creations for the upcoming event - visual, written or auditory, which is including but not limited to fanfiction, poetry, art both traditional and digital, playlists or other musical creations, moodboards, and anything else you may come up with. So long as they're new, or as of yet unpublished, created by you and feature Angbang, we want to see them and feature them!

Prompts

  • Day 1 - May 6th: Scars | Injuries*
  • Day 2 - May 7th: Haste | Malice
  • Day 3 - May 8th: Spying | Shapeshifting
  • Day 4 - May 9th: Mountains | Iron
  • Day 5 - May 10th: Fire | Lava
  • Day 6 - May 11th: Order | Chaos
  • Day 7 - May 12th: Prompt of choice from the previous weeks**

*We are aware of the nature of the first prompt. Due to this, we do ask that in addition to all relevant tags, you add the correct tag of either "scars" or "injuries" to your work on day 1 should you choose to post it, especially the latter, so that people could filter it out. We will likewise add relevant tags to works featuring these prompts so that anyone may filter it out if they so wish.

**As you've noticed, this year's final "free" prompt is a bit more restrictive, and would encourage using one of the prompts from previous years, found here and here. One of them is free space, but we do encourage using one of the non-day-7 ones if you can.

Like in the previous years, we encourage you to pick whichever prompt you like better of the two offered that day (you can also wait for another day if you don't like either prompt, or combine the two if you prefer, or even make content for both prompts if you're really looking for a challenge / prefer not sleeping during the month of May, whatever you like). Once you've picked a prompt and made content for it, use the current year's Angbang Week tag, which is either #AngbangWeek2024 or #Angbang Week 2024, or tag this blog directly when posting your prompt for us to reblog it. Try not to post it before the event starts (you can queue up specific posts for specific days to help with that), do not worry about being late, and most importantly, enjoy! No need to stress yourself out over silly ship stuff.

For any additional questions, requests, or additional clarification regarding anything event-related, feel free to send an ask or a DM at anytime!

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week 2024

Ekphrasis: the description or interpretation of a piece of art, usually visual, in a different artistic medium.

Material culture and art add vibrancy to our lives, and it seems that there are so many options in Middle Earth ripe for interpretation! A poem on Nerdanel's statues, a tapestry capturing Nessa's dance, a prose fic describing the impact of seeing Númenor's frescoes, a painting exploring the beautiful quotidian architecture of a Hobbit hole…

This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event dedicated to the art of ekphrasis in Tolkien's worlds. Its goal is to illuminate the artistic surroundings of the places, people, and stories we love, in as many media as possible. As such, fanworks are welcome to take almost any form: see the FAQ for the full list!

The prompts are multi-part. The first part of the prompt is mandatory, describing the kind of art to be interpreted. The subsequent parts are optional thematic, formal, or visual add-ons that people may choose to incorporate or not.

For example: "Day N. Art form: Metalwork. Formal prompt (writing): Epistolary format. Formal prompt (visual art): Mixed media. Thematic prompt: Trade and cross-cultural connection."

If you miss the day, or are desperate to create work about some form of art not included in the prompts, don't worry! Posting amnesty/prompt free-for-all day will be June 17, and posting here and in the AO3 Collection will be open for a year from June 10, 2024.

How it works: Prompts are currently being posted! Participants will have slightly more than two months to create whatever sort of art they like inspired by one or more of those prompts. Then, no later than June 9 at 5 PM PST, they will post their works to the AO3 Collection (linked above), tagged with the appropriate day. The mod will do a quick check, and then the week of reveals will begin. During the week of June 10-June 16, pre-posted fanworks will be revealed daily according to theme (see calendar) in the AO3 Collection and reblogged on Tumblr. On June 17, anyone who missed the deadline will have an opportunity to post their late works and have them celebrated on Amnesty Day.

In short, the timeline is:
- Read prompts starting March 17.
- Create!
- Post tagged work to AO3 before June 9 deadline.
- Enjoy daily reveals between June 10 and June 16.
- Amnesty day June 17 for late posters.

Inclusion

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week is open to all characters, genres, and ratings, and all Tolkien canons. This includes books, movies both live-action and animated, fan-made films like Born of Hope, TV shows that have aired (so yes to Rings of Power, no to the yet-unreleased Rohan animated series), and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online. It also includes Tolkien's non-Arda fictional works, such as Roverandom. Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are welcome.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week wants to be as inclusive as possible. As such:

  • All canons and versions of canon are equally welcome and encouraged to participate.
  • Fan creators of all levels of experience should feel more than welcome to join in the fun.
  • All languages are welcomed, and works in languages other than English are actively encouraged.
  • All styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. Apart from following the Art Form content prompt for each day, there are no restrictions on genre, style, rating, or ship. There are two exceptions: first, no character bashing; second, no AI-generated writing or art.

Above all, this event is supposed to get us thinking and feeling about art, which is for everyone. With this in mind, TEW asks participants to be respectful and inclusive at all times. In particular, TEW values its queer and trans participants and participants of color and will moderate as necessary to ensure that this event remains a welcoming space.

Please see the FAQ for all rules and full instructions on how to post and tag.

Calendar

June 9, 2024: Submit all works to the AO3 Collection by this date

June 10-16, 2024: Reveals

Housekeeping

The DW site is the primary home of Tolkien Ekphrasis Week: this is where to check first for dates, news, FAQs, links, and prompts!

Prompts will also be posted on Tumblr. The Tumblr blog will be used for event promotion ahead of the event, answering questions via the ask function, and reblogging your creations, if they are posted and tagged on Tumblr.

This event does not and will not exist on any other form of social media other than Tumblr and DW, though I encourage you to spread the word in your other online communities.

If you have any questions, you can get in touch with the mod, chestnut_pod, via Tumblr ask or comments on the Tolkien Ekphrasis Week Dreamwidth post.

Links

Tumblr Blog | Dreamwidth Community | AO3 Collection | FAQ

Teitho April/May Challenge: Quotes

Teitho is a monthly fanfiction contest. Our April/May prompt uses the source material directly for inspiration. Choose any of the following quotes as inspiration for your story.

1. From The Silmarillion: “the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.”

2. From The Hobbit: “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”

3. From The Lord of the Rings: “All’s well as ends Better!”

What thoughts and feelings do these quotes inspire? They may come from different books and from different characters, but they can encompass many moments from Tolkien’s legendarium.

The tales of Beleriand may have inspired song but so did the events of the Last Alliance, the search for the Entwives, the destruction on the One ring, the ride of the Rohirrim.

Many characters find something on their adventures—it could be an object but sometimes it’s a secret, unexpected information, or even something they learn about themselves.

Perhaps you would like to write about the moments those words reference? What did Mandos think of Fëanor’s words? Fingolfin? The Noldor gathered in that place?

There is no requirement to use the quote directly in your story but you are free to do so, if you like.

We are excited to read your submissions! Please email your stories to teitho.contest@gmail.com by May 31!

Find more about Teitho here.

Forgotten Ground Regained: Call for Submissions

The Fall issue of Forgotten Ground Regained is open for submissions. I am especially interested in poetry that explores themes of love, devotion, and desire – themes that are, thus far, relatively sparsely represented in modern English alliterative verse. Submissions should be sent to Paul D. Deane at the following email address: pdeane [at] alliteration.net.

Requirements

  • Submissions must be in modern English, but authors should feel free to submit poems that take advantage of the diction, rhythms, and syntax of particular language varieties and communities. I do not discriminate against Scots, Appalachian English, Black English Vernacular, Indian English, or any other language variety, though I do ask that authors be prepared to supply notes to explain any terms or expressions that outsiders to their communities may not readily understand.
  • Submissions should make skillful, systematic use of alliteration in ways that use alliteration to reinforce the rhythm and connect important ideas. Overall, I prefer poems that have the strongest impact on readers when they are read aloud. I therefore encourage authors to include links to audio or video versions of their poems in their submissions.
  • I would love to see people experimenting with modern English versions of Old and Middle English alliterative verse, with Old Norse forms like ljoòahattr and drottkvætt or modern Icelandic rimur, or with new alliterative forms designed to highlight modern English rhythms and speech patterns. While my first preference is what traditional scholarship calls alliterative-accentual verse, I am also open to alliterative free verse or to alliterative versions of traditional forms, such as the ballad, as long as the alliteration is clearly a structural rather than a decorative feature of the form. 
  • I am open to work both by contemporary poets and to projects that would normally be considered to fall outside the literary mainstream, such as speculative poetry, SCA Bardic Arts projects, and fan fiction.
  • There is no hard upper length limit, though poems more than five to six pages in length are likely to be published separately on the website, with links provided from the Fall issue, rather than being included directly in the pdf magazine. Note that I love both both the lyrical and the narrative turns in poetry, so longer narratives will be given careful consideration.
  • Please submit your poem in the body of your email. I will not open attachments.

Submissions for the Fall Issue must be received by September 15th, 2024.

WIP Big Bang 2024

The WIP Big Bang has one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 15th
Sign-ups Close- May 21st
Check In #1- May 22nd
Check In #2- June 15th
Snippets Due- July 1st
Art Claims Begin- July 17th
Check In #3- July 22nd
Check In #4- August 6th
Rough Drafts Due- August 15th
Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd
Posting Claims Ends- September 1st
Final Drafts/Art Due- September 7th
Posting Starts- September 8th

FAQ | 2024 WIP Big Bang Sign Up

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (TRSB) 2024

First conceived in 2018, the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (or TRSB!) is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event celebrating the talent of our fanwork creators. At its core, the event is about bringing together the artistic side of our fandom with the literary talents it possesses, creating bridges between the separate areas of fandom experience for the enjoyment of all. During the late spring, signed up artists submit fan art pieces in progress or finished, which is then posted anonymously in our Gallery. The Gallery is open to the pool of writers who have signed up for the event only. Each writer is then invited to claim a piece of art to write for; the minimum word count is 5000.

We are open to all characters, genres, ships and ratings, and all canons that fall under the Tolkien fandom umbrella. This includes movieverse (i.e. the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies), lesser known works by Tolkien (such as The Father Christmas Letters), and/or other works with a clear link to his life or creative output (for example, Tolkien’s translations and academic texts, the 2019 Tolkien biopic, fan-made films like Born of Hope, and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online). Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are permitted.

When we started this event, one thing we absolutely agreed on was our desire for maximum inclusivity. In practice this means that:

  • We encourage participation from all sections of the Tolkien fandom, whether you prefer bookverse, movieverse, game canon, smaller canons, or Tolkien’s academic papers.
  • Fan creators should ALL feel safe and able to join in, regardless of experience levels or perceived ability. This means that everybody is welcome, whether they’re a professional artist/writer or a complete beginner, whether they’ve been a fan for decades or fell in love with the films last weekend.
  • As far as practically possible, all styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. We do not set restrictions on genre, style, rating or ship, although we do keep NSFW art submissions behind a lock, for the safety of our younger participants.

Above all, the event is supposed to be fun. Fandom should not be a place of difficulty, conflict and stress. With this in mind, we ask participants to be kind, inclusive, respectful and welcoming at all times.

Schedule

March 17 – 2023 Gallery Opens

The Gallery for 2023 is live at last! Enjoy all the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!

March 24 – Suggestion Form Opens

This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr blog and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!

April 14 – Sign-ups Open

We post links to our sign up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Signing Up’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.

May 5 – Artist Sign-up Deadline

May 10 – Discord Server Opens

May 13 – Art Draft Due

Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.

May 17 – Art Preview Opens

Our online gallery will be visible to signed up participants only.  Signed up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!

May 18-19 Discord Art Talks

Repeating the fun from last year, these will be live chats on discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists.

May 20 – Author Signups Deadline

May 25 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC

Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first come, first served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author in the first instance; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.

What time is that for me?

TBA – Additional Claims

If a number of artworks are left unclaimed, we may allow authors to claim second and third pieces of art to write for. However, we don’t know until after claims night whether this will be needed, so this is likely to be announced at short notice – keep an eye on the blog and on your emails to avoid missing out.

June 7 – Post-Claims Check-in

The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!

June 16 – Free Rein Art Due

We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to provide finished art to their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved. See ‘Completing the Artwork’ in the FAQs for more details on how this works.

June 28 – Check-in #2

The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.

June 26 – Check-in #3

The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQs.

August 9 – Final Art Due

Artists should share a copy of the final art to their authors – but don’t post it yet!

Don’t email it to the mods.

August 16 – Final Check-in (#4)

Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date.
As per other check ins, except the mods will be providing instructions about promotional posts (see ‘Promotional Posts’ FAQ for more information). We will also ask you:

  • Whether you have discussed posting logistics with your artist (if you’re embedding art in your AO3 story, for example)
  • Whether you have specific posting needs re publicizing date/time frame (e.g. not wanting us to reblog your art/fic on Shabbat as you will be unable to respond)

August 26 – Art Can Be Posted

August 30 – Final Fic Due In Collection

Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. (If you are writing a last minute pinch hit we can be a bit flexible with this deadline.)

TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event

September 6 – COLLECTION REVEALS

September 13 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs Begin

September 20 – Gallery Submission

October 6 – Discord Server Closes

Other Links

Acorns and Oak Leaves: A Year of Bagginshield

Throughout 2024, the Bagginshield community Acorns and Oak Leaves offers monthly prompts to encourage new creations of all kinds (i.e. art, fics, gifs, etc) - but don't worry, there are no deadlines. Pick and choose whatever prompts you like, and be sure to tag the @acorns-and-oakleaves blog on Tumblr so we can share your Bagginshield creations!

Monthly prompts for the Year of Bagginshield can be found here.

Acorns and Oak Leaves also has a Discord server!


Around the World and Web Archive

Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.

Fëanorian Week 2024

Fëanorian Week will run March 25th, 2024-March 31st, 2024. The prompts are as followed:

  • Day 1- Maedhros - > Childhood, Kingship, Angband, Coping, The Union, Relations with Different Races
  • Day 2- Maglor -> Childhood, Wife,  Music & Songs of Power, Elrond & Elros, Kingship, Maglor’s  Gap, Redemption
  • Day 3- Celegorm - > Childhood, Hunting, Orome & Huan, Strength & Beauty, Luthien, Nargothrond
  • Day 4- Caranthir - > Childhood, Wife, Betrayal, Lordship, Dwarves & Humans, Marriage, Appearance
  • Day 5- Curufin - > Childhood, Wife Celebrimbor, Forge Work
  • Day 6- Ambarussa - > Childhood, Lordship, Regrets, Twin, Hunting, Nandor
  • Day 7- Nerdanel and Feanor-> Mahtan, Finwe & Indis, Marriage, Reunion, Traveling, Creation, Healing

Rules: You are allowed to post anything fanrelated on the days.  If the prompts are not to your liking, you can do your own thing.  The tracktag is #feanorianweek.  Tag your work accordingly!  Have fun and be nice to others. Disrespect towards others will not be tolerated.

Publication of Tolkien's Collected Poems announced

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have announced the forthcoming publication of an edition of Tolkien's collected poems that will include substantial amounts of hitherto unpublished poetry, as well as published poetry (some of the latter in extract). Publication is expected in September.

The blog post by the editors linked above describes the genesis and background of this plan and some of the principles of selection. Additional details can be found in the description of the preview on Amazon here.

C+C (Celegorm & Curufin) Week 2024

C+C Week is a week-long Tumblr event from March 18th to March 23rd, exploring the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin, as well as their relationships with the rest of Arda. Prompts will be every other day.

Rules

  • Content posted MUST BE YOUR OWN. No ifs ands or buts, and if you use AI-generated art I will come for you. Don’t be that guy.
  • If your entry is late, THAT’S OK! feel free to be as late as you want. Yes, I would love if you posted half a year after this event’s ended.
  • Please, be kind and considerate. I know Celegorm and Curufin aren’t the most popular of characters, don’t be a jerk about it.
  • If you do not have fun you are immediately disqualified. Have fun.

C+C Week FAQs can can be found here.

Prompts

MAR. 17th - 18th: VALINOR

  • Childhood
  • Apprenticeships
  • Family & friendship
  • Dark omens

MAR. 19th - 20th: OATHS

  • Fëanorian Oath
  • Promises made
  • Loyalty & betrayal
  • Oaths broken

MAR. 21st - 22nd: CONTRASTS

  • Light/darkness
  • Laurelin/Telperion
  • Heroism/villainy
  • Adored/unseen

MAR. 23rd: SECRECY

  • Words unspoken
  • Lies by omission
  • Taboos
  • Late night rendezvous

Of course, you don’t have to use these prompts. They’re just for inspiration! I only ask that you keep to the theme of each day(s) somewhat. Please use the tag #c+c week 2024 (with spaces) or tag @candcweek.

Manwë Week 2024

Hello and welcome to Manwë Week!

Manwë Week is a week-long fandom event on Tumblr dedicated to Manwë Súlimo from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion, planned for March 11th - 17th 2024. The month of March is known as Súlimë, so it seemed only fitting to create an event to celebrate the Lord of Winds!

All sorts of fanworks are welcome, including but not limited to art (digital or traditional), fanfiction, moodboards, headcanons or playlists.

Here is a brief overview of this year's prompts:

Day 1: Family | Breath & Air
Day 2: Friends & Love | Rain & Clouds
Day 3: The Children | Whispering Breeze
Day 4: Poetry & Birdsong | Taniquetil
Day 5: Free of Evil | Opposition
Day 6: Fallen | Storm
Day 7: Freeform

For more details, please have a look at the prompt list.

Any questions, suggestions or concerns? Check out the FAQ or send an ask!

Tolkienshortfanworks Challenge for March 2024

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge has been posted to the Dreamwidth community.

The thematic challenge is: glass.

This could be the beaker or the mirror or the substance.
Maybe even the Phial of Galadriel or the surface of Mirrormere...

The formal challenge is: triolet.

Here are some links for help with this form:
Definition and two modern examples linked at the Poetry Foundation.
Definition and discussion of an example by Hardy at the Academy of American Poets.
Wikipedia entry, containing another five examples from different periods in English and a French one.

These two challenge parts can be filled together or separately and be freely combined with other challenges like B2MeM or the SWG monthly challenges.

New participants welcome!

More details on the challenges at the linked entry.

Teitho March/April Contest: Alternate Universe

Our challenge for March/April is Alternate Universe.

Where will you take us? Historical setting? Literary crossovers? Or perhaps space?

Or will you choose to follow a canon story to an alternative end or situation? What if Boromir lived? What if Theoden didn’t arrive in time? What if Celebrimbor turned Annatar away? Or Fëanor regained the Silmarils?

What if Gondolin survived? Or Fingon lived? Gil-Galad lived through the Last Battle? So many possibilities!!

Tell us your story—how would you write an alternate universe/ending/plot line?

Your submissions are due to teitho.contest@gmail.com by April 30th!

Full Teitho contest guidelines can be found here.

March of the Noldor 2024

March of the Noldor is a Tumblr-based month-long event to commiserate the grueling walk the Noldor took, across the Helcaraxe, from Aman to Beleriand, through creating fanworks. March of the Noldor runs from March 1 - March 31, 2024.

How do I participate?

Post something regarding the march and mention @march-of-the-noldor on Tumblr. Everything made will be reblogged here.

Go forth and create something New!

But this is also a great time to reblog older works relating to the march too!

What is allowed?

EVERYTHING!

Art, fic, meta, moodboards, poems! It's all welcome!

Want to do a character study? Awesome!

Make a collage of the kind of wild life the Noldor might encounter? Amazing!

Talk about the different types of ice the Noldor walked across? Fantastic!

Record a list of new traditions that developed during the walk? Bring it on!

Back to Middle-earth Month 2024: Minhiriath Midway

Welcome to the Minhiriath Midway!  Enjoy the fun and games, and collect prompts as you traverse the midway of this year's celebration!

Balloon Pop
Throw a dagger, throw a dart, shoot an arrow, toss an axe (but not a Dwarf).  There are so many ways to pop the balloons in this game.  Take aim and hit your target, and see what prompt you reveal when you pop a balloon. 

Crablor Grab
Try your luck at the Crablor Grab!  This fun game of skill and luck and a little help from Crablor lets you try to pull a prompt from the machine. What prompt will you get? Visit Crablor and find out!

Haunted House
Not for the faint of heart! Visit the Hall of Horrors and collect prompts...if you dare.

Spin the Wheel
So many prompts, so little time!  But why make yourself decide?  Use these fun wheels to find your next prompt. 

Tunnel of Love
A sweet place to pick up endearing prompts.  Some snuggles, some spice, and lots of things that are nice. Climb aboard and take a ride with us.

Additionally, B2MEM is an open event where ANYTHING you create during March counts!  Feel free to add works you start, add to, or finish in March to the gallery!  You can also host your own events -- let us know what you're up to, and we'll add your event to the list of festivities!

There is no need to register in advance to play at the midway.  You can begin posting to the AO3 collection on March 1, 2024. If posting on Tumblr, use the tag B2MEM24 to make your posts easy to find by our team for reblogs!  You can join the Discord at any time!

Posting & Viewing Works

Beginning March 1st, 2024, works can be posted to the AO3 collection. This collection never closes, so while the event will wrap by the end of April, you can always add works later as you are inspired and finish them. 

Socially Speaking...

Want to chat with others about Spring Into Arda events?  There are parties for B2MEM throughout the event and the server is open year round.  Hang with other B2MEM participants, past and present, on the perpetual Discord

Tolkien Fanfic Reading Month 2024

I'm making this my personal thing for all of March, to celebrate "Tolkien Reading Day". Please feel free to make it yours too.

Nothing formal or fancy. No invitation or registration required. No requirements or deadlines.

Simply gorge yourself on some Tolkien fanfic all throughout March. And COMMENT. For the love of Tolkien, please show our hardworking fandom writers some love and appreciation.

Tolkien Pinup Calendar: Thankful for Rare Pairs Bingo

This month’s event we are doing Thankful for Rare Pairs! This is a bingo style event. In total there will be three cards: one with the rare pairs, one with smut prompts, and one with non-smut prompts. We will be reblogging and sharing content from this event for all of March and April (this event runs from March 1st 2024 to April 30th 2024). Do not feel any pressure to complete all the prompts within one month (and don’t feel any pressure to finish all the prompts!).

How to play:

Option 1: If you have one rare pair you really like or one rare pair that really speaks to you, take that pair and use the prompts to create something for them.

Option 2: You can use all the bingo cards with different pairings and different prompts for your creations!

Any fic, art, moodboard, playlist etc. will be included and we are happy to reblog!

Additional rules:

You can use multiple prompts for one creation.  These can come from different cards (pairing + smut prompt + non-smut prompt) or come from the same card (pairing + smut prompt 1 + smut prompt 2, etc.). How you use the prompt cards is up to you!

If you want to play option 1 (only one pairing but using the prompt cards) but your pairing is not on the list: No problem! Just use the free space. If your pairing is a rare pair but not included, we would love to hear about it!  

How do I know if my pairing is a rare pair?  If you feel it is a rare pair it’s a rare pair. 

To get a bingo you need to have a line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) filled and this can include the free space. To get a super bingo (we did not know what else to call it) you need to fill up a card, only one card. If you fill up more than one you get more than one super bingo! 

As always, if you want us to reblog please:

  1. tag us @tolkienpinupcalendar
  2. use the tag #tpcrarepairbingo
  3. Submit to our smut-missions form
  4. Add the work to our AO3 collection

Winners who get a super bingo win a homemade playlist about whatever you want!

The most important rule is to have fun! We look forward to seeing what you create!