Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Celedriel Week 2026
Celedriel Week 2026 Prompts
July 14
First Meetings, Impressions, The Heart Stirs
A Gaze Caught. The Fire Ignites.
“Is this the love they speak of in songs and poems?”
July 15
Dedication. Courtship. The Heart Blooms.
Gifts of Love. Words and Songs.
“Oh beloved mine, where might I rest but your embrace?”
July 16
Marriage, Vows, The Heart Bound in Love
An Exchange of Rings. Melding of Houses.
“This I vow from here on forth, and beyond the world’s end.”
July 17
Kingdoms. Refuge. The Heart Endures
Crowns of Silver. Realms Rise and Fall.
“With you by my side, I have nothing to fear.”
July 18
Separation. Conflict. The Heart Grieves.
War and Loss. When Paths Diverge.
“How far will the lonely road take us before we renew our love again?”
July 19
Lothlorien. Children. The Heart Heals.
When Wounds Mend. The Throne of Elvendom.
“By our toil, future generations shall persist before the Shadow.”
July 20
The West. Undying Love. The Heart is Eternal
Beyond the Tribulations. The Last Ship.
“In the end, it is you and I who remain past the fading of the ancient days.”
Esoteric Tolkien Week 2026
That's right, Esoteric Tolkien Week, your center for all things strange, mystical, inexplicable, and unfathomed in Arda and beyond, is back for round two! We are open to all types and ratings of fanwork, and are eager to welcome returners and new faces alike. A few bits of useful tattle for the moment:
- Further information and event guidelines can be found here
- Event planned to run July 13th - 19th, 2026
- An ao3 collection will open closer to the run date—if you have any work hanging around that you'd like to submit now, or just want to get inspired, you can find the small but mighty 2025 collection here
Prompts
Day 1 - Lands, Wander, Documents
Day 2 - Waters, Return, Music
Day 3 - Skies, Demand, Inventions
Day 4 - Underground, Trammel, Relics
Day 5 - Ruins, Bargain, Art
Day 6 - In the Dark, Endure, Weapons & Armor
Day 7 - At Home, Abandon, Gifts
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
This is a week to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.” There is a great wealth of wonderful gen content in the Tolkien fandom, but those creations are not always the most visible because of the shipping-focused nature of fandom at large. This week is an effort to give them the appreciation they deserve.
This year, Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
Any content and creations are welcome as long as it is non-romantic and non-sexual! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! Please tag your posts with #tolkiengenweek AND @ mention this blog @tolkiengenweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider. You may also post your creations to our AO3 collection.
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This post will lead to an explanation for each one.
- DAY ONE: Family ● Mentorships ● Community
- DAY TWO: Friendship ● Animals ● Group Dynamic
- DAY THREE: Gray Spaces ● Enemies and Rivalries ● Fealty
- DAY FOUR: Solo ● Work and Craft ● Language
- DAY FIVE: Culture ● Diversity ● Traditions
- DAY SIX: Environment ● Places ● Objects and Symbols
- DAY SEVEN: Freeform
This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or my main.
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
Starting July 1st ObscureDurins will be hosting
TOLKIEN DISABILITY PRIDE
This event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
You can do worldbuilding, fan fic, fan art, share a favorite character, your favorite headcanons, write a song, poem, show us your LOTRO Oc!ANYTHING providing-
- Absolutely NO USE OF AI IN ANY PART OF THE PROCESS
- Ableism and violence against Disabled character should be done with nuance and plot in mind. Remember this is a pride event we are more than willing to have dead dove- provided it is done justly and tactfully.
- Tag all your works appropriately and place under a read more.
Tag: "tolkien disability pride" AND "obscuredurins" to get your work featured.
This is a spoonie friendly event! We accept past works, WIPS, and encourage this as our time to display PRIDE in our community.
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
June 1: Sign-ups and art submissions open
July 7: Artist sign-ups close
July 19: Art submissions close
July 24: Gallery opens
July 25 & 26: Art viewing parties
July 30: Author sign-ups close
August 1: Claims Day (Times to be announced)
August 2: Additional Claims Open
August 3: Art posting begins
November 1: Drop-out without penalty deadline
November 15: Fic submission deadline
November 28: Reveals!
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Tolkien Pinup Calendar: 8 Nights of Smut
For December, we are working with @hanukkahbingo to bring you some naughty prompts for the Festival of Lights! @hanukkahbingo is a panfandom event so these prompts are open to anyone. This Tumblr will be reblogging all of the Tolkien-related content and @hanukkahbingo will reblog for any fandom!
As always, any fic, moodboard, fanart, edit, etc is allowed to be submitted!
To submit: 1) Tag us @tolkienpinupcalendar and @hanukkahbingo 2) use the tag #tpc8nightsofsmut 3) use the smutmissions form here
Tolkien Pinup Calendar: Dead Dove December
It's that time of year again! Time to cozy up with blankets and hot cocoa, and read some beautifully crafted non-con smut . . . Everyone does that, right?
We are bringing Dead Dove December back with all new prompts!
As always, any fic, moodboard, fanart, edit, etc is allowed to be submitted!
To Submit:
- Tag us @tolkienpinupcalendar
- Use the tag #tpcdeaddoveedevember
- Use the smutmissions form here
Thorin's Spring Forge 2025
Calling all Thorin fans! We are happy to announce that sign-ups for Thorin’s Spring Forge (TSF) 2025 are now open!
What is TSF?
TSF is a minibang-style event where writers and artists come together to create fanworks centred on Thorin Oakenshield. Fanworks can be based on the book or the movie version of the character. Any pairing or gen are welcome and we look forward to seeing what you create!
You can participate in this event as a:
- Writer;
- Artist;
- Beta reader;
- Pinch hitter (writer);
- Pinch hitter (artist).
Explanations of what each of these roles is can be found in our FAQ. You may sign up for more than one role, but there is a maximum of two fanworks per participant (i.e. you may write two fics, or create two artworks, or do one of each).
Participating authors create a short summary/synopsis of a fic, which is posted anonymously for artists to view and claim. Artists will then create art based on the fic they chose, and authors will write a complete fic (minimum 2,500 words).
Sign up as a writer
Sign up as an artist
Sign up as a beta reader or pinch hitter
Sign-ups for authors and artists will be open until January 5th 11:59 pm EST.
Sign-ups for beta readers and pinch hitters will remain open for the duration of the event!
Please be sure to familiarise yourself with our rules and schedule before signing up!
Questions? Visit our FAQ or contact us via thorinsspringforge@gmail.com, or send us an ask or DM on Tumblr.
If you have an idea you want to suggest: Add something to the suggestion form (this does not constitute a sign-up!)
If you are unsure of what you want to write: Check out the suggestions list!
Festival of Lights Fest 2024
Happy Hanukkah! The Festival of Lights Fest mods are pleased to announce the fest's return this year as an SWG event.
This is a fun and low-key event meant to encourage works about or inspired by Hanukkah. Fanworks might directly depict Hanukkah (e.g., a modern AU with Jewish characters), might relate to Hanukkah (such as an in-universe celebration similar to Hanukkah), or might just be inspired by our Hanukkah prompts.
In conjunction with the Potluck Bingo Challenge, we offer participants two Hanukkah-themed Bingo boards. (The boards have similar, but somewhat different, content, and the content is in different orders on the two boards.) Play one, play both; go for a bingo, or just go with what inspires you! Notes that both Potluck Bingo and the Festival of Lights Fest are listed as SWG challenges this year on the archive. Janeways and Independence1776 are your mods for this event!
Fluffcember 2024
Fluffcember is a Tumblr event with daily fluffy prompts during the month of December.
- This is a 1-month-challenge for fluffy fanworks.
- All sorts of fanworks (art, writing, graphics) welcome.
- We will however not accept any AI-Art or AI-Writing!
- SFW and NSFW is both welcome - but please make sure to tag it accordingly.
- Tag content warnings if you share under this tag!
- No minimum or maximum word count for writing!
We will reblog entries during the month of December!
If you have questions: The asks are open!
Prompts
- Day 01: Roasted Marshmallows
- Day 02: Winter Flu
- Day 03: Snow Man
- Day 04: Christmas Sweater
- Day 05: Northern Lights
- Day 06: Gingerbread House
- Day 07: Condensed Breath
- Day 08: Sparkling Snow
- Day 09: Sugar Rush
- Day 10: Carols
- Day 11: Slippery
- Day 12: Skiing
- Day 13: Fire and Ice
- Day 14: Winter Soup
- Day 15: Naughty List
- Day 16: Chocolate
- Day 17: Snowed in
- Day 18: Mistletoe
- Day 19: Fondue
- Day 20: Fairy Tales
- Day 21: Cabin in the Snow
- Day 22: Winter Storm
- Day 23: Confessions
- Day 24: Christmas Tree
- Day 25: The Perfect Gift
- Day 26: Forgiveness
- Day 27: Family Gathering
- Day 28: Cold Turkey
- Day 29: Mint
- Day 30: Warming Up
- Day 31: Fireworks
Alternatives:
- Hot Bath
- Fallen Through The Ice
- Holiday Decoration
- Homecooked Meals
- Coming Home
Hidden Paths 2025
Hidden Paths is an event dedicated to the celebration of smaller Tolkien canons. For the purposes of this event, we define "smaller canons" as any Tolkien canon or text (including academic works and translations) that is not explicitly set in Middle-earth and is not based on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion and closely related histories.
Your friendly mod (Narya) will post prompts to tempt your muses - one set a few months in advance of the 'official' event dates, then two more sets during the event itself.
If you like the prompts, then use any or all of them to create and share a fanwork based on one or more small Tolkien canons. If they don't speak to you, please feel free to do your own thing – the prompts are there to spark creativity, not impede it!
Early prompts can be found here.
We welcome fanworks based on past prompts - these can all be found here.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week will run on Tumblr from November 17-23, 2024 and accepts all types of fanwork for the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
We accept fic and fanart but also moodboards, edits, playlists and anything else your fannish heart wants!
We take submissions not in English. If you speak a language other than English and want to submit something in that language, please send it in!! We would be happy to reblog it!
If you are submitting something NSFW please tag the @tolkienpinupcalendar. If you are interested we are collabing with @tolkienpinupcalendar for the simultaneously run Kiliel Smut Week!
How do I submit:
Tag @kilielweek, and use the tag #kilielweek2024
If the post is also for Kiliel Smut Week please also tag @tolkienpinupcalendar and use the tag #tpckilielsmutweek
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
So, it's that time of the year again: time to sign up for the Lord of the Rings Secret Santa exchange! Slash, femslash, het and gen; you can request it all, so why not join in?
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa has been going for twenty-one years, and we'd love to see you join us and keep the tradition going.
LotR SeSa has been a traditional exchange since its inception, but we continue to adapt and refine the exchange to best serve all participants. The exchange has been in the form of a prompt meme since 2020. If you are new to the format, AO3 has a helpful FAQ here.
This year's timeline (2024)
- Prompt Posting: November 1st to 25th.
- Claiming: November 26th to December 27th.
- Collection Open for Posting: November 26th to December 27th.
- All Fills Due: December 27th
You will be able to post up to 2 prompts, and we will do our best to make sure that at least one of your prompts is filled.
Please note that this is an FPF challenge. (i.e. Fictional, not real people fiction/RPF.) We're always open to all the Peoples and Ages of Middle-earth, which means that characters from The Hobbit and The Rings of Power are welcome too!
The Rules (2024)
- You will be able to post up to 2 prompts between November 1st and 25th, and we will do our best to make sure at least one of your prompts is filled.
- Your fill is due December 27th 11:59 pm Pacific Time (you can check what that is in your time zone here). Please post it to AO3 (and nowhere else, until January 3rd).
- As a matter of fairness, please make your story more than 750 words (1000 is better).
- Signing up: the sign up form can be found here (or here if the main link gives you an error message). If you need help with signing up, please don't hesitate to contact the mods at lotrsesa[AT]gmail.com.
- Once claiming has opened, please only claim a prompt if you plan on actually fulfilling your end of the bargain, and please only claim one prompt at a time. After you have completed your fill, you may claim a new one.
- Claiming a prompt: use the "Claim" button next to the prompt you want to claim. (You can find open prompts under "Prompts" in the sidebar.) Several people can claim the same prompt. You can also claim a prompt without having submitted any of your own.
It's a good idea to join the LotR_SeSa LiveJournal community or the Dreamwidth community so you can keep track of any admin posts. You can also follow us here on Tumblr.
Teitho November/December Contest: Healing
Welcome to the Teitho Contest, where you can participate with a variety of other writers and artists and send in stories and pictures based on our themes.
Join us in this writing and drawing contest!
A new challenge is posted every month. On the first day of the challenge, we announce a new theme on this site. You then have two months to create your entry, which has to be finished when you send it in.
After the deadline of the contest, the voting period begins. Based on the number of entries, it lasts for two or more weeks. The winners are usually announced a day or two after the end of the voting. Teitho remains one of the last prompt-based, independent, Tolkien fan-fiction/fan art monthly contests. Full contest guidelines are here.
Our prompt this month is Healing.
Healing figures significantly in many of Tolkien’s works. We encounter healers like Elrond, the staff of the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith, Aragorn and the healing hands of the King.
We see many characters being healed—Frodo, Faramir, Eowyn, Merry.
Healing isn’t only confined to physical injury—there is healing of mental and emotional hurts as well.
And we also see incomplete healing—where characters may be healed of bodily injuries swiftly but the horrors and trauma they endured persist—Maedhros, Gwindor, Frodo.
Healing also affects the land in Tolkien. Ithilien—where Legolas and his people go at Aragorn’s request, to rejuvenate and cleanse the land—is just one example of this.
Healing can also be seen in the context of interpersonal relationships—Maedhros healing the rift in the house of Finwë, the repair of Bilbo and Thorin’s friendship at the end of the Battle of Five Armies.
What stories of healing will you give us? We can’t wait to see where your imagination takes you!
Stories or art should be submitted to teitho.contest@gmail.com by Dec 31!
Barduil Holiday Exchange 2024
For this holiday exchange, you'll be assigned another creator (and possibly a specific fanwork of that creator's!) to make something in response to for the Barduil pairing. This could be a fic, an artwork, a playlist, a moodboard, or anything else we haven't thought of yet! The goal is to celebrate our small but mighty fandom and take the opportunity to be inspired by one another.
Sign-ups: Open until 11/15
Creations complete by: 12/20
Posting: 12/25
The mods will check in periodically to make sure everything's going smoothly! Please feel free to reach out to @scary-grace, @nocompromise-noregrets, or send us an ask or DM for clarification. The sign-up form is here.
