Around the World and Web

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

Week of Kiliel

Welcome to Week of Kiliel! 

This event will be held May 17-23! The goal of this week is to celebrate and be creatively inspired by the relationship between Tauriel and Kili Durin! We want to encourage The Hobbit community to make Kiliel art, fanfiction, edits, crafts, and more!

Rules:

• There are prompts for every day to inspire your creativity! You can pick one or multiple from each day, and they can be followed as loosely or as closely as you would like!

• Please use the tag “#week of kiliel” so we can reblog your entries! You can also tag @weekofkiliel! We are so excited to see and support all of your work!

• Late entries are fine, though we ask that you do not post earlier!

• If you have an existing work that fits one of these prompts that you would like to submit, that is fine, but please repost about it with the hashtag on the day it corresponds to! While we accept already existing works, we really want to encourage new Kiliel content as that is one of the goals of Kiliel week!

• NSFW is allowed! While none of the prompts are explicitly NSFW, NSFW is permitted as long as it is properly tagged!

• While the main ship and characters should be Kiliel, background ships and characters are welcome! However, for this event we do not accept Durincest or other incest ships.

NO AI WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THIS EVENT, ANY AI ENTRIES WILL BE UNOFFICIAL AND WILL NOT BE REBLOGGED OR ENDORSED

Prompts

Day 1 - Modern AU, First Kiss, Dating, Fluff

Day 2 - Courting, Erebor Never Fell AU, Wingman, Khuzdul

Day 3 - Sickfic, Poison, Angst, Healing

Day 4 - Mirkwood, Culture Shock, Meetcute, Sindarin

Day 5 - Height Difference, Cuddling, College AU, Bed Sharing

Day 6 - Crossover AU, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Confession

Day 7 - Afterlife, Everybody Lives, Scene Rewrite, Alt First Meeting

Aspec Arda Week 2026

Aspec Arda Week: May 10th-16th, 2026

This event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien's Legendarium.

Any creations about the aromantic and asexual spectrums are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! All versions of canon/fanon and characters are included, be it from the books, movies, TV, OCs, etc. Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so that your work can be easily found. If you are posting your submission to AO3, we will have an event collection! This is not an event for generative AI works.

The prompts below are a guideline for the week’s events, though you are not obligated to stick to them when participating. They’re completely optional, and more of a source of inspiration than a mandatory guideline. Feel free to explore them however you’d like; an explanation for each is given, but you can interpret them differently if you want to.

Day 1 / May 10th: Asexuality || Hope 

Day 2 / May 11th: Aromanticism || Community 

Day 3 / May 12th: Across the A-Spectrum || Loneliness 

Day 4 / May 13th: Worldbuilding || Dragons 

Day 5 / May 14th: Relationships || Linguistics 

Day 6 / May 15th: Intersectionality || Found Family 

Day 7 / May 16th: Freeform

For further clarification, check out our FAQcode of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!

Detailed Prompts

DAY ONE: Asexuality

What characters do you see as asexual? Why? How does that impact their lives?

Alternative prompt: Hope

DAY TWO: Aromanticism

What characters do you see as aromantic? Why? How does that impact their lives?

Alternative prompt: Community

DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum

“Asexual” and “aromantic” are umbrella terms encapsulating a wide spectrum of identities. From grayromantic to demisexual, and aroace to lithromantic —there are many other labels on the a-spectrum. This is a day for exploring those identities and the characters you associate them with.

Alternative prompt: Loneliness

DAY FOUR: World Building

How does acceptance and prevalence of aspec identity vary over both cultures and species?

Are all elves really baseline demisexual? What’s up with one third of dwarven populations focusing on their craft instead of taking a spouse? How do soul bonds work between elven couples who don’t want to have sex? Did Númenor get aphobic when they started distancing themselves from the Elves? Do aspec hobbits feel pressure to settle down and have large families?

Alternative prompt: Dragons

DAY FIVE: Relationships

Aspec people can have many different kinds of relationships, including romantic and sexual ones— but some kinds of relationships are more unique and common to the aspec communities, such as queerplatonic ones. Today is a day for exploring all these different kinds of relationships!

There are several relationships in Tolkien's works that could easily be read as queerplatonic, including Frodo & Sam, and Legolas & Gimli. There is also an interesting footnote in The Nature of Middle Earth which describes something like a queerplatonic relationship and provides some Quenya words for it.

Alternative prompt: Linguistics - Many of the terms for aspec identity come from root words of Latin, can you postulate translations for aspec terminology in any of Tolkien's languages?

DAY SIX: Intersectionality

There is more to a person’s life than just their orientation. Outside of fantasy species, how does being aspec interact with a character’s other identities and experiences, such as race or disability or religion? What’s the impact of a character’s aspec identity on their gender or other orientation labels? Today is a day for exploring the intersections of the aspec experience with other aspects of identity.

Alternative Prompt: Found Family

DAY SEVEN: Freeform

Post about something aspec related not yet covered in the topics this week, or return to a prompt you have more thoughts about! Alternatively, we have some additional prompts for inspiration that did not quite fit into the other days.

  • Recommend a fic, meta post, etc. that includes aspec identity.
  • How would a particular character respond to allonormativity / amatanormativity? What kind of amatanormativity / allonormativity have they faced?
  • What is a particular character’s relationship with their aspec identity Is it a big part of their life?
  • Post about an aspec character’s family, either found family, or blood relations. Does their family support them? Does their family (or society) have expectations of marriage and children of them?
  • Post about aspec community (symbols, cultural practices, mentorship and friendship with other aspec characters) within the context a culture within Tolkien's Legendarium, or take a character and post about what parts an aspec community they would resonate with in a modern Earth AU.

 

Angbang Week 2026

This is the official blog of Angbang (or Melron) week. 

We follow the tags "#AngbangWeek" and "#Angbang Week" as well as the current year variations of those tags. We have our ask box and DMs open if you have any questions!

List of prompts for Angbang Week 2026:

  • Day 1: First meeting/Reunion
  • Day 2: Dating/Intimacy
  • Day 3: Competitions/Rivalry
  • Day 4: Eyes/Gaze
  • Day 5: Letters/Long distance communication
  • Day 6: Last day together/Separation
  • Day 7: Canon divergence

As always, there are two prompts a day to choose between. You may create any original work you feel relates to the prompt, and if you did not connect with a prompt, feel free to skip it. All previously unposted creations made by you are accepted (fic, art, moodboards, playlists, etc). For any adult content, please keep it below a read more and tag it accordingly.

When posting your works, please post them on the day the prompt appears on or on a later day and tag this blog directly by using @, or add one of the following tags (#angbangweek2026, #angbang week 2026) to your post's tag list so we know the post is for the event. Please note that the event rules have been updated to clarify that we do NOT accept any creations made using Generative AI of any sort, and as such we will not be featuring any such content on this blog. For any questions or further clarifications, feel free to reach out in the asks or DMs. Happy creating and we'll see you in May!

April/May Teitho Challenge

Our prompt for April/May is Heartbreak. There are so many possibilities with this one!

Will you go back to the very beginning with the heartbreak of Melkor’s discord during the creation?

Or will you take us to the time of Miriel and Finwë? Fëanor’s heartbreak at the loss of his mother?And later his father’s death? Or the loss of the Silmarils themselves, that led to so much heartbreak for so many?

The kinslaying. The ship burning. The Helcaraxë. Battle after battle. Betrayal. The heartbreak of The Oath itself.

The death of Fingolfin. Fingon. Finrod. The sons of Fëanor, one after another. The heartbreak of those left behind: Maglor, Galadriel, Elrond.

The tragedy of the House of Hurin.

Or will you come to the time of Celebrimbor—the glory of Eregion and Khazad-Dûm and the devastation that followed? The Last Alliance?

The travails of Frodo. The lonely travels of Aragorn. The heavy weight of duty straining the hearts of both Boromir and Faramir. Eowyn’s heartbreak in Edoras.

The doomed love stories that are woven into Tolkien’s books—Turin, Finduilas, Gwindor, to name a few.

Heartbreak can be so many things—with love, with loss, with changes that shift our entire world. But heartbreak can also be in the small moments—for a child, a parent, a friend, a comrade. It can be momentary or span years. Or even lifetimes.

Will you break our hearts with your stories and art this time? Or will you find a way to heal the heartbreak and find the hope that can endure and persist?

We can’t wait to see what you do with this prompt!

Submissions are due May 31, 2026. Please send them to teitho.contest@gmail.com

Your teitho mods

Sian22, Lotrfan, and Cassie.

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026

Schedule 

  • March

    1: 2025 Gallery Opens

    The Gallery for 2025 is live! Enjoy the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!

    22: 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 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

    12: 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 ‘Sign-ups’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.

  • May

    3: Artist Sign-up Deadline

    9: 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.

    10: Discord Server Opens

    Come hang out with your fellow participants!

    15: Art Previews Open

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

    16-17: Discord Art Talks

    These are 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. It has been great fun in past years!

    20: Author Signups Deadline

    23 (Saturday) 17:00 UTC: CLAIMS

    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; 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 any artworks are left unclaimed, we will hold one or more additional claiming rounds as needed. Generally, there will be 24 hours between rounds, but the timing is at the mods’ discretion. The additional round(s) will be announced to signed-up participants by email and on the TRSB Discord.

    31: 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

    14: 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 share the final art with their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved.

  • July

    12: 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.

  • August

    9: Final Art Due

    Artists must share the final art with their authors – but don’t post it yet!
    Don’t email it to the mods.

    16: Final Check-in (#3)

    Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date. This year we ask both collaborators to contact the mods at the final check-in.

    The mods will email all participants beforehand to ensure everything is still on track. We will ask you to confirm:

    • Whether the art is complete (Artists: did you share it with your author? Authors: have you seen the final art?)
    • Whether you have discussed posting logistics (ie, have you talked about how the art will be posted (embedded and/or posted separately to the collection), who will handle promo posting, any specific posting needs)

    26: Art Can Be Posted

    Artworks can be posted to your preferred platform on or after this date (but before they are due in the collection).  Hype your collab wherever you like and get the excitement going! Artists should ensure that their author has received a link to the art for embedding or linking in the finished fic as agreed upon before August 30th (deadline for posting the fic to the collection).

    30: Fic Due In Collection

    Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. See the “Posting fic” section of our FAQ.

  • September

    5: COLLECTION REVEALS


Around the World and Web Archive

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

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!

Tolkien Reading Day 2024

Monday 25th March is Tolkien Reading Day 2024 and the theme is Service and Sacrifice. The Tolkien Society is excited to be partnering with The Prancing Pony Podcast and A Long-Expected Soundscape to run this Reading Day. What will you be reading?

What is Tolkien Reading Day?

Tolkien Reading Day is held on the 25th of March each year. The date of the 25th of March was chosen as the date on which the Ring was destroyed, completing Frodo’s quest and vanquishing Sauron.

It has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages. We particularly encourage schools, museums and libraries to host their own Tolkien Reading Day events.

Reading Day Events

For this year’s Tolkien Reading Day the Tolkien Society is extremely excited to be teaming up with The Prancing Pony Podcast and A Long-Expected Soundscape to host and celebrate the event.

On Saturday 23rd March we will come together and you will be able to attend one of the three Zoom Reading Sessions that will be taking place throughout the day for readers around the world to share their favourite passages and react to the passages shared by the Podcast’s Guest Readers. Did we also mention that these events are free?

How you can take part?

There are a range of ways that you can join in throughout March:

Join the Tolkien Society on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram, the Prancing Pony Podcast on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram, and A Long-Expected Soundscape on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram. Watch out for our posts across late February and 25th March!

Share your stories (Facebook and Instagram), fleets (Twitter), comments, and photos on any social media platform and use the hashtag #TolkienReadingDay2024. Most of all, we’d love to see videos of you sharing what Tolkien means to you and how he inspires Hope and Courage!

If you want to attend one of the free Zoom sessions on Saturday 23rd March then you’re in luck as we are running sessions in the morning (9-10am GMT), midday (2-3pm GMT), and evening (8-9pm GMT) with the hope that you can find a session that is comfortable for you. Please use the links below to register for your preferred session (timings are in GMT).

We welcome readings from any of Tolkien’s works but are excited to be able to offer readers who wish to read from The Lord of the Rings the chance to read an extract of up to 5 minutes with excerpts from A Long-Expected Soundscape. If you know what you would like to read from The Lord of the Rings then please let us know by Friday 1st March by filling in the relevant parts of the registration form. Someone will then send you your sample to rehearse with.

Register for Reading Session 1 (9-10am GMT)

Register for Reading Session 2 (2-3pm GMT)

Register for Reading Session 3 (8-9pm GMT)

Maedhros and Maglor Week 2024

Maedhros and Maglor Week will run again on February 18th-24th, 2024. This is a fandom event dedicated to exploring the relationship between Maedhros and Maglor! Fanworks of all kinds are welcome (see the Event Guidelines page for details!)

Prompts:

February 18th—Day 1: Treelight

February 19th—Day 2: Trust/Distrust

February 20th—Day 3: Himring and the Gap

February 21st—Day 4: Heroism/Villainy

February 22nd—Day 5: New Horizons

February 23rd—Day 6: Respite

February 24th—Day 7: Storytelling

You can also find a handy prompt schedule here and on the blog with some suggestions for inspiration related to each prompt!

Fanworks for the event can respond to one or more prompts (interpreted however you wish), or they can be totally unrelated to any prompt, as long as there’s a focus on Maedhros and Maglor. This event is inclusive of all iterations of their relationship: please respect everyone’s interpretations and creations!

Happy creating!

Tolkien Society Seminar 2023: Tolkien and Religion Now Available Online

Thirteen presentations from the most recent Tolkien Society Seminar are now available on the Society's YouTube channel!

Although J.R.R. Tolkien deliberately excluded explicit religious references from his legendarium and rejected narrow allegorical readings of The Lord of the Rings, he made no secret of his devout Roman Catholicism and its importance to his sub-creative endeavor. From the creation myth of the “Ainulindalë” to the eucatastrophic destruction of the One Ring, Túrin Turambar’s doomed warrior courage to Frodo Baggins’s self-sacrificial humility, scholars have long examined the influence of Tolkien’s Christian faith and his abiding admiration for pre-Christian legends on the nature and history of Arda. Explorations of the legendarium from other religious perspectives or explicitly nonreligious perspectives have received less attention, however, as have studies of the reception of Tolkien’s work among (non)religious readers and communities.

Fifty years on from Tolkien’s death, as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films celebrate their twentieth anniversary and Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power draws in new fans, Tolkien’s audience has never been wider nor more diverse. This presents Tolkien scholarship with an opportunity to bring varied and underrepresented perspectives on Tolkien and religion into conversation with longstanding currents in the field, thereby enriching our understanding of religious plurality in Tolkien’s secondary world and in our primary world as well.

This seminar welcomes fresh and innovative treatments of the generative interactivity between Tolkien’s fiction, Tolkien’s faith, and the faith (or lack thereof) of the readers who draw deep wells of meaning from his tales of Middle-earth.

Alliterative Verse by Speculative Fiction Authors

Forgotten Ground Regained is designed to make it easy to find, read, and appreciate modern alliterative verse -- the kind of poetry we see in such medieval classics as Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. On this site I have collected alliterative verse by a wide range of modern poets -- provided a field guide for poets who want to write their own alliterative poems -- and provided all kinds of information and resources for people who want to study the form.

One of the main ways alliterative verse has spead is throgh the science fiction and fantasy community. Authors have often built worlds in which alliterative verse plays a central role, and in response, fans have taken what their favorite authors have created and run with it. The links on this page provide a panoramic view of the creativity thus unleashed.

Check out the listing of alliterative verse works by speculative fiction and fan authors and the full Forgotten Ground Regained site.

Mythopoeic Society Online MidWinter Seminar: Something Mighty Queer

Join us for a virtual conference centered around queerness in fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, or other mythopoeic work. “Queerness” is an intentionally ambiguous term, demonstrating the diversity of queer experiences, and the necessity of situating queerness as a liminal, complex paradigm. Queer theory is wider than the study of gender identity or sexuality, extending to taking positions against normativity and dominant modes of thought, and engaging with the indefinite.

The conference will be held February 17-18, 2024 via Zoom and Discord.

Registration is $20 USD. Register here with the Mythopoeic Society's MidWinter Seminar.

A list of presenters for the MidWinter Seminar can be found here.

Hidden Paths 2024

Hidden Paths was created as a low-pressure, low-commitment opportunity to explore the lesser known Tolkien canons (e.g. Sellic Spell, Mr. Bliss, The Notion Club Papers) and create and share fanworks based on them.

The dates will be the same as last year, 14th - 28th Feb, with optional prompts at the start of each week of the event.

For more info on the event and how it works, check out our AO3 collection or our Dreamwidth sticky post.