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Mythmoot X: Homeward Bound (June 22-25)

Mythmoot annual conference brings together students, fans, staff, and friends of Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, Signum SPACE, and Signum Academy. Our online and in-person completely hybrid event combines the best of scholarship and friendship in four glorious days. The event will be held 22-25 June 2023, with the in-person event hosted at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA. This year's theme is Homeward Bound:

Homes, in their absence, their presence, their construction or destruction, play integral roles in character and plot development across genres. One writer’s definition of home can directly contrast another’s. Home is a complex, loaded word in the stories we read and tell. The phrase ‘homeward bound’ contains a wealth of meaning. Home can be the place we are coming from, the place we are going, or both. Is home a positive thing? Negative? A net neutral? Is there a home to be headed towards in every story? Is there more than one? Does home change? Is home a place, a person, a feeling? What does home mean in the stories we tell and why does it change and matter?

Guests of Honor: Sørina Higgins, PhD, and Gabriel Schenk, DPhil

Register for Mythmoot X here.

Silm Remix 2023

A remix is a retelling of an existing work. The idea is to retain the spirit of the story, while creating a new work of your own in a different manner or style. In this remix challenge, we’re offering the chance to remix someone's story, and to have one of your own stories remixed. A remix challenge is a great opportunity to flex some creative muscles and celebrate how transformative and collaborative fandom can be!

Rules

You must be 18 years or older to sign up for this event.

For this round of the event, only Silmarillion fanfiction is eligible for remixing.

At the end of the event, you will have produced a fanfiction of at least 1000 words that remixes one of your author’s offered stories. You will also receive a remix of one of your own offered works that is at least 1000 words.

This is a gift exchange, albeit a nontraditional one, and as such you will be remixing a work into something you hope your author will enjoy!

Find more information on the rules, including FAQs, on the Silm Remix AO3 collection.

Schedule

Signups: April 8 - 14 (at 11:59pm PDT)
Assignments out by: April 17
Default deadline: May 8
Due date: May 15 (at 11:59 PDT)
Work reveals: May 22
Creator reveals: May 29

For more information: Tumblr | AO3 Collection

Teitho April/May Challenge: Crossroads

As we indicated earlier in the month, your mods are finding themselves at a Crossroads, wanting to keep the contest going but wondering if the lack of participation means it’s time to change course, or even end the journey. So we thought that would be an appropriate theme for April and May.

A crossroad is often used as a symbol of a choice needing to be made, which is the use we had in mind when choosing this challenge. Which road should the traveler follow? Should they keep going straight, continuing on the way they’ve been going? Or should they turn and follow a new direction? The Quendi faced this type of choice when Orome invited them to travel from Cuiviénen to Valinor, and they had to choose between their beloved stars and the light of the trees.

Towns would often spring up around a crossroad where two important roads met, as Bree did at the crossroad of the Great East Road and the Greenway. They became a destination in their own right, or a place for travelers to meet and organize their party before traveling on, as Frodo hoped to find Gandalf waiting at the Prancing Pony.

A crossroad can also be used as a landmark, such as when giving directions, or a place of distinction. The crossroad east of Minas Tirith served as a delimitation between North and South Ithilien.

Whether you choose to use a physical crossroad or a symbolic one, we hope that you’ll choose to share whatever journey you create for your characters with us! Submissions should be emailed to teitho.contest@gmail.com by May 31. Full contest guidelines can be found here.

Free Seminar: Celtic Connections in J.R.R. Tolkien’s "The Silmarillion"

The Silmarillion is the lifelong work of JRR Tolkien, author and professor dedicated to exploring the truths fantasy and myth could present. In this presentation, we’ll dive into the influence Celtic culture plays in the languages, characters, and stories of The Silmarillion.

April 17 at 7:30-8:30 pm CST.
Registration is required. You can register for this free event here.
You will receive a Zoom meeting link from instructor Ryan Quinn on the day of the class.

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: Suggestion Form 2023

Got a precious rare pair you want to see depicted? Insufficient Second Age content for your liking? Want to get someone else interested in a lesser known canon you love? This is your chance to influence the pieces available for claiming! 

The TRSB Suggestion Form of 2023 is now officially live!

If you just want to snoop at the suggestions, here’s the suggestions form spreadsheet.

Aralas Week 2023

Aralas Week focuses on the Aragorn/Legolas pairing and is held on Tumblr and AO3. The event will run over seven days from April 8 to April 14. Everyone is welcome!

Prompts & Suggestions

Day 1: Crown | Leaves

Suggestion

• heirs and legacy
• woodland and everything in it

Day 2: Sword | Bow/Archer

Suggestion

• battle and blade
• strength and courage

Day 3: Whimsical | Magnificent

Suggestion

• beauty inside everything
• affection and adoration

Day 4: Hope | Desire

Suggestion

• wish and belonging
• heart and mind
• duty and honor

Day 5: Heaven | Ocean

Suggestion

• skyborne, flying
• comfort and healing

Day 6: Luminous | Stars

Suggestion

• flame and shine
• starlight, elfstone

Day 7: Spring | Eternity

Suggestion

• new age 
• glory and victory 
• eternal and infinity

The hashtag is #aralasweek2023 #aralasweek

Information & Guidelines

AO3 Collection

Tolkienshortfanworks Challenge for April

The April challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth has been posted. This time it involves the use of one or more pair of words in your piece.

Here are four pairs of rhyming words: rabbit / habit; eggs / legs; daffodil / codicil; bun / run. Your challenge is to pick one or more of these pairs and use both words of the pair in your prompt fill. Although the words rhyme, they do not need to be used as rhymes (that is: they don't need to be at the end of rhyming lines of verse) to fill the prompt. Perhaps you are spotting that these word pairs were originally inspired by thoughts of Easter, but your piece does not need to be seasonal in any way. Bonus points if you get in more than one pair of words or come up with a way to get mileage out of the rhyme, especially if it is in an unexpected way!

More details these monthly challenges at the linked post.

New participants always welcome!

Barduil Month 2023

Barduil Month is a month-long celebration and creation event on Tumblr for the Thranduil/Bard the Bowman ship from The Hobbit, loosely inspired by 30 Days of Barduil. We accept all canons (the Peter Jackson movies, Tolkien’s book, and others) as well as any alternate universe and canon divergence possibilities–let your creativity run wild! The event runs 1 April through 30 April 2023.

Any content and fanwork about Barduil is welcome! You can create fic, art, gifsets, edits, playlists, cosplays, crafts, and anything else. Please tag your posts with #barduilmonth2023 and tag this blog, @bi-widower-dads​, so they can be found. For courtesy purposes, please have a “read more” on longer posts.

At this link you can find a list of prompts to help get the creative juices flowing, though don’t feel obligated to necessarily abide by them!

Here you can find the AO3 collection for this event.

For further information, please check our F.A.Q. post.

Teitho: February/March Photo Challenge

Choose from two photos for the February/March contest prompt. Could the hands holding the sword be those of a new Rider of Rohan while he listens to the voice of his trainer? Or perhaps a ranger of the Ithilien, taking a moment to rest and to thank the Valar for keeping him safe during a fierce skirmish with enemies headed to Mordor?

Whichever picture captures your imagination, we look forward to reading the stories that these pictures evoke in your mind! Please submit them to teitho.contest@gmail.com on or before March 31.

You can find out more about the Teitho contest here.

All of Arda Is Autistic 2023

All of Arda Is Autistic is a month-long fanfiction event on Tumblr for neurodivergent fans celebrating neurodivergent headcanons of Tolkien's characters. The event runs from 1 April to 30 April, which is Autism Acceptance Month. All Tolkien fans who fit somewhere under the neurodivergent umbrella (self-diagnosed or clinically diagnosed, it doesn't matter) are welcome to participate. This event is during Autism Acceptance Month, but allistic neurodivergents are totally welcome to join as well! Neurotypicals, feel free to support the event and enjoy the stories!

Event Rules
FAQ

Official tags for the event are #all-of-arda-is-autistic and #all of arda is autistic 2023.