Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Ainur Week 2026
Ainur Week will be returning from November 16 to 22, 2026.
Glorthelion Week 2026
𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
Hello everyone and welcome to another year of Glorthelion week! An entire week dedicated to Glorfindel and Ecthelion relationship.
The event will run on Tumblr from November 16th to November 22nd. All creations are welcome, as long as it is created by you. Don't forget to tag #glorthelionweek and mention the blog (to make sure I can see your creation in case tags don't work).
Prompts are not mandatory! You can follow them, be inspired by them or let your imagination go wild and create whatever you want! Event rules can be found here.
Prompts 2026:
↳ Day one: A Glance across the Square | The Bells of Festivals | Gifts of the Heart
↳ Day two: Words in the Dark | Following the Star | The Weight of the Sword
↳ Day three: Silver and Gold | Sun and Moon | The Roar of the Waterfall
↳ Day four: Silver Flutes | The Language of Flowers | Water Mirrors
↳ Day five: A Final Glance | Entrusted Secrets | "I will find you again"
↳ Day six: Ashes and Sorrow | Waiting in Mandos | Forever Changed
↳ Day seven: Beyond the Circles of the World | Constellations | The Promise Kept
Happy creating!
Nolofinwëan Week 2026
Nolofinwëan week welcomes fan creations centering any members of the House of Fingolfin and their descendants through the ages.
Nolofinwëan week welcomes fan creations centering any members of the House of Fingolfin and their descendants through the ages.
To Participate:
- Create fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, close readings and musings, moodboards, photography, rec lists or anything else that inspires you to celebrate Nolofinwëan characters.
- Mention the blog @nolofinweanweek in your post and include the hashtag #nolofinweanweek2025 in the first 10 tags.
- If you would like, add your work to the AO3 collection.
- Take inspiration from the nonmandatory daily prompts.
- Complete one or more of the community challenges.
Rules & Requirements:
- There are no minimum or maximum requirements; anything goes!
- There are no content restrictions or rules on tagging beyond what AO3 requires of you. If you post to tumblr and your fill is Mature or Explicit, and/or falls under one of AO3’s major warnings, please provide tagging on your post, though!
- That said, please refrain from using genAI.
- This fest operates firmly under the premises of ‘don’t like; don’t read,’ ‘ship and let ship’ and ‘your kink is not my kink but that’s okay’ (if you’re unfamiliar with these concepts, see this post). We will not tolerate any shaming, harassment, or attempts to police content.
The mod runs on CET, but folks can post content or interact with the blog at their convenient time.
All prompts are non-obligatory—feel free to interpret as loosely or closely, to cross-match, or to ignore altogether!
Day 1: It Was But a Dream
- Characters: Turgon, Anairë, Idril
- Silmarillion Phrase: “poured forth their joy in music and song”
- Inspirational art:
Amber Fort, Jaipur #1 Photograph by Inger Hogstrom
Day 2: Breath of Darkness
- Characters: Elenwë, Argon
- Silmarillion Phrase: “there was now no returning”
- Inspirational art:
The Night Is Stirring (Anger) by Zao Wou-Ki
Day 3: Light Splinters the Sky
- Characters: Eöl, Eärendil, Gil-galad
- Silmarillion Phrase: “as a naked flame”
- Inspirational art:
Day 4: Embraced in the Mist
- Characters: Fingon, Aredhel
- Silmarillion Phrase: “green things even among the pits and broken rocks”
- Inspirational art:
Shan-Shui style painting by Yang Tianyou
Day 5: Flames Arising in Might
- Characters: Fingolfin, Maeglin
- Silmarillion Phrase: “shadows of madness and despair”
- Inspirational art:
Burning the Slums of Nairobi by Kiure Francis Msangi
Day 6: The Sea’s Embrace
- Characters: Elros, Elwing, Tuor
- Silmarillion Phrase: “still hope may seem bright”
- Inspirational art:
Moon Trace Art Installation by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Day 7: New Beginnings; Old Longings
- Characters: Elrond, Celebrían, Peredhil Descendants
- Silmarillion Phrase: “love would lead me”
- Inspirational art:
14th International Tolkien Mailing Competition
The Hungarian Tolkien Society invites you to join the international “Quendi” category of the Tolkien Mailing Competition: five rounds of quizzes, riddles and creative tasks. This category is organised in English, open to any individual participant, and also to teams of 2–5 people. The five rounds of the competition will last from November to April. Application deadline: 5 November, 2026.
The Tolkien Mailing Competition ("TLV" abbreviated from its Hungarian equivalent "Tolkien Levelező Verseny") takes place for the 21st time this year—and it is international for the 14th time. In the first years it was organised only in Hungarian, and only for groups of Hungarian students aged 10–18-years. As many people above this age group became interested in the competition, we launched a separate category for individuals in Hungarian, and at the same time we decided to go international. The outcome was definitely encouraging. In the past few years the international Quendi category had many participants (and for a while even an organiser) from various foreign countries: you can see here the final results of the previous competition.
(Click here for the Hungarian article about all categories.)
In the international Quendi category both the challenges and the communication will be entirely in English—but you don't have to be perfectly fluent in English for taking part in the competition. You only have to be able to understand the texts by Tolkien, and maybe to write a story or an essay—it does not have to be of academic level. The competition was originally devised for middle and high school students, and we did not make big changes in the style, but it is open to anybody who feels young enough for it. You can always choose to count your years by Elvish standards!
Participation in the Quendi category requires a thorough knowledge of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Other works by Tolkien may be needed occasionally, as some questions (riddles, quizzes, etc.) can refer to those, but you will have about four weeks for each round, that is, plenty of time to look up in the books everything you might need.
Besides the quizzes, there will be creative challenges. For example, you may be asked to describe a situation, write a short poem, make a drawing or take a photograph, etc. We would like to be proud of our participants, so we ask you to share the rights of your creative productions royalty-free (and you accept this condition by your registration for the competition). Your works—with due credit to authors/artists—might be published by the Hungarian Tolkien Society, e.g. on our website, www.tolkien.hu, or in our journal, the Lassi Laurië. (You can read about Lassi Laurië in English here.) Please do not publish these works yourself without consulting us first, and especially not before the end of the competition. (Artwork submitted by teams is credited as teamwork by default, but you can add the name of the actual author/artist for each piece.)
You can participate in the Quendi category alone as an individual competitor, or you can participate as a member of a team of 2–5 people. The individual competitors and the teams will receive the same set of tasks, but the winner will be announced separately for individuals and teams.
As an individual competitor, you can make the decision to solve only the quizzes or only the creative tasks in each round: besides the absolute winners of the individual and team subcategories, the separate winners of the lexical and the creative parts will also be announced. This choice is only available for individual competitors, teams are expected to do the full version!
We will go on with the team competition only if we receive at least 5 applications from teams. If we have to cancel the team competition, team members will have the opportunity to compete on their own or to withdraw their application. There is also a maximum limit of 60 competitors (individuals and teams counted together) in the Quendi category (and we got quite close to this limit last year).
The contest starts in November and continues until April. Every month you will receive the questions of the next round (five rounds overall), and you will have to submit your solutions until the indicated deadline (you will have about four weeks for each round). Communication is done via e-mail. Our e-mail address is tlv[at]tolkien.hu: questions and comments are always welcome there. We are happy to answer all your questions about the competition—except disclosing the solutions of the actual tasks.
Not submitting your solutions for two consecutive rounds means quitting the competition.
There will be no prizes in the international category, only the public announcement of your achievement and a certificate sent by e-mail. There is no registration fee, either.
If you want to participate, please fill in this online registration form.
Registration as an individual competitor: choose the “I am competing alone.” option on the form.
Registration as a team: each team member should fill in a registration form separately, choose the “I am a member of a team of 2-5 people.” option, and provide the same team name. We also need a contact person for each team. Please agree on a unique team name and choose a contact person from the team before starting the registration.
You should see an automatic confirmation message after the successful registration, but if you are in doubt about the success of your registration, ask the organisers via e-mail whether they have received your registration or not! You should receive the first round of tasks during the week after the application deadline. If you do not receive it, write to us!
The application deadline is:
5 November, 2026
Tolkien Food Week 2026
Tolkien food week 2026 themes
2nd of November- Dùnedain travel food
3rd Nov- plant-based
4th Nov- hobbit hole recipes
5th Nov - Elven feasts
6th Nov - at the Prancing pony
7th Nov- Dwarven banquets
8th Nov - at the Valar's table 🦅
Fics, recipes, ficlets, art, photos, polls, crack... have fun
These are mere suggestions ofc, you absolutely can post when you want on theme or not 😉
(Headers/banners here if you want)
The White Oliphaunt 2026
Sign ups will open on November 1st, 2026. See the blog linked in this announcement for more details.
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: 2023 Sign-Ups Open
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.
Sign-ups for the 2023 TRSB are now open!
Schedule
May 8: Artist sign-up deadline
May 14: Art draft due
May 19: Art preview gallery available to signed-up authors
May 27 (17:00 UTC): Claims (find this in your timezone)
Important Sign-Up Information
Artists, sign up with the handle you use on your primary platform (e.g. DeviantArt, Instagram, Tumblr etc.).
Authors must have an AO3 account to participate and should sign up with their AO3 username. This is to make it easier for us to track who has and hasn’t put their finished fic in the collection. (If you don’t have an account as at signups, don’t panic – just make sure you join their waiting list in plenty of time.)
NB – in the past we have had difficulty getting hold of people because they’ve signed up with an alias that bears no resemblance to any of their fandom handles, and/or an email that they barely use. Don’t do this, please; make sure you are actually contactable. If for some reason you can’t sign up with your username for one of the above platforms, get in touch with the mods in the first instance to discuss options.
Please add the event email (tolkienrsb@gmail.com) to your safe senders list to ensure that you get all the information you need from us – we promise not to spam you! This is also how you will receive your preview gallery access. Gallery access will be provided to all participants, but only signed up authors may claim. You will not get access to the preview gallery unless you sign up for the event.
Before signing up, make sure you read the TRSB FAQ!
Links
TRSB Website
Artist Sign-Ups
Author Sign-Ups
Pinch Hitter Sign-Ups
Beta Sign-Ups
Treat Sign-Ups
F3: Focus on Friendship and Family
F3 is an event to celebrate the friendships and families of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Second Age!
This includes all the movies (yes, all of them), The Rings of Power, LOTRO and other video games, board/card/tabletop and book games, and so on and so forth.
The event includes three phases: making prompt chains, creating based on prompt chains, and creating derivations. The event rules can be found at the links below.
Your creations must be set in the Second or Third Age and they must be rated for General Audiences.
Schedule
April 29: prompt creation closes
May 4: creator sign-ups close
June 15: creations due
June 30: derivations due
Links
Maple Moot: Northern Spirit (May 20)
Signum University and the Mythgard Institute invite you to join us on Saturday, May 20, 2023, for Maple Moot 2023: Northern Spirit. This hybrid event will take place at Hart House, at the University of Toronto, hosted by Signum and the U of T Tolkien Club.
Northern Spirit is an ancient virtue of some mythologies to which the father of modern fantasy J.R.R. Tolkien owes much of his creative inspiration. Join us for Signum’s first journey into the North (of the border that is), where we will explore the meaning of Northern Spirit, its thematic influence in Tolkien’s legendarium, and its origins in fantasy and literature.
Please submit your proposal for an academic paper, creative presentation, workshop, or discussion panel for Maple Moot ’23. The theme is “Northern Spirit”, and both on-site and online attendees are welcome to participate in presentation. The call for proposals will close on May 6th. If your presentation is chosen, we will reach out to let you know prior to publishing the event schedule.
We would be delighted to receive proposals including stories and scholarship by First Nations people, about the relationship between land and language, and how our identity shapes and is shaped by legends. We welcome creative and artistic proposals alongside academic ones, please reach out if you have any questions about what is possible at this event!
Proposal Submission Form (open through May 6)
Register for the Event
Online Class: Tolkien's Time Travel Stories
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lost Road sends characters from his contemporary England back into the past of his Middle-earth. This class will feature J.R.R. Tolkien's two little-known, unfinished time-travel stories. The Lost Road sends characters from his contemporary England dreaming their way back into the storm-haunted past of Númenor. The Notion Club Papers brings the same storm into the present to blow through an Inklings-like gathering of Oxford dons, carrying with it wind, rain, ancient identities and a new language.
This class will feature two experts in their fields—Verlyn Flieger, Tolkien expert, and Carl F. Hostetter, the editor of The Nature of Middle-earth. Carl will join the June 25th class.
Schedule: Four Sundays: June 4, 11, 18, 25 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET, online
- June 4—Flieger: Lost Road
- June 11—Flieger: Notion Club Papers Pt. 1
- June 18—Flieger: Notion Club Papers Pt. II.
- June 25*—Hostetter & Flieger: The Drowning of Anaduné
Price: $130.00 Per Person (10% off for members)
Class format: Lecture and discussion. Questions encouraged, opinions invited.
The class text is The History of Middle-earth, Volume IX: Sauron Defeated.
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
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
