Around the World and Web

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:

First sunrise by Kimura Buzan 

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:

Yesterdays Gone by Thomas Hjelm

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.

Call for Submissions: "Ephemera" Fan History Zine

Submit work to Ephemera, a zine dedicated to fan studies and fandom culture! We are looking for: visual art, photography, analytical writing, personal essays, poetry, historical accounts, ethnographic interviews, straight-up trash, memories, collections, secrets both dark and cringe.... Send work to ephemerafanzine@gmail.com or submit through our form. Submissions should be 1,500 words or less (though longer submissions will be considered), and previously published works are accepted. Both print and online versions of the zine will be available.

Fun With Fanon Fest

Fun With Fanon Fest is a celebration of fanon and community storytelling in the Tolkien fandom, created to encourage the interaction of fans with the source material and each other, interrogating and uplifting how we create narratives together as a community.

The two-day mini-event will be occurring quarterly, with the first event March 25-26. Daily themes remain the same every event: Day 1 (Saturday) is Favorite Fanons, and Day 2 (Sunday) is Fanon Inversion.

Four prompts are available for this year's event but are optional; exploration of any fanon is welcome.

  1. Maglor = Lindir
  2. Arkenstone = Silmaril
  3. Fin-galad
  4. Scarred Maedhros

Fandom Trumps Hate 2023 Bidding Open

FTH is an online fanworks auction, designed to raise money for progressive nonprofit organizations that help and support marginalized people. In the past five years, hundreds of fans have joined forces to raise over $190,000 for a range of progressive organizations.

The moment you've been waiting for has finally arrived - we've processed all the signups, posted and tagged all the auction posts, made all the edits creators have contacted us about, and run all the scripts to open the bidding forms, which means ...

YOU CAN GO BID ON FTH 2023 AUCTIONS!!

Bidding closes at 8:00pm EST on Sunday, March 5. Any bid that registers on the bid sheet with a timestamp after 8:00:05pm (or before 8:00:00am this morning) will not be counted.

If you subscribe to a bidding spreadsheet, remember that it may take a few minutes for it to notify you of a new bid, so don't rely on it in the last moments of the auction.

If you win your auction, we will require proof of your donation to one of the listed nonprofits by 8pm on Sunday, March 12 (a week after auctions close) or your auction may be passed on to the second bidder.

Good luck!

March challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

Traditionally, in Tolkien fandom, March is Back To Middle-earth Month (B2MeM), so this month, for our tolkienshortfanworks challenge, we have been inspired by the concept of traveling (back) to Arda.



So here is our thematic prompt and our formal challenge for March:



The thematic prompt is: a map or sign-post. 



The formal challenge is: a travelogue; put more loosely, your piece (or part of it) should follow the stations of a journey as a structure.



As always, the two prompts can be filled entirely independently or combined with prompts from other challenges.

In this case, obviously, particularly the prompts of the official B2MeM event; if you are not aware of the event, details can be found here.

More details on tolkienshortfanworks challenges can be found at the linked post. New participants are always welcome and the Dreamwidth community also is open to new contributors independently of the monthly challenges.

Feanorian Week 2023

Feanorian Week will run March 20th-26th. The prompts have been posted.

Sufficiently Advanced Exchange

Sufficiently Advanced is a multifandom exchange for science fiction, fantasy, and horror book canons. This includes novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories. Nominations are open until March 7th, signups March 8th - 18th.

B2MeM Prompt Board Is Now Live!

Are you looking for a chill way to celebrate Back to Middle-earth Month with us? Look no further! We've prepared 100 prompts for you to use this March!

Felt inspired? Created other Middle-Earth related things in March? You can add your creations to the B2MeM AO3 collection! Feel free to tag us on Tumblr @spring-into-arda, too! But most of all, have an amazing Back to Middle-earth Month and have fun creating!

Signum University Press Open for Submissions

Signum University Press is currently open to new submissions for both scholarly and creative works. They are specifically looking for work from new and emerging authors from underrepresented demographics.

They are looking specifically for:

  • Individual, previously-unpublished academic articles or chapters on topics relating to language and literature, in particular those focused on Afrofuturism, ecocriticism, fandoms, the Inklings, Germanic philology, medieval literature, and popular culture.
  • Scholarly monographs on the above topics, as well as translations and editions of literary works.
  • Individual, previously-unpublished short stories, especially fantasy, science fiction, mythopoeia, fairy tales, secondary worlds, dystopia, Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, dark academia, superhero tales, and adaptations of classic myths.

The submissions guidelines have specifics about what they accept and how to propose or send your work.

Registration Open for the 2023 International Medieval Congress

Drawing medievalists from over 60 countries, with more than 2,000 individual papers as well as public concerts, performances, excursions, bookfairs and more, the International Medieval Congress (IMC) is Europe’s largest forum for sharing ideas in medieval studies.

IMC 2023 will take place from Monday 03 July to Thursday 06 July 2023 and it is our strong intention, coronavirus restrictions permitting, that there will be both an in-person and virtual component. The special thematic focus for IMC 2023 will be ‘Networks & Entanglements’.

Register for IMC 2023 (closes 5 May 2023)
IMC 2023 Programme

The IMC features a Tolkien Studies track.

Call for Papers: German Tolkien Society, Tolkien Seminar 2023

The 19th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format (predominantly in person but with online options) at the Seminar for English Philology at the Georg-August-University Göttingen on 27-29 October 2023.

Tolkien himself often sketched places and landscapes during the writing process in order to visualise his literary descriptions. His illustrations for The Hobbit as well as the iconic maps of Middle-earth attest to the high value he placed on visualising and concretising his secondary world. Soon after their publication, his works were also illustrated by other artists or inspired them to create paintings depicting scenes from Tolkien’s tales. Alan Lee and John Howe are probably the best-known visual artists of this category, and as ‘chief conceptual designers’ for Peter Jacksons films, they have shaped the vision of Middle-earth of millions of people – which is currently both reinforced and challenged by the Amazon series Rings of Power. Furthermore, there have always been artists who found their own approach to Tolkien’s work and sometimes create interpretations through visual representation (see, for example, Jay Johnstone’s painting ‘Isildur’).

The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines and fields to explore the different approaches to visualising Tolkien’s work.

Interested applicants are requested to send a short abstract (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 30 May 2023: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de