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.

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.

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.

Tolkien Society Seminar: Númenor, the Mighty and Frail

The Tolkien Society Seminar is a short conference of both researcher-led and non-academic presentations on a specific theme pertaining to Tolkien scholarship.The Society held three seminars in 2021 (Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien, Tolkien and Diversity, and Translating and Illustrating Tolkien) and their online setting has seen increased interest with over 700 attendees from 52 countries at ‘Tolkien and Diversity’. After the seminar, all paper recordings from the seminars are uploaded onto the Tolkien Society’s YouTube channel. We are delighted to run hybrid seminars where delegates can enjoy discussions on Tolkien in person and online.

This year's event, "Númenor, the Mighty and Frail," will be held both online and in-person at The Hilton, Leeds on 2 July 2023. Both events are free.

The seminar aims to examine the role that Númenor plays in Tolkien’s legendarium. Although the island was pivotal to the secondary world narrative of the Second Age, it also re-emerged consistently in Tolkien’s writing and thinking from The Lost Road (1936-37), through The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) and The Notion Club Papers (1945), to ‘Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife’ (1965) and other late essays. Númenor, then, is central to the growth of Tolkien’s legendarium and is a catalyst for seismic change in Arda.

Although Tolkien consistently refers to Númenor as the greatest human kingdom, its overwhelming military splendour and grand civilisation mask its frailty, which only grows over time. As is seen with the fractions of the King’s Men and the Faithful, Númenor’s fall may have been inevitable from its conception. However, its legacy in the Black Númenóeans and the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor evince that its legacy is still somewhat alive after its downfall.

The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth is the first ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts. Leading Tolkien scholar, Peter Grybauskas, presents for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s own prose translation of The Battle of Maldon together with the definitive treatment of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and its accompanying essays; also included and never before published is Tolkien’s bravura lecture, ‘The Tradition of Versification in Old English’, a wide-ranging essay on the nature of poetic tradition. Illuminated with insightful notes and commentary, he has produced a definitive critical edition of these works, and argues compellingly that, Beowulf excepted, The Battle of Maldon may well have been ‘the Old English poem that most influenced Tolkien’s fiction’, most dramatically within the pages of The Lord of the Rings. The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth goes on sale 30 March 2023.

Year of the OTP 2023

Year of the OTP is an event designed to encourage participants to make more content for a particular ship they love and end 2023 with twelve new fics for an OTP. The goal is to make one fanwork featuring a ship for each month in 2023, and each month features multiple prompts.

Year of the OTP 2023 AO3 Collection

Prompts

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology XIII

This year will be the thirteenth and final Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology. For one last time, we'll be collecting short lady-centric podfics by different readers in different fandoms to release as an anthology and as a collection of individual files.

The submission deadline for podfics is February 14th, and we will post the anthology on February 28th.

The theme for this year's anthology is transition. It's optional—all podfics are welcome as long as they follow the rules laid out in the Submission Guidelines—but feel free to let it inspire you if you'd like.

If you are not familiar with this project, you can see the previous anthologies here.

To Podficcers: Interested in participating? We'd love to have you. This should be a low-stress project, even for people who are new to podficcing, due to the word-count: 1500 words or less (with many being as short as 1-2 minutes). If you'd like to record something for this anthology, please fill out this quick google form and we'll send you the link to the spreadsheet where we'll be keeping track of all the podfics. If you would prefer to interface via email instead of using the form/spreadsheet, you can email klb at sekritproject@gmail.com, and she will reach out to get you set up.

Here are some good places for finding short fics about female characters:
-The Women Being Awesome, Female Characters, Female Character of Color, POV Female Character, and Female Relationships tags at the AO3, limited to word counts of 1500 or less.
-The Misses Clause Challenge from Yuletide
-Femslash Minis
-Awesome Ladies Ficathon (original LJ ficathon deleted, but these works crossposted to AO3 remain)
-Real Women Fest
-Female Character Trope Fest
-The Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon
-The Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon II
-Where No Woman: Un-erasing the women of Star Trek and Women of Star Trek
-Femslash Kinkmeme
-The Femslash February Collection
-Focus on Female Characters Collection
-Purimgifts

Since this project has a relatively quick turnaround time, you may want to refer to this database of authors who have posted blanket permission statements and/or install this browser extension that highlights all blanket permission authors from that database in green.

To the Podcurious: If you have ever thought you might like to create podfic, this is a really great starting place. It's low pressure, you might get listeners you wouldn’t otherwise reach, you're contributing to a cool fanwork that celebrates our love for female characters, and it's not too intense of a spotlight, because your piece is in the company of many other voices.

To Everyone: Feel free to comment with links to other fests or specific works that you think would be a good fit for this anthology. Additionally, we are looking for beta listeners who can absolutely commit to at LEAST two hours of beta listening between February 17th and 24th. Please let us know if you'd be available and interested; we'd be very grateful!

To Authors: We've had some awesome authors get involved in the past, in pod_together style, to create short female-centric pieces for the anthology in collaboration with podficcers. If you’re an author who’s interested and is seeking podficcers to work with, feel free to comment below. Podficcers who would like this sort of collaboration, please reply directly to the authors.

See this post for the rules and submission guidelines. If you have any additional questions, please let us know!

Gore Swap 2023

Gore Swap is an exchange for fanworks that include significant gore content, meaning described/pictured violence, injury and/or bloodshed. The minimum requirement is 500 words or a nice sketch on unlined paper. The 2023 schedule is as follows:

Nominations: Jan 15-22
Sign ups: Jan 24-31
Assignments out by: Feb 3
Assignments due: March 12
Work Reveals: March 24
Creator Reveals: March 31

You can find more at Gore Fest's AO3 Collection or the complete rules.

Teitho January/February Challenge: Starting Over

Teitho is a bimonthly Tolkien fanfiction contests. You can find full information and rules for Teitho here. Our challenge for January and February of this new year is Starting Over, a prompt that gives our creators options for both beginnings and endings.

Will you tell us a tale of the first Elves leaving Cuiviénen for Valinor, stories of the hosts of Fëanor and Fingolfin journeying to Beleriand, or Luthien and Beren’s time in Tol Galen?

Perhaps your story will follow Sauron after the War of Wrath. Or the Men who became the Nine.

Shall you tell us of the survivors of Erebor and their new dwellings? Or Samwise and Frodo, when they return to the Shire? Or cross the sea to the West?

Perhaps you will share the story of Gandalf's time in Lorien, after he defeated the balrog and became Gandalf with White? Or Glorfindel coming back to Middle-earth from Valinor in a new body?

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life?” Frodo asks, in Peter Jackson’s film version of The Return of the King. “How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back.”

The start of a new year is a chance to start again. Where will you take us with this prompt? We can’t wait to see!

Please submit your stories before January 31, 2023, to teitho.contest@gmail.com

B2MeM 2023: Spies in the Shadows

Save the dates! Back to Middle-earth Month (B2MEM) returns this March for the 18th running of the annual event. This year’s main event is titled Spies in the Shadows: A Middle-earth Mystery (team event) and The Rogue Spy (solo event), and all events will culminate with a two-day mini virtual convention hosted by the Spring into Arda team in mid-April. (All events, with the exception of the classic prompt board, will use Discord as the main place of contact and communication. MellonCon (April 14-16, 2023) is currently seeking volunteers to help with traffic and host events. It also offers a unique ‘call for papers’ opportunity for residents of Arda.)

Info about Spies in the Shadows & Classic Prompt Board

Sign-up for Spies in the Shadows (now through February 15 for team/through March 31 for solo)

Info about MellonCon & Middle-earth Masquerade

The SWG's Discord server also hosts the #b2mem channel for discussion and questions related to B2MeM events.

Drawesome January Challenge: BIPOC Diversity in Fantasy

Drawesome is a Dreamwidth community of fan-artists who enjoy drawing. We hope to inspire and motivate each other to practice and hone our drawing skills in a stress-free, supportive environment. For January's challenge, create visuals of BIPOC as fantasy creatures, such as elves and other traditionally "fair" folk, fairies, mermaids, dwarves, etc.

Additional Notes:

For our challenge, the term 'POC' or People of Colour in the acronym 'BIPOC' refers to people who are non-White or not of European descent.

Please note that BIPOC are often relegated to villainous roles in (Western) Fantasy settings, or are sometimes completely absent from these worlds. Therefore, the purpose of this challenge is for artists to go beyond the "default" standard of beauty as seen in the Fantasy genre, and expand to portraying BIPOC in more diverse roles. eg. a Black mermaid, a brown-skinned elf, a person of Asian descent as a wizard, etc.
Since the focus is to feature BIPOC visually, please note that blue/green-skinned creatures would not qualify as "diversity of skin colour" for this particular challenge.
You are welcome to create your own fantasy character, or select a character that is canonically BIPOC, as subject matter for your artwork. Racebending of a canonically white character would also be permitted.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of the month on Tuesday 31st January, 2023.

More information about participating in Drawesome can be found on the Introductory Post and Posting Guidelines.

Second Age Week 2023

For the second time we have decided to host this week to show our love and appreciation for the Second Age in all its facets. From proud Númenoreans to deep digging Dwarves, to the last High King of the Noldor, and the Dark Lord of Mordor—this week is dedicated to all of them and more! This event is hosted on Tumblr.

A list of non-mandatory prompts below:

Day 1 Elves - Gil-galad, Oropher, Celebrían and many others - Lindon and Belfalas, Imladris and Eregion, Lórinand and Greenwood. What were the elves doing in the Second Age?

Day 2 Men - On this day of Second Age Week, we explore the race of Men—from proud Númenoreans, through those who would come to be known as Dunlendings, to the Haradrim in the South.

Day 3 Dwarves - From Ered Luin through Khazad Dûm to the Eastern Realms, dwarves played an important role during the Second Age. On this day you can explore their history and culture, events they participated in, prominent characters such as Durin IV or Narvi and more!

Day 4 Sauron and his minions - With his lies and deceits, Sauron spent the Second Age weaving his way across Middle-earth and started a reign of terror from his fortress in Mordor. This day is dedicated to him and his many followers.

Day 5 Worldbuilding - Rings of Power and the White Tree, faraway lands, countless battles—Middle Earth has a rich history and stunning locations to explore.

Day 6 Original Characters - An unnamed wife of a king of Númenor, a guardsman from Lindon—who are they? What are they up to? On this day the spotlight is given to characters outside of the narrative focus.

Day 7 Freeform - Did we forget about something or is there a prompt you want to revisit? Feel free to use this day for any Second Age related content!

The week will run during 9th to 15th January 2023 and will be hosted by @tilions and @armenelols. We will operate in a mixture of queued posts and direct reblogs.

To note:

Tag your work #secondageweek in the first five tags of your post and tag us @secondageweek so we can find your post
Should your post not be reblogged, feel free to send us an ask or a message
The same goes with all problems and questions; the ask box is open!
All kinds of content are allowed—fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, meta, edits, etc
For NSFW content and such, please tag your work accordingly.

We are looking forward to your creations!

Screw Yule 2023

You are cordially invited to participate in this year's Screw Yule, a celebration of Elves, Smut, and a New Year's Resolution to toss Laws and Customs right out the window (or, at least, ignore whatever is necessary to appease your muses.)

Screw Yule is a way to kick off the new year with elf smut, and lots of it. There are a variety of challenge options, and infinite combinations between these different options. You can even completely disregard the challenges and just submit whatever elf smuttiness you like, as long as it hasn't been written previously for something else and there's an elf in it somewhere. The only rules are to have fun, and be dirty. [We used to only allow ratings of R or NC- 17/ Adult oriented fics, but if you want to only put one foot in the gutter and not jump in completely, go for it. We just really encourage being totally in the gutter!] This event was previously held in the magical place that was Little Balrog, but following the shutdown of Yahoo Groups in the form that allowed for that, stories will now be shared on AO3.

Participants earn points for writing, commenting, beta'ing, and creating art for the event. See the Screw Yule page on AO3 for full rules and details.

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