Around the World and Web

2022 Tolkien Collector's Guide Recording of Tolkien Reading Day Available

Tolkien Reading Day is celebrated worldwide on March 25th in honor of the destruction of the One Ring. Listen to our guests and panels talk about their love and friendships around Tolkien and his books.

Chapters:

00:00 - start of the livestream

05:13 - Artists Panel - Jenny Dolfen, Emily Austin, Anke Eissmann, Donato Giancola, Ted Nasmith

1:05:00 - The Tolkien Experience Podcast - Dr. Luke Shelton, Dr. Sara Brown, Sarah Westvik

1:36:45 - More Podcasting - Shawn Marchese and Alan Sisto (The Prancing Pony Podcast), Marcel Aubron-Bülles (SmallTolk Podcast), Chad Bornholdt and Chad High (The Texas Tolkien Talk Podcast)

2:04:00 - Digital Humanities and Education - Elise Trudel Cedeño and James Tauber

2:37:30 - Video and Media - Matt Graf (Nerd of the Rings) - Note that Clifford "Quickbeam" Broadway (TheOneRing.net) was unavoidably delayed and appears later in the event instead

3:10:00 - Guides to Middle-earth - Dick Plotz (Founder of the Tolkien Society of America, 1965) and Robert "Bob" Foster (author of The Guide to Middle-earth and The Complete Guide to Middle-earth)

3:36:50 - Audio and Audiobooks - Jordan Rannells

4:16:20 - Open Mic! Joined by Clifford Broadway (TheOneRing.net), Pieter Collier (The Tolkien Library) and many more

Sign-Ups Open for the Silmarillion Remix Challenge 2022

What is a remix?

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.

We see this done with art when it comes to the DTIYS challenge (Draw This In Your Style); remixing fic is similar. Remix it in your style! How would you have told that story? Would you have picked a different point of view? Would you have made it more serious, or rather more comical? Would you have included a flashback, or begun the narrative earlier, or later? Would you have arranged the chronology differently? Maybe instead of telling the story over several scenes, you would have chosen only one, and expanded on it, or vice versa? In your hands, keeping the plot the same, how would the story change?

Some ways to remix a story include:

• retelling it from someone else’s point of view
• writing a prequel or sequel
• taking the story and adding or subtracting an element (e.g. magic)
• taking the story and changing its setting, location, or time period
• taking a minor event in the original story and focusing and expanding on it
• taking a minor character in the original story and focusing on them

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!

For this round of the event, only Silmarillion fanfiction is eligible for remixing. We may open up to other Tolkien fandoms and mediums in the future, but this time around it’s Silm fic all the way!

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2022 Schedule:

April 1 - Signups open
April 7 - Signups close
April 10 - Assignments sent out
May 6 - Default deadline
May 15 - Works due at 11:59pm PST
May 21 - Works revealed
May 28 - Creators revealed

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Please read the rules carefully to understand the parameters of this exchange! You can find the rules on our tumblr (mobile // desktop) or our AO3 Collection.

This event is being run by @arofili​ and @arrivisting​! If you have event-related questions, please email us at tolkienremix@gmail.com or send an ask to this blog!

SIGN UP FOR THE SILM REMIX HERE!

Mobile links are accessible here.

Tolkien Short Fanworks April Prompts Posted

Here is our thematic prompt and formal challenge for April:

The thematic prompt is: a sudden change of the weather.

In the UK and other countries, April is a month traditionally associated with sudden rain showers, but your response does not need to relate to this particular weather pattern.

However, here is a bonus quotation prompt on that theme:

Again the blackbirds sing; the streams
Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams,
And tremble in the April showers
The tassels of the maple flowers.

(John Greenleaf Whittier, from: The Singer)

The formal challenge is: a fixed-length piece of 222 words.

The choice of number is inspired by the year 2022, although that lovely date 22/02/2022 is now some weeks ago already...

As always, you can combine the thematic prompt and the formal challenge, but they can be filled entirely independently.

Usual reminder that although you can fill the prompts any way you like, in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3, the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.

Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories!

Digital Tolkien Project Launches "Search Tolkien"

Digital Tolkien Project has launched an accessible system to search across Tolkien's works, see the distribution of terms and phrases, look up the citation reference for passages.

The search is case-insensitive and all punctuation and diacritics are stripped. Phrases up to seven words long can be searched for. For copyright reasons, no actual text is displayed. The search currently covers The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (minus the prologue), The Silmarillion and Letters (just to the letter number).

References for the Citation system on the search page (which is linked).

More details on the Digital Tolkien Project can be found on the Digital Tolkien Project website.

Fëanorian Week 2022

What is it?: Fëanorian Week is a full seven days to celebrate and appreciate some of our fan faves, the Fëanorians, and their parents, Nerdanel and Fëanor. The event runs on Tumblr.

When is it?:   March 21-27, 2022          

The prompts are as followed:

• Day 1- Maedhros - > Childhood, Kingship, Torture, Adjusting/Coping, Unity, Beauty   

• Day 2-Maglor -> Childhood, Music & Songs of Power, Elrond & Elros, Kingship, Maglor’s Gap, Redemption

• Day 3- Celegorm - > Childhood, Hunting, Orome & Huan, Strength & Beauty, Wickedness, Love/Unrequited

• Day 4- Caranthir - > Childhood, Betrayal, Lordship, Dwarves & Humans, Marriage, Appearance

• Day  5- Curufin - > Childhood, Feanor, Forge work, Celebrimbor, Manipulation, Ruling of Nargothrond

• Day  6- Ambarussa - > Childhood, Lordship, Regrets, Twin, Hunting, Nandor

• Day 7- Nerdanel and Feanor-> Mahtan, Marriage, Reunion, Traveling, Creation, Healing

Rules: You are allowed to post anything fanrelated on the days. If the prompts are not to your liking, you can do your own thing. The tracktag is #feanorianweek. Tag your work accordingly! Have fun and be nice to others. Disrespect towards others will not be tolerated. 

The ask box is open if you have any questions!

Call for Papers: Oxonmoot 2022

Oxonmoot runs 1 through 4 September 2022. The Talks and Papers strand will run through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Papers may be presented in person in Oxford or online via Zoom; we will also accept pre-recorded video presentations, though we request that the presenter be available live for questions at the end of their presentation. Papers should be 20 minutes in length (with a further 10 minutes allowed for questions); longer talks (e.g. art- or artefact- based) may be accepted, and should be discussed by email with the Day Time Programme Coordinator.

The Call for Papers closes on Sunday, 15th May.

The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. Please indicated the expected duration of your Activity as part of the submission form.

The formal Call for Activities will open in mid April, but if you would like to discuss any ideas prior to submission, please contact the Activities Programme Coordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Coordinator.

The Oxonmoot page has many more details on this year's event.

Other links:

• Register for online attendance
• Register for in-person attendance
• Submit a paper proposal

Guild of Scribes Discord Server Open to New Members

Guild of Scribes is a community of Tolkien fanfic writers who want to receive and give constructive feedback on their own and others' works in a supportive and safe space. The goal is for members to participate as both writers and reviewers/readers. As a writer, you set the parameters for the types of feedback you are looking for and as a reviewer, you sign up for the works based on your own areas of comfort and knowledge. Except for 'asynchronous review' (similar to beta but with the potential for more in-depth feedback from more people), each work receives its own private channel for review, open only to the author and the participants (3-5) who have signed up to review and comment on that particular work.

To keep the server small and manageable for now, we’re inviting members by request only. If you have any questions or want an invite please message @polutropos (she/they) or @Minubell on Discord, or @polutrope on Tumblr or polutrope@gmail.com.

Library of Moria Moving to AO3

The Library of Moria, a Tolkien slash, femslash, gen, and RPF fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

The Library of Moria was founded in 2002 as one of the first Lord of the Rings archives, but quickly grew in scope and popularity. The archivists have lovingly kept the Library of Moria running for nearly two decades, but with the announcement that the eFiction software that runs the archive will not be updated, they realize it is only a matter of time before the archive is rendered unusable. They are moving the archive to the AO3 to ensure that it stays online for all of those who have enjoyed it over the years to revisit for decades more.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Talullah, Azzy and Half Elf Lost to import the Library of Moria into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all images currently in the Library of Moria will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages. Eventually links to the old site will redirect to the collection on AO3, which can be searched and filtered in order to locate individual imported works.

If you are an author on the Library of Moria, check the announcement from the Open Doors Project for more information on how authors will be contacted and works migrated, as well as contact information for the Open Doors Project.

Polyship Week 2022

Polyshipping week is a multifandom celebration of love that will run March 7-14, 2022. Find them on their website, Tumblr, Twitter, and AO3.

Event Guidelines

• Please tag us @PolyshipWeek or use the hashtag #polyshipweek22 so we can retweet your creations!

• Participate in one, a few, or all the days as you prefer! Feel free to choose just one prompt, mix and match, or whatever sparks your imagination!

• Works may be in any medium — fics, art, gifsets, multimedia, etc. — as long as they are original creations with all collaborators credited.

• Works accepted to the AO3 collection through the end of March.

• No ship or character bashing please — let's make this fun for everyone!

Prompts

Day 1: "two hands" - vee | compersion | meet cute

Day 2: solo polyamory | date night | only one (big) bed

Day 3: metamours | growing old | scifi AU

Day 4: open relationships | meet the family | domestic fluff

Day 5: kitchen table | queerplatonic | magic

Day 6: comets | scheduling as romance | historical AU

Day 7: triads | mapping the polycule | soulmates

Day 8: Free Day

Priscilla Tolkien has died (announcement on the Tolkien Society website)

Priscilla Tolkien, youngest daughter of J.R.R. Tolkien, passed away on 28 February 2022  after a short illness. She was a trustee of the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust, Vice President of The Tolkien Society, and involved in the publication of The Tolkien Album, Mr Bliss and The Letters from Father Christmas.

More detail in the linked announcement by the Tolkien Society and also in this obituary.