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.
"Silmarillion Daily" Newsletter
"Silmarillion Daily" compresses the timeline of the First Age into a year-long newsletter, as a fresh way to experience The Silmarillion at the same pace as the events happen in the story.
Once you sign up, you will get a welcome email that will tell you all you need to know, but here are some highlights:
- We’ll start on September 15, 2022. A month from now, and also the anniversary of the publication of The Silmarillion
- Because we had to decide on arbitrary dates, we did some math and chose to cover everything from the birth of Fëanor to the end of the First Age - the idea is to track the tale of the Silmarils, although we won’t neglect other aspects: if Tolkien has provided a date, we’ll include it in the newsletter.
- Every week, you’ll get relevant reading suggestions that will cover the entirety of the Quenta, paragraph by paragraph. For the three Great Tales (the Leithian, the Narn, and Gondolin), optional daily reading suggestions will also be provided
- If, however, you’re short on time, don’t worry - each email should take less than five minutes to read
- Hopefully enough people will sign up that we can make this a sort of tumblr bookclub and have really fun weeks where everybody gets together to cry over a specific event! It you enjoy experiencing First Age emotions, please join us!
You can sign up for the "Silmarillion Daily" newsletter here.
Silmarillion Zine Looking for Mods
Soleil is planning a Silmarillion zine and is looking for mods to assist. The zine would involve collaborative work between writers and artists. She is looking for assistance with art, graphics/layout, organization, and writing. While zine experience is preferred, it is not required. Follow @silmzine on Twitter for more.
Innumerable Stars Exchange running in 2022
Innumerable Stars is a Tolkien fandom gift exchange for all works by Tolkien or associated with Middle-earth. It runs on AO3, Dreamwidth and Tumblr.
The schedule for the Innumerable Stars Exchange for 2022 has been posted to the Dreamwidth community (the post is linked) and is as follows:
Nominations Open: Sunday, 14 August 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Nominations Close: Sunday, 28 August 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Sign-ups Open: Sunday, 28 August 2022, 11:59 PM UTC
Sign-ups Close: Sunday, 11 September 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Assignments Out: Monday, 12 September 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Assignments Due: Sunday, 23 October 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Works Revealed: Sunday, 30 October 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Authors Revealed: Sunday, 06 November 2022, 8:00 PM UTC
Guidelines and Rules for the exchange in 2022 can be found at this DW post.
Silvergifting Week 2022
Silvergifting Week will happen on Tumblr August 8-14, 2022!
This week-long Tumblr event celebrates the relationship between Celebrimbor and Mairon | Annatar | Sauron. The event mod is @elennalore. The purpose of this event is to encourage people to create all kinds of fanworks that are focused on Celebrimbor/Mairon pairing (including Celebrimbor/Annatar and Celebrimbor/Sauron). Fanart, fanfiction, headcanon, moodboards, fan crafts, meta … you name it!
The content created during this event will be reblogged on this blog if tagged #silvergiftingweek or if your post mentions @silvergiftingweek.
All different interpretations of Celebrimbor/Mairon | Annatar | Sauron relationship are welcome! Diverse takes are encouraged. DL; DR rule is active in this event. So, if you don’t like it, don’t read it.
This is a Ship and Let Ship event. If you don’t like this ship or a certain interpretation of it, do not bash others for liking them. Ship hate or homophobia is not welcome.
I ask people to respect general Tumblr content posting rules when participating in this event. NSFW text entries and potentially triggering content are allowed, but they should be posted under cut “read more”. When reblogging content on this blog, nfsw entries and potentially triggering content will be tagged accordingly. If you need a specific tw (trigger warning) you can DM the mod.
Prompts
Day 1 (August 8): Beginnings | First times
First meetings. Developing relationship. First kiss. First time.
Day 2 (August 9): Happy times | Living together
Deepening feelings. Falling in love. Is it genuine love? From both sides? Or not? Living together in Ost-in-Edhil. Comfort. Happiness.
Day 3 (August 10): Collaborators | Community
Working together. Interaction with other people. How do others see their relationship? Ambition. Crafting Rings of Power together.
Day 4 (August 11): Betrayal | Bad Ending
Suspicions. Identity reveal. Secret side projects in Ring-making. Lovers to enemies. War against Eregion. Captured by your former lover. Celebrimbor’s tragic fate.
Day 5 (August 12): Post-canon | New beginnings
What happens after canonical events? Trauma healing. Reconciliation. Halls of Mandos. Valinor. Fourth Age and onwards. Will they find each other again?
Day 6 (August 13): Canon divergence | Alternative universe
What if... Silvergifting happened in an alternative universe? An ending different from canon? What about a modern AU? A steampunk AU? Give your AU view of their relationship.
Day 7 (August 14): Freeform
A place for your own personal take on their relationship not covered in previous prompts.
August Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The August challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth has been posted. The thematic prompt is: "art or craft found in unexpected places". The formal challenge is "diary entry". They can be filled independently and combined freely with other prompts.
In order to post the fill to the Dreamwidth 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.
New community members always welcome!!
Tolkien of Colour Week on Tumblr
The mod of Tolkien of Colour Week writes in their announcement post:
I am very excited to announce Tolkien of Colour Week from 1st - 7th August 2022!
This is a week to celebrate Tolkien fanworks with characters of colour. Below are the themes and prompts for each day (you do not have to use the prompts but they are there to encourage creativity!) If you have questions about the prompts or anything else please send me a message or ask and I will be happy to respond.
Prompts
Day 1: Family – Connection to Lands – Connection to Waters
Day 2: Music – Language – Stories
Day 3: Friendship – Celebration – Cross-Cultural Ties
Day 4: Cultural Pride – Pride in Identity – Growing Up
Day 5: Faith and Religion – Life and Death – Environment
Day 6: Multicultural Identities – Migration – Time
Day 7: Intersectionality – Gender – Sexuality – Disability
Tag #tocweek2022 and mention @tolkienofcolourweek in your posts so that I see it and reblog. This event is run by @brighter-arda.
Tolkien OC Week on Tumblr
This week on Tumblr is a fandom event for OCs and underdeveloped characters in Tolkien's world. It celebrates both characters of Tolkien’s world and original characters that need more love, by creating and reblogging all kind of fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos, fancrafts, headcanons, playlists, edits, moodboards etc. It will run from 25th July - 31st July 2022.
Event schedule for 2022:
Day 1 (25th July): Diversity - Whether it’s sexual orientation, gender, disability, neurodiversity, or race, create a fanwork about an OC who adds diversity to Tolkien’s world.
Day 2 (26th July): Shipping - Create a fanwork about an OC that you ship with a canon character. An established marriage, a developing queerplatonic relationship, or a one-night stand… canon compliant or AU… it can be any sort of ship you want!
Day 3 (27th July): Gaps and Ghosts - Curufin didn’t pull Celebrimbor out of thin air, so who was the other parent? Who are the Blue Wizards and where did they go? And did you know that the ringbearer was originally written as Bilbo’s son Bingo? Create a fanwork based around an abandoned or never-established character, or flesh out someone who we know nothing about, such as Nazgûl #6.
Day 4 (28th July): Mary Sues - Do you have an OC who is Galadriel’s powerful younger daughter, sent to modern times for her protection, who reappeared as a teenager just in time for her to join the Fellowship? Well, so do I! Here is your permission to use any and every Mary Sue trope you can think of in your fanwork. Modern girls in Middle Earth. Self inserts. Tenth walkers. Play it straight or make it a parody, we’ll take anything.
Day 5 (29th July): Background Characters - Who else was watching Frodo’s song at the Prancing Pony? What’s it like to be a rank-and-file Fëanorian, going into exile over an argument that has nothing to do with you? What’s it like to work at the Houses of Healing, unable to stop your patients from dying of the black breath? Create a fanwork exploring a character you would find in the background of the main action.
Day 6 (30th July): Original Peoples- Instead of just one character, create a fanwork about a group of people who aren’t explored in canon, like the Avari, the Drúedain, the dwarves of the Iron Hills, or anything else you imagine might exist in Middle Earth. You can even invent your own race of speaking people!
Day 7 (31st July): Freeform - OC week is all about freedom, so today, create a piece of fanwork about whatever you want!
More details at the linked post.
Teitho Challenge for July and August
The Teitho competition is back up and running with a challenge for July/August, asking for a special recipe with five fictional ingredients.
They write:
For the months of July and August, we once again have a special recipe for you to prepare. The ingredients are all listed below, but how you mix-n-mash them is completely up to you! As all great cooks make recipes their own by adding little touches and intriguing twists, don’t forget to spice the result with your favourite flavours. This month, let's see what you can bake for our hungry Middle-Earth and Arda appetites!
The five ingredients are:
•Belt
•Grass
•Memory
•Sunrise
•Vessel
Each item on the list must appear in your story at least once, either physically or in dialogue. You don't have to use the exact same wording or meaning —for example, your story can have an actual belt or someone belting a song. It can reference a sunrise or take place at sunrise. Vessel has many meanings, from a physical mode of transport to metaphorical ones as well.
There are many ways to go about this challenge, and we look forward to seeing how you use the ingredients to create your master recipe! The deadline for this theme will be August 31.
More details about Teitho challenges on the linked website.
Multifandom Poetry Fest 2022
Welcome to the sixth annual Multifandom Poetry Fest, a prompt fest for poetry for all fandoms! This event takes place on Dreamwidth.
Rules
1) Leave a prompt in the form of fandom, characters or relationships, prompt. If you don’t want to specify the fandom or characters, you can say "any." One prompt per comment. Leave as many prompts as you like.
2) Reply to other people’s prompts with poems. The poems can be any length or form, or no form. Quality isn’t important--the point is to have fun, not to produce deathless works of art. (Any deathless works of art produced are just a bonus.)
You can leave prompts or check out the prompts already posted here.
Tolkien Appreciation Week 2022
Amidst all the incredible appreciation events going on, we want to invite you to join in on appreciating the literary works & cinematic adaptations of Tolkien! Tolkien Week 2022 is a 10-day event which will run from July 11th–15th and July 18th–22nd on Tumblr and AO3. Each day has three different prompts for gifs, art, fics and other media types! Feel free to do as many days as you’d like and whichever prompt(s) you prefer! Don’t forget to tag #tolkienweek so we can share your creations, and follow @tolkienweek on Tumblr for updates on the event!
We also have an AO3 collection here!
PROMPTS:
- July 11th: favorite character | space | journey
- July 12th: favorite location | colors | home
- July 13th: favorite quote | light & dark | love
- July 14th: favorite story arc | compare & contrast | beginnings/endings
- July 15th: favorite outfit | bruised & battered | heartbreak
- July 18th: favorite hero or villain | faceless/silhouettes | solidarity/comradery
- July 19th: favorite minor character | leaders | comfort
- July 20th: favorite motif | weapons & objects | mystery
- July 21st: favorite relationship | close ups | fellowship
- July 22nd: favorite movie | art/architecture | hope
