Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Week of Kiliel
Welcome to Week of Kiliel!
This event will be held May 17-23! The goal of this week is to celebrate and be creatively inspired by the relationship between Tauriel and Kili Durin! We want to encourage The Hobbit community to make Kiliel art, fanfiction, edits, crafts, and more!
Rules:
• There are prompts for every day to inspire your creativity! You can pick one or multiple from each day, and they can be followed as loosely or as closely as you would like!
• Please use the tag “#week of kiliel” so we can reblog your entries! You can also tag @weekofkiliel! We are so excited to see and support all of your work!
• Late entries are fine, though we ask that you do not post earlier!
• If you have an existing work that fits one of these prompts that you would like to submit, that is fine, but please repost about it with the hashtag on the day it corresponds to! While we accept already existing works, we really want to encourage new Kiliel content as that is one of the goals of Kiliel week!
• NSFW is allowed! While none of the prompts are explicitly NSFW, NSFW is permitted as long as it is properly tagged!
• While the main ship and characters should be Kiliel, background ships and characters are welcome! However, for this event we do not accept Durincest or other incest ships.
NO AI WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THIS EVENT, ANY AI ENTRIES WILL BE UNOFFICIAL AND WILL NOT BE REBLOGGED OR ENDORSED
Prompts
Day 1 - Modern AU, First Kiss, Dating, Fluff
Day 2 - Courting, Erebor Never Fell AU, Wingman, Khuzdul
Day 3 - Sickfic, Poison, Angst, Healing
Day 4 - Mirkwood, Culture Shock, Meetcute, Sindarin
Day 5 - Height Difference, Cuddling, College AU, Bed Sharing
Day 6 - Crossover AU, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Confession
Day 7 - Afterlife, Everybody Lives, Scene Rewrite, Alt First Meeting
Aspec Arda Week 2026
Aspec Arda Week: May 10th-16th, 2026
This event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien's Legendarium.
Any creations about the aromantic and asexual spectrums are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! All versions of canon/fanon and characters are included, be it from the books, movies, TV, OCs, etc. Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so that your work can be easily found. If you are posting your submission to AO3, we will have an event collection! This is not an event for generative AI works.
The prompts below are a guideline for the week’s events, though you are not obligated to stick to them when participating. They’re completely optional, and more of a source of inspiration than a mandatory guideline. Feel free to explore them however you’d like; an explanation for each is given, but you can interpret them differently if you want to.
Day 1 / May 10th: Asexuality || Hope
Day 2 / May 11th: Aromanticism || Community
Day 3 / May 12th: Across the A-Spectrum || Loneliness
Day 4 / May 13th: Worldbuilding || Dragons
Day 5 / May 14th: Relationships || Linguistics
Day 6 / May 15th: Intersectionality || Found Family
Day 7 / May 16th: Freeform
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Detailed Prompts
DAY ONE: Asexuality
What characters do you see as asexual? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Hope
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
What characters do you see as aromantic? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Community
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
“Asexual” and “aromantic” are umbrella terms encapsulating a wide spectrum of identities. From grayromantic to demisexual, and aroace to lithromantic —there are many other labels on the a-spectrum. This is a day for exploring those identities and the characters you associate them with.
Alternative prompt: Loneliness
DAY FOUR: World Building
How does acceptance and prevalence of aspec identity vary over both cultures and species?
Are all elves really baseline demisexual? What’s up with one third of dwarven populations focusing on their craft instead of taking a spouse? How do soul bonds work between elven couples who don’t want to have sex? Did Númenor get aphobic when they started distancing themselves from the Elves? Do aspec hobbits feel pressure to settle down and have large families?
Alternative prompt: Dragons
DAY FIVE: Relationships
Aspec people can have many different kinds of relationships, including romantic and sexual ones— but some kinds of relationships are more unique and common to the aspec communities, such as queerplatonic ones. Today is a day for exploring all these different kinds of relationships!
There are several relationships in Tolkien's works that could easily be read as queerplatonic, including Frodo & Sam, and Legolas & Gimli. There is also an interesting footnote in The Nature of Middle Earth which describes something like a queerplatonic relationship and provides some Quenya words for it.
Alternative prompt: Linguistics - Many of the terms for aspec identity come from root words of Latin, can you postulate translations for aspec terminology in any of Tolkien's languages?
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
There is more to a person’s life than just their orientation. Outside of fantasy species, how does being aspec interact with a character’s other identities and experiences, such as race or disability or religion? What’s the impact of a character’s aspec identity on their gender or other orientation labels? Today is a day for exploring the intersections of the aspec experience with other aspects of identity.
Alternative Prompt: Found Family
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
Post about something aspec related not yet covered in the topics this week, or return to a prompt you have more thoughts about! Alternatively, we have some additional prompts for inspiration that did not quite fit into the other days.
- Recommend a fic, meta post, etc. that includes aspec identity.
- How would a particular character respond to allonormativity / amatanormativity? What kind of amatanormativity / allonormativity have they faced?
- What is a particular character’s relationship with their aspec identity Is it a big part of their life?
- Post about an aspec character’s family, either found family, or blood relations. Does their family support them? Does their family (or society) have expectations of marriage and children of them?
- Post about aspec community (symbols, cultural practices, mentorship and friendship with other aspec characters) within the context a culture within Tolkien's Legendarium, or take a character and post about what parts an aspec community they would resonate with in a modern Earth AU.
Angbang Week 2026
This is the official blog of Angbang (or Melron) week.
We follow the tags "#AngbangWeek" and "#Angbang Week" as well as the current year variations of those tags. We have our ask box and DMs open if you have any questions!
List of prompts for Angbang Week 2026:
- Day 1: First meeting/Reunion
- Day 2: Dating/Intimacy
- Day 3: Competitions/Rivalry
- Day 4: Eyes/Gaze
- Day 5: Letters/Long distance communication
- Day 6: Last day together/Separation
- Day 7: Canon divergence
As always, there are two prompts a day to choose between. You may create any original work you feel relates to the prompt, and if you did not connect with a prompt, feel free to skip it. All previously unposted creations made by you are accepted (fic, art, moodboards, playlists, etc). For any adult content, please keep it below a read more and tag it accordingly.
When posting your works, please post them on the day the prompt appears on or on a later day and tag this blog directly by using @, or add one of the following tags (#angbangweek2026, #angbang week 2026) to your post's tag list so we know the post is for the event. Please note that the event rules have been updated to clarify that we do NOT accept any creations made using Generative AI of any sort, and as such we will not be featuring any such content on this blog. For any questions or further clarifications, feel free to reach out in the asks or DMs. Happy creating and we'll see you in May!
April/May Teitho Challenge
Our prompt for April/May is Heartbreak. There are so many possibilities with this one!
Will you go back to the very beginning with the heartbreak of Melkor’s discord during the creation?
Or will you take us to the time of Miriel and Finwë? Fëanor’s heartbreak at the loss of his mother?And later his father’s death? Or the loss of the Silmarils themselves, that led to so much heartbreak for so many?
The kinslaying. The ship burning. The Helcaraxë. Battle after battle. Betrayal. The heartbreak of The Oath itself.
The death of Fingolfin. Fingon. Finrod. The sons of Fëanor, one after another. The heartbreak of those left behind: Maglor, Galadriel, Elrond.
The tragedy of the House of Hurin.
Or will you come to the time of Celebrimbor—the glory of Eregion and Khazad-Dûm and the devastation that followed? The Last Alliance?
The travails of Frodo. The lonely travels of Aragorn. The heavy weight of duty straining the hearts of both Boromir and Faramir. Eowyn’s heartbreak in Edoras.
The doomed love stories that are woven into Tolkien’s books—Turin, Finduilas, Gwindor, to name a few.
Heartbreak can be so many things—with love, with loss, with changes that shift our entire world. But heartbreak can also be in the small moments—for a child, a parent, a friend, a comrade. It can be momentary or span years. Or even lifetimes.
Will you break our hearts with your stories and art this time? Or will you find a way to heal the heartbreak and find the hope that can endure and persist?
We can’t wait to see what you do with this prompt!
Submissions are due May 31, 2026. Please send them to teitho.contest@gmail.com
Your teitho mods
Sian22, Lotrfan, and Cassie.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
Schedule
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March
1: 2025 Gallery Opens
The Gallery for 2025 is live! Enjoy the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!
22: Suggestion Form Opens
This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
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April
12: Sign-ups Open
We post links to our sign-up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Sign-ups’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.
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May
3: Artist Sign-up Deadline
9: Art Draft Due
Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.10: Discord Server Opens
Come hang out with your fellow participants!
15: Art Previews Open
Our online gallery of art prompts will be visible to signed-up participants only. Signed-up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!
16-17: Discord Art Talks
These are live chats on Discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists. It has been great fun in past years!
20: Author Signups Deadline
23 (Saturday) 17:00 UTC: CLAIMS
Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first-come, first-served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.
TBA – Additional Claims
If any artworks are left unclaimed, we will hold one or more additional claiming rounds as needed. Generally, there will be 24 hours between rounds, but the timing is at the mods’ discretion. The additional round(s) will be announced to signed-up participants by email and on the TRSB Discord.
31: Post-Claims Check-in
The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!
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June
14: Free Rein Art Due
We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible, and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to share the final art with their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved.
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July
12: Check-in #2
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.
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August
9: Final Art Due
Artists must share the final art with their authors – but don’t post it yet!
Don’t email it to the mods.16: Final Check-in (#3)
Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date. This year we ask both collaborators to contact the mods at the final check-in.
The mods will email all participants beforehand to ensure everything is still on track. We will ask you to confirm:
- Whether the art is complete (Artists: did you share it with your author? Authors: have you seen the final art?)
- Whether you have discussed posting logistics (ie, have you talked about how the art will be posted (embedded and/or posted separately to the collection), who will handle promo posting, any specific posting needs)
26: Art Can Be Posted
Artworks can be posted to your preferred platform on or after this date (but before they are due in the collection). Hype your collab wherever you like and get the excitement going! Artists should ensure that their author has received a link to the art for embedding or linking in the finished fic as agreed upon before August 30th (deadline for posting the fic to the collection).
30: Fic Due In Collection
Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. See the “Posting fic” section of our FAQ.
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September
5: COLLECTION REVEALS
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Gondolin Week Runs May 16-23
From May 16-23, Gondolin Week will post Gondolin-related location and character prompts to inspire fanworks about the Hidden City. The goal of this event is to inspire creators to make and share art with the world, to show their appreciation for the works of Tolkien, and for the continued efforts of their peers to keep these worlds alive.
To post your content:
- Post on Tumblr with the tag #gondolinweek2021 or send a submission to the Gondolin Week tumblr.
- Add your fanwork to the Gondolin Week AO3 collection.
A preview of this year's Gondolin Week prompts can be found here.
Multifandom Poetry Fest 2021
This year brings the fifth annual Multifandom Poetry Fest, a prompt fest for poetry for all fandoms! How it works:
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.)
Multifandom Drabble Exchange 2021
The Multifandom Drabble Exchange is an exchange for stories of exactly 100 words. All fandoms are welcome, no matter how small or large, including original works and crossovers. Timelines for each step of the exchange (except matching) is a week, to keep it simple, and there is no punishment for defaulting.
Links
2021 - Round One Schedule
- Nominations: Sunday, April 18 through Saturday, April 24
- Sign Ups: Sunday, April 25 - Saturday, May 1
- Matching: Sunday, May 2 - Saturday, May 15
- Assignments Out: sometime Sunday, May 16
- Assignments Due: Sunday midnight, May 23
- Pinch Hits/Treat Writing: Monday, May 24 - Saturday, May 29
- Collection Opens: Sunday, May 30 (not before 8 a.m. EDT)
- (And Round 2 will start in July — schedule here.)
As in previous rounds, we will keep a loose schedule where nominations and signups close sometime the next morning when we wake up. Assignments due also receive grace by a variable number of hours as we deal with them in the morning when we wake up. There is no guarantee how many hours grace.
Nominations and signups will not close early. Reveals will not happen early. There's a little grace on getting in a late nomination, signup, or your assignment before we start defaulting people. Multifandom Drabble is meant to be a low stress exchange built around the idea of making it easy and fun for you and easy and fun for us.
Complete rules for the Multifandom Drabble Exchange can be found here.
"Mallorn" Archive Now Available to the Public
Mallorn is the peer-reviewed journal of the Tolkien Society. It publishes articles, research notes, reviews, and artwork on subjects related to, or inspired by, the life and works of J. R. R. Tolkien. All past issues of Mallorn are available on the Tolkien Society website except the issues published within the past two years, which are only available to members of the Tolkien Society.
Tolkien in Vermont Conference
The 17th Annual Tolkien in Vermont conference will be held virtually this year with a theme of Tolkien and the Classics. All are welcome on Saturday, April 10, from 8:30AM to 6:00PM Eastern Time.
For a link to the conference, contact the SWG moderators.
Conference Program
Moderator: Christopher Vaccaro
Session 1 Aeneas/Virgil and Ovid
8:30 –9:45am
"Pius Samwise: Roman Heroism in The Lord of the Rings."
Zachary Schmoll (Southeastern University)
“The True West?; Tolkien and the Aeneid”
Nicholas Birns (New York University)
“Ovid and Tolkien: Omnia mutantur – I amar prestar aen”
Sandra Hartl (Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena)
Session 2 The Greeks
9:45 –11am
"Release from Bondage: The Orphic Power of Song"
Hannah McDermett (University of Vermont)
“Into the East: Migration Narratives in Middle-Earth and Ancient Greece”
Julia Irons (University of Chicago)
“Earth, Air, Fire, and Water Music: Pre-Socratic Resonances in Tolkien’s Evolving Cosmology”
John Franklin (University of Vermont)
“Thucydides’ Influence in The Silmarillion”
Henry Stone (University of Vermont)
Session 3 UVM Undergraduate Voices
11 –12:15pm
“The Children of Denethor”
Jose Maria Montoya Kent (University of Vermont)
"Ragnarök, Revelation and the Dagorath: Tolkien's Apocalypse as the Resolution to the Paradox of Change"
Briggs Heffernan (University of Vermont)
“Memories of Numenor: Rejecting a Heritage of Supremacy in Middle-earth.”
Brendan Anderson (Bangor University)
Lunch Break
12:15 –1:15
Keynote Address: Tolkien's Calques of Classicisms: Who knew Elvish Latin, what did the Rohirrim read, and why was Bilbo cheeky?
1:15 –2pm
Very Rev. John Wm. Houghton, Ph.D. (Champlain and Dean emeritus, The Hill School)
Session 4 Plato and Aristotle and Boethius
2 –3:15pm
Ox Bones and Silver Ladles: The Construction of the Ainulindalë
Dawn M. Walls-Thumma (Coventry Village School)
“Frodo and Sam’s Relationship in the Light of Aristotle’s Philia”
Martina Juričková (Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra)
“Lives in Shadow: Paris, Faramir, and the Echoes of Fraternal Bonds found within The Iliad and Lord of the Rings.”
Andrew Peterson (Harvard University)
Afternoon Break 3:15-3:30pm
Session 5 Reading the Stars and Myths
3:30 –4:45pm
“Epigraphy, Philology, and the ‘Found Manuscript’ Topos in The Lord of the Rings”
Marc Zender (Tulane University)
“Bara’/ `Asah and Muwth: Viewing the Legendarium as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Reflection on Creativity in the Light—or rather the Darkness—of Mortality and the Fall”
Matthew Dickerson (Middlebury College)
“Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Watling Street: Tolkien and the Milky Way”
Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)
Session 6 Classical Traditions
4:45 – 6pm
Beorn and Medwyn: Vegetal Paradises and the Flood in Tolkien's Hobbit and Alexander's Book “of Three”
Bruce Gilchrist (Concordia University, Montréal)
“Middle-earth and Greco-Roman Myth: The Races of Humans Redux”
Larry Swain (Bemidji State University)
“Tolkien and the Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.”
Jamie Williamson (University of Vermont)
“Classical Traditions and Tolkien”
Richard Fahey (Independent Scholar)
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: Suggestion Form Open
TRSB is back for 2021! As of April 1, the TRSB suggestion form is open. This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
2021 TRSB Schedule
April 16: Sign-ups open
May 9: Artist sign-ups close
May 14: Art drafts due
May 16: Art preview opens
May 21: Author sign-ups close
May 23, 17:00 UTC: Claims
May 30: Post-claim check-in
June 6: Free rein art due
June 27: Check-in #2
July 25: Check-in #3
August 1: Art due
August 15: Final check-in
August 22: Art can be posted
August 29: Fics due in collection
September 5: REVEALS
September 6: Staggered Tumblr reblogs begin
To Learn More ...
Visit the TRSB website for full rules and to learn more about this event. TRSB is also on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, Twitter, and Instagram.
Find past collections of TRSB fanworks:
The Silly-meme-rillion: A Rereading
Two students review Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, offering new takes on the most important mythology of Arda. Get ready for ruminations on elvish hijinks, misbehaving Maiar, and errant Edain across the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth--and beyond.
The podcast is available on Spotify or you can listen on YouTube.
Femslash Kink Exchange Nominations Open
The Femslash Kink Exchange is a multifandom gift exchange intended to celebrate kink in femslash. This will be a freeform exchange in the style of SmutSwap, Smut4Smut, etc.
Here's the schedule:
April 5-16: Nomination Period
April 18-May 1: Signups open
May 3: Assignments will be sent out by or before this date
June 12: Fanworks due at 11:59PM EST (What time is that for me?)
June 19: Archive goes live at 12PM EST (Archive opening may be delayed to ensure everyone has a gift)
June 26: Creators revealed at 12PM EST (What time is that for me?)
AO3 Collection | AO3 Tagset
The exchange does not take the place of the Annual Femslash Kink Meme, which remains open; the next round of the meme will take place in November 2021.
2021 Rules and FAQ forthcoming.
Follow the kink meme on tumblr at annual-femslash-kink-meme.
Aspec Arda Week
This is a week-long event to celebrate the interaction of the asexual and aromantic-spectrums and Tolkien’s Legendarium of Arda. Though these experiences are not explicit within Tolkien’s work, many fans across the a-spectrum see themselves in Arda, and we are here to appreciate any and all interpretation of characters, relationships, and events through an aspec lens.
Any content about the a-spectrum in Arda is welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! This event will run from May 3-9, 2021! Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider.
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to an explanation for each one, and also includes a list of more open-ended creative prompts unconnected to the main themes of each day.
DAY ONE: Asexuality
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
DAY FOUR: Worldbuilding
DAY FIVE: Relationships
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or my main.
For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Mobile links are accessible here.
Alliance of Arda Facebook Group
Alliance of Arda is an inclusive fan community dedicated to sharing our experiences with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Unlike other Tolkien groups, we encourage conversations on topics including, but not limited to, race, sexuality, gender identity, and disability, and how they affect experiences with Tolkien, as well as questions/discussion regarding the Legendarium at large. Everyone is welcome to join the Alliance, whether you were introduced to Tolkien through his books or the Peter Jackson films. Our community is a place of sharing, learning, and solidarity.