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"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: 

• TRSB 2018
• TRSB 2019
• TRSB 2020

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.

Alliance of Arda has formed a Facebook group here.

Call for Proposals: Tolkien Society Summer Seminar - Tolkien & Diversity

This summer's Tolkien Society Seminar is online and will consider diversity and Tolkien. Papers may consider, but are not limited to:

• Representation in Tolkien’s works (race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, religion, age etc)
• Tolkien’s approach to colonialism and post-colonialism
• Adaptations of Tolkien’s works
• Diversity and representation in Tolkien academia and readership
• Identity within Tolkien’s works
• Alterity in Tolkien’s works

Proposals are due on 23rd April!

Tolkien Short Fanworks: April Challenge

Here is a thematic prompt and a formal challenge for April.
You can combine the thematic prompt and the formal challenge, but they can be filled entirely independently.

Thematic prompt: Duck or Egg.
You can fill the prompt any way you like!
But here is a bonus prompt for "duck": an image of a very special duck and an associated podcast (link goes to the Ashmolean Museum website).


The formal challenge is to write a quatrain or quatrains.


Usual reminder that although you can fill the thematic prompt 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.

The next challenge will be posted at the beginning of May, but the prompts don't expire and late fills are always welcome!

Tolkien South Asian Week

This will be a week dedicated to celebrating South Asian peoples, cultures and lives through Tolkien’s Legendarium. I started my Everyone in Middle-Earth is Brown series a year ago to re-interpret Tolkien characters as people like me. This event stemmed from that and aims to diversify and enrich high fantasy, Tolkien’s literary works and fandom.

Everyone’s free to participate. You don’t need to be South Asian or have an in-depth knowledge of South Asian cultures and peoples. This a great opportunity to educate yourself though!

All creation types are welcome – graphics, art, fanfiction, gifs etc as long as they represent a South Asian element(s). That can be a language, a culture, anything. I find the simplest and truest way to focus on South Asians is to use South Asian face casts. Creations should also be Safe for Work so no explicit content will be accepted. 

Please tag you contributions with #tolkiensaweek and mention me @arwenindomiel.

Here are the prompts — they are not mandatory but meant to inspire you. Feel free to create outside these themes.

Day 1: Ainur, Beorians, Doriath, Vingilot, Dragons, Origins.

Day 2: Elves, Númenóreans, Gondolin, Silmarils, Balrogs, Loss.

Day 3: Men, Durin’s Folk, Arnor, Aeglos, Great Eagles, Evolution.

Day 4: Dwarves, Silvan Elves, Halls of Mandos, Palantir, Mûmakil, Resilience.

Day 5: Nazgúl, the Noldor, Gondor, Rings of Power, Fellbeasts, Melancholy.

Day 6: Hobbits, The Fellowship, Moria, Arkenstone, Ents, Growth.

Day 7: Freeform, Unnamed women of Middle-Earth, The Shire, Mithril, Horses, Hope.