New Challenge: Allusive
Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
SWG News
Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
New Challenge: Building Middle-earth
Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey
Ten years of demographic data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey show consistencies in who reads and writes fanfiction, as well as a few key demographic shifts.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] From That Rubble by StarSpray
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I…
[Writing] A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
[Writing] Into the West by Grundy
Dawn does not call sailing off into the unknown with a guy they've only known a few days a great plan.
[Writing] Explain This by Elrond's Library
Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.
[Writing] Message in a Bottle by StarSpray
Over the course of his very long life he had found a handful of messages in bottles, but it had been a very long time. So when he found the glass bottle on his little stretch of pebbly beach, he picked it up with the intention of tossing it into his recycling. But it wasn’t, he found, just…
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
[Artwork] Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard by Independence1776
A Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard.
Current Challenge
Random Challenge
Follow the Leader
Create a fanwork about a leader from "The Silmarillion" that shows why that character is a leader. Read more ...
New in References
"The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far) by Dawn Walls-Thumma
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies mark perhaps the most influential events in the history of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. As the Rings of Power show approaches its third season, data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows that it is not even close to matching the impact of the films ... yet.
Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Artwork] A Memento of Faery by Grundy
TRSB26 art 144 - an artifact brought back from Faerie by a Starbearer.
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
Bilbo, the strange old hobbit with the wandering feet, senses something special in young Frodo the first time he sees the lad; as they become close, they find in each other a cameraderie not well understood by other hobbits. Five poignant moments between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins over the course…
Around the World and Web
Sindar Week 2026
A Tolkien event week for the Sindar, the Grey-Elves, from the Years of the Trees to the Third Age.
Finwean Sibblings Prompt Fest 2026
A prompt-based fandom event aiming to focus on celebrating Finwë's children: Fëanor, Findis, Fingolfin, Lalwen, & Finarfin - ships, gen relationships, or character-centric
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
Gigolas Week 2026
Gigolas Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Legolas and Gimli
Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.
New and Updated Artwork
Tar-Míriel, traditional media, A5, 2020.
Major Characters: Tar-MírielMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
After living for hundreds, never mind thousands, of years by the sea there's no way that Círdan wasn't a) as brown as a berry, and b) didn't invent surfing.
Major Characters: Círdan, Elves, FalathrimMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: Opposites Attract
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Photograph of a tree in autumn (lightly edited) with two lines of accompanying text.
Originally submitted (without the title) for the Manwe's Mailbag challenge for a postcard prompt.
Major Characters: No major characters listedMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
“Under her song the saplings grew and became fair and tall, and came to flower; and thus there awoke in the world the Two Trees of Valinor. Of all things which Yavanna made they have the most renown, and about their fate all the tales of the Elder Days are woven.”
~ The Silmarillion, “Of The Beginning of Days”
Major Characters: No major characters listedMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Tolkenien Mathematics.
Major Characters: J.R.R. TolkienMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: Gnome Tome
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Varda experiments with undoing just a wee bit of history...
Major Characters: VardaMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: Gnome Tome
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
After capturing Finrod and his companions, Gorthaur attempts to discover their identities...
Major Characters: Finrod Felagund, SauronMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: Cheesy Corn Chips
Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate
Warnings: Violence (Mild) | | |
Art created for the related prompts for the 30-Day Character Study Challenge.
Major Characters: No major characters listedMajor Relationships: Andreth & Finrod, Aegnor/Andreth
Challenge: 30-Day Character Study, Jubilee
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
"Then [Varda] began a great labor, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda. She took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion, and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the coming of the Firstborn ... And high in the north as a challenge to Melkor she set the crown of seven mighty stars to swing, Valacirca, the Sickle of the Valar and sign of doom." - The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of the Elves"
Major Characters: No major characters listedMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Quick & silly sketches from an Instadrabbling/Instadrawbling session...
Major Characters: CaranthirMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: Jubilee, Restoration and Rebuilding
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Beleg and Túrin at Dor-Cúarthol, protecting the land together. Drawn in the style of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Major Characters: Beleg, TúrinMajor Relationships: Beleg/Túrin
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
Two figures under autumn/winter mallorn trees in the golden wood of Lothlórien.
Major Characters: Celeborn, Celebrían, GaladrielMajor Relationships: Celeborn/Galadriel
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
My contribution to the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang artwork in an Ancient Egyptian style
Major Characters: Beren, Lúthien Tinúviel, MelkorThen Beren and Lúthien ... came to the seat of Morgoth in his nethermost hall that was upheld by horror, lit by fire, and filled with weapons of death and torment. There Beren slunk in wolf's form beneath his throne; but Lúthien was stripped of her disguise by the will of Morgoth, and he bent his gaze upon her.
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Major Relationships: Beren/Luthien
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
My second artwork for TRSB 2022. Elrond is secretly visiting Númenor during the reign of Ar-Pharazôn, years after Sauron’s capture, and is captured himself.
Major Characters: Elrond, Sauron, Tar-MírielMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: Teens
Warnings: Check Notes for Warnings | | |
Inspired by Surfacing, Into Light by Maggie Honeybite featuring Keiliss' Erestor and Gil-galad from Answers in the Dark, the sequel to Burning Bright: The Road.
- - -
Music: Come Back to Us · Thomas Newman
Major Characters: Erestor, Gil-galadMajor Relationships: Erestor/Gil-galad
Challenge: Restoration and Rebuilding
Rating: Teens
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
A moodboard showing the path of the survivors of Gondolin.
Major Characters: No major characters listedMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
The followers of Fingolfin Nolofinwë spent years (or decades, depending on which version of Tolkien's maths you subscribe to) on the treacherous crossing of the grinding ice between Aman and Middle-Earth.
Major Characters: Elenwë, Elves, Fingolfin, Fingon, Finrod Felagund, Idril, Noldor, TurgonMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
This artwork is a depiction of Angrod, son of Finarfin, and all that represents his life in Dorthonion. It is also a companion piece to a story I recently uploaded, 'Star In The Darkness.'
Major Characters: Historical Character(s), AngrodMajor Relationships: No major relationships listed
Challenge: No challenge listed
Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed | | |
