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] House of Finwë by softmoonlightmelody
One drabble per Finwëan. Currently on first and second generations.
[Writing] The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
[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…
Current Challenge
Random Challenge
Famous Last Words
Use a noteworthy last line to inspire your fanwork. 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 Fanworks
Include Beyond the Silmarillion Fanworks
Bells and Drum by Himring
Playing in Gondolin on the feast of Tarnin Austa (no, not that last Tarnin Austa), Salgant remembers a long-ago music lesson in Valinor.
| Major Characters: Original Female Character(s), Salgant |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Ficlet | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 321 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
What Lies Beyond the End by Melesta
The Silmaril falls slowly, so slowly, as if taking its time to caress the weightlessness of Ulmo’s waters. Does it seek relief also, Maglor wonders, to be free at last of all the hands that lusted after its blessed shine?
Maglor casts his Silmaril into the Sea.
[Also available as a podfic, recorded by Anerea]
| Major Characters: Maglor |
| Major Relationships: Maedhros & Maglor |
| Genres: Drama, Family, Ficlet | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Character Death, Suicide |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 649 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Now No Way Can I Stray by losselen
The arrow shoots straight, but in the brief arc of its flight, it flexes ever this way and that, undulating in the air as if straining against the bonds of its mark. And yet what mark it finds, it finds, and strays not from its fate, and so do you, Túrin, in all your struggles, bend ever toward your doom.
Thrice would Beleg find Túrin in the wild unbidden. Beleg/Túrin.
| Major Characters: Beleg, Túrin |
| Major Relationships: Beleg/Túrin |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 7, 680 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Above Barad Eithel by StarSpray
In the early hours the half-built towers of Barad Eithel looked more like ruins than like the start of something new, ghostly in the mists that clung to the mountains and hovered in the hollows and valleys of Hithlum even under the noonday sun
| Major Characters: Lalwen |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Ficlet, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 383 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
Underwater friends by daughterofshadows
Two snapshots. Osse and Uinen under the sea.
| Major Characters: Ossë, Uinen |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: Bestiary of Arda |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 204 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (14) |
Postcard by Rocky41_7
One late summer day, a postcard comes for Elrond in the mailbox. Elros intercepts.
| Major Characters: Elrond, Elros |
| Major Relationships: Elrond & Elros |
| Genres: Family, Fluff | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 739 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The Crow's Flight by Himring
One of the crebain drops out of the hunt for the Fellowship over Hollin.
| Major Characters: Crebain |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: Bestiary of Arda |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Check Notes for Warnings |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 705 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (14) |
All Manner of Beasts and Birds by sallysavestheday
Creatures of the Silmarillion: 6 perfect drabbles.
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: Bestiary of Arda |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 617 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (16) |
The Road We Never Wanted by FactorialRabbits
There's no dragon in their lands, but the commanders of Angband are playing the Lords of Aglon like a fiddle. Celegorm would rather fight a dragon than this. When it is distinctly not a dragon, well, that's when everything goes to hell.
Alternatively: Celegorm tries to lead their people to safety as the trauma of Dagor Bragollach wears upon Curufin.
| Major Characters: Celebrimbor, Celegorm, Curufin |
| Major Relationships: Celebrimbor & Curufin, Celegorm & Curufin |
| Genres: Family, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 10, 545 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
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To Hold the Future in My Hand by cuarthol
Arafin seeks Elulindo's aid for a quest which will take them far to the south to waters filled with wonders he has never before seen.
| Major Characters: Elulindo, Finarfin |
| Major Relationships: Elulindo & Finarfin |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Bestiary of Arda |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 729 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (20) |
The Paths We Tread by FactorialRabbits
The Noldor make a lot of choices, and most of the time there is no good option.
(Various missing scenes - currently just some of Sons of Feanor after the Dagor Bragollach)
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Warnings: No warnings apply | |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (0) |
Within the Ashes by FactorialRabbits
In the face of dragon-fire and misery, Maedhros rides to the aid of his eldest younger brother. Eventually things are said but not discussed. If either is for the best is neither here nor there.
| Major Characters: Maedhros, Maglor |
| Major Relationships: Maedhros & Maglor |
| Genres: Family, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Violence (Moderate) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 7, 828 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Maglor in the 1848 French Revolution by Aprilertuile
The Silmarillion says : "And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the Sea, and thereafter he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves. For Maglor was mighty among the singers of old, named only after Daeron of Doriath; but he came never back among the people of the Elves."
So, what if Maglor had enough of the shores and just wandered the world?
Here is my take on Maglor living in France during the 1848 french revolution.
| Major Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s), Maglor |
| Major Relationships: Maglor/Original Character |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: Character Death, In-Universe Intolerance, In-Universe Queerphobia/LGBTQIA+ Intolerance, In-Universe Sexism/Misogyny, Violence (Mild) |
| Chapters: 17 | Word Count: 39, 807 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
The First Snow (illustration) by Sirielle
Maedhros. Illustration to "The First Snow", inspired by The Silmarillion.
| Major Characters: Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Artwork Type: Character/Portrait, Drawing/Painting, Illustration |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (2) |
Tar-Míriel by Sirielle
Tar-Míriel, traditional media, A5, 2020.
| Major Characters: Tar-Míriel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Artwork Type: Character/Portrait, Drawing/Painting, Illustration |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (4) |
The little lighthouse keeper by Chiara Cadrich
Caught in a storm, Minastir and his brother take refuge on an island. There, a young lighthouse keeper lives alone. She shares room and board and much more...
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 8, 120 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Ficlet, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 398 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
Love in Spades by Rocky41_7
Maedhros considers the role of sex and romance in his life and receives support from unexpected quarters.
| Major Characters: Lalwen, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: Lalwen & Maedhros |
| Genres: Family, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 5, 381 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
when the cold wind rolls in from the north by Arveldis
As the Bragollach rages, Andreth waits.
| Major Characters: Andreth |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 013 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Círdan Falben by Anérea
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, Falathrim |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Artwork Type: Character/Portrait, Drawing/Painting |
| Genres: Adventure | Challenges: Opposites Attract |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (28) |
Carnimírië by Himring
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 listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Artwork Type: Photography |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (10) |
an ecstatic accident by void and fire by Chestnut_pod
Follow the blue roads of Arda.
| Major Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 524 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Fandom Voices: Filmverse Fans by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Fans who joined the Tolkien fandom because of the films report that the films inspired them to read the books, encouraged them to join fandom communities, and often resulted in forming lifelong friendships.
Tolkien Fandom | Animated illustration with music (English subtitles) by Sirielle
My illustrations with a bit of life and music by DTH. English subtitles added for the lyrics in Polish. (More details in description.)
| Major Characters: Unnamed Canon Character(s), Unnamed Female Canon Character(s), Unnamed Male Canon Character(s), Aragorn, Balrogs, Dwarves, Edain, Elves, Éowyn, Fëanor, Fellowship, Fingon, Gandalf, Hobbits, Legolas Greenleaf, Maiar, Men, Orcs, Rangers of the North, Real Person(s), Sauron, Smaug, Treebeard |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General, Humor | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (0) |
Maedhros - Fëanor | Silmarillion | animated illustration by Sirielle
My Maedhros & Fëanor portraits morphing with "Let the Havens Burn" illustration in motion.
| Major Characters: Fëanor, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (0) |
