New Challenge: Title Track
Tolkien's titles range from epic to lyrical to metaphorical. This month's challenge selected 125 of them as prompts for fanworks.
SWG News
Our Annual Amnesty Challenge: New Year's Resolution
Start 2026 off with creativity! If you missed a challenge or didn't get to finish or post a challenge fanwork, complete any 2025 challenge before 15 February to receive the stamp.
"The Fëanorian Zine" Available to Read and Download
We are pleased to be able to offer "The Fëanorian Zine" to read and download on the SWG for free.
Call for Artists for the 2026 Challenge Stamps
We are soliciting help from artists who want to help create the stamps we award to challenge participants.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] A Hundred Miles Through the Desert by StarSpray
“Come on.” Maedhros grabbed his hand and pulled him along down the path, both of them quickening their pace now, until the trees opened up into a wide meadow filled with flowers, bright yellow celandine and dandelions and sweet-scented pale chamomile mingling with cornflowers and irises. On…
[Writing] Who Will Hear Me? by XirinOfArvada
A lonely elf finds a flute half buried beneath the sand and wonders if its owner will hear him when he calls.
[Writing] Loyal, Faithful by Himring
Late in the Second Age, one of the Faithful reflects critically on past developments. (Free verse.)
[Writing] East Away! by Flora-lass
Aldarion storms off towards Middle-earth. For the Title Track challenge.
[Writing] Don't You Ever Look Away by Elrond's Library
“They can’t just assume we’ll let them leave us behind.”
“But they are, and they will. Our fathers are the Heads of their Houses. Fëanáro is king. Defiance would be treason, beloved.”
“I am his firstborn.”
“You are his only daughter.”
“I have…
[Writing] Break Me by Elrond's Library
“You’re not going to break me,” Russo huffed, finally cracking open his eyes, which were bright with amusement. “They could not, what makes you think you could?”
For Scribbles and Drabbles 2025 SFW Slide 33
[Writing] Three Black Islands by Idrils Scribe
When Celebrimbor's attempts at forging the Rings of Power fail yet again, Annatar knows where to find the missing know-how.
For all the wrong reasons, Celebrimbor agrees to an expedition to the ruins of Angband to search Morgoth's own laboratory, deep in the icy Northern Wastes.
What…
Current Challenge
Title Track
Create a fanwork using our collection of 125 titles from Tolkien's books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments as inspiration. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Zingers
Prompts for this challenge include zingers and insults from literature and pop culture. Read more ...
New in References
Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the parallels between the concept of abnegation in the scientific work surrounding the atomic bomb and in The Silmarillion. The relinquishment of self-interest in favor of the interests of others, abnegation was identified by Tolkien as a powerful act of spirit and reason. The legendarium has many examples of the complexities of abnegation, which parallel similar discussions held by physicists during and after World War II.
Twilight, Child Of: Comparisons Between Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel by JazTheBard
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the many similarities between Tolkien's three "twilight children," Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel (Luthien, Maeglin, and Arwen) in terms of appearance, plot, and cultural background. Yet these three characters play very different roles in the text.
The Aromantic in Tolkien by daughterofshadows
Presented at Mereth Aderthad 2025, this paper makes the case thata, although the term "aromantic" had not yet been coined in Tolkien's day, many of his characters can be read as aromantic. The paper takes a closer look at Aredhel, Bilbo, and Boromir as three examples of characters who can be read as aromantic.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] here you will dwell, bound to your grief by Elrond's Library
Arwen grieves, and loves.
[Writing] Faramir's Verse by losselen
“Come, Faramir. Let us not stand in ceremony. I think words are due between you and I, and not only those between a King and his Steward.”
Faramir has speech with Gandalf and his King.
[Writing] In a Hole in the Ground... by StarSpray
“There’s a goblin hiding in the taters, Dad!” Pippin hefted the pan, which was much too big for him to carry, let alone wield.
Around the World and Web
March Challenge - Tolkien Short Fanworks
Tolkien Short Fanworks is running a challenge for the month of March to create a Back to Middle-earth Month themed challenge.
Tolkien Fashion Week 2026
This two-week-long Tumblr event is dedicated to honoring the world of fashion and textiles Tolkien wrote about in his books.
Celegorm and Curufin Week 2026
Celegorm and Curufin Week is a Tumblr week celebrating the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin Feanorion
Back to Middle-earth Month 2026
Back to Middle-earth Month is returning for it's 20th year with many prompts and archival efforts.
New and Updated Fanworks
Include Beyond the Silmarillion Fanworks
An Island in the Currents of Time by Himring
A glimpse of Luthien and Beren in Tol Galen. (Luthien's POV)
| Major Characters: Lúthien Tinúviel, Beren |
| Major Relationships: Beren/Luthien |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Check Notes for Warnings |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 100 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
Fragments discarded by Pengolodh by AdmirableMonster
Pengolodh tries to write about the kinslaying at Sirion. He fails.
| Major Characters: Pengolodh, Elwing |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Experimental, In-Universe Artifact | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 276 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (3) |
Hopeless Flight by ethanray
Elwing flies across the ocean but she is tired and doesn't know how much farther she can go
For November 2025 instadrabbling
| Major Characters: Elwing |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 100 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
The Last Desperate Seed by Dawn Felagund
Terentaulë, the wife of Curufin, follows her husband and his family into banishment to Formenos. She leaves everything she loves behind to endure a cold and ever-maddening life making a political point she isn't sure she fully believes in. A Gothic story for Samhain, told in four triple drabbles.
| Major Characters: Original Female Character(s), Curufin |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Unnamed Canon Character |
| Genres: Horror | Challenges: The Only Thing To Fear |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Mature Themes, Sexual Content (Mild) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 228 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
at the end of all things by Elrond's Library
Finarfin wishes for a simple end
| Major Characters: Finarfin |
| 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: 152 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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A System of Messages by AdmirableMonster
A collection of stories set in a post-apocalyptic New Mexico AU.
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Warnings: No warnings apply | |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| View Fanwork | Comments (0) |
Soul made of sky by AdmirableMonster
A stranger and a stranger stranger talk and dream about their fears.
| Major Characters: Sauron, Original Nonbinary Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: Sauron/Original Character |
| Genres: Alternate Universe, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: The Only Thing To Fear |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 734 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
A small but insistent ache by Quente
Arwen's stomach hurts and she ponders mortality; Éowyn provides medicine and a sympathetic ear.
| Major Characters: Arwen, Éowyn |
| Major Relationships: Arwen & Éowyn |
| Genres: | Challenges: The Only Thing To Fear |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 895 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Trinity: Coda by pandemonium_213
Robert Oppenheimer finds himself back in the Jornado del Muerto desert with Fionn and Saunders in this epilogue to Trinity, inspired by Anérea's illustration that accompanies Grundy's interview with me for Mereth Aderthad 2025.
| Major Characters: Sauron, Fëanor, Celebrimbor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Alternate Universe | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 673 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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Bug Magnet by Elrond's Library
Vingilot was a magnet for bugs, and Eärendil feared coming back to land because of it.
| Major Characters: Eärendil |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet, Humor | Challenges: The Only Thing To Fear |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 309 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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not 'till daylight by queerofthedagger
Once, on one of Findekáno’s visits to Nargothrond during which Celebrimbor had had more wine than advisable, he had leaned into Findekáno’s side. Had ignored his father’s sharp eyes, and asked if he believed that there was yet any hope left for them.
| Major Characters: Celebrimbor |
| Major Relationships: Celebrimbor & Fingon |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 832 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
so we dream, so we confess by queerofthedagger
It is clear that that had not been Curufin’s plan, but that Finrod’s tardiness must have got the better of him. He is dressed only in a burgundy robe of silk that leaves little to the imagination, where it hugs him close, a stark contrast against his pale skin. Wears, far more notably, the Nauglamir around his pale throat, a blatant taunt made all the more offensive by the fact that he is not even awake to throw it into Finrod’s face with scathing words.
Finrod closes the door behind himself carefully, then lingers by the doorway. Outrage is mingling with arousal at the sight—the long lines of Curufin’s body, the way the silk clings to him, hides him elsewhere. The way his hair has come loose from its braids, like ink spilt around him.
The colours of Finrod’s house sitting snug around his throat, put there by Curufin himself, no matter the impudence of it.
| Major Characters: Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Finrod |
| Genres: Erotica | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 167 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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knife to my throat (I'm seeking god again) by queerofthedagger
Finrod is not fool enough to have missed the way Curufin, too, at times looks at him. Is not fool enough to make himself believe that his own attraction is some new thing, something only pushing to the surface now that they are trapped together like this, the undeniable way Curufin had saved Finrod from a worse fate, tonight.
Not that Finrod will ever thank him for it; he cannot. But he knows Curufin’s sharp-tongued, bristling demeanour for what it is, and it does not change that the two of them, whatever lies between them, are a cataclysm waiting to happen. Does not change that, in truth, Finrod should be careful to turn his back, lest he find a knife in it.
And yet.
Curufin and Finrod get snowed in. It goes about as well as can be expected.
| Major Characters: Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Finrod |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 753 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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a haunting, a making by queerofthedagger
In the corner of his eye, Finrod’s form morphs and twists, dark spots against the flickering light like gore and blood on sun-kissed skin.
Is this what he did to you? Curufin had asked once, one of the first times—drunk, not-grieving, his mind a war zone. Finrod had smiled at him then, almost tenderly. It revealed the gorge within his well-loved cheek, and Curufin would have flinched if not for the memory of pressing his fingers there, a coward’s imitation of intimacy.
“Worse,” Finrod’s ghost had said, and then had vanished, leaving Curufin to the rolling nausea of sour wine on an empty stomach.
On the eve of the battle for Doriath, Finrod pays a visit—or rather, whatever is left of him does.
| Major Characters: Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Finrod |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 123 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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sweet like ruin by queerofthedagger
Various instances there are, of the two of them crashing into each other as if it were a contest. In truth, it is unclear who is winning, what they are playing for. Whether there is a prize to be had in the end, or merely mild to severe destruction—of sanity, reputation, hearts; no matter.
It would be wise to stop while he is ahead, Findaráto knows—alas for the ambition and hubris of Finwë’s line.
Curufin and Finrod, a summer lake, and the folly of youth before the world taught them better.
| Major Characters: Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Finrod |
| Genres: Erotica | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Sexual Content (Graphic) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 789 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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break that which is still by queerofthedagger
Maedhros, unlike most, watches closely—has not known how to do anything but, ever since Fingon brought him back. Does more than that, too, and few Elves care to guard their mind so closely that someone who wishes to would be hindered from catching surface thoughts.
Back in Aman, there was no need; it was a matter of courtesy not to go rummaging around in other people’s heads, and for all of Tirion’s political scheming, not even his father would have ever considered breaching such trust.
This is not Aman, and Maedhros is not his father. And Fingolfin’s mind, for one, is very loud.
Fingolfin struggles beneath the weight of the crown. Maedhros does what he must to help.
| Major Characters: Fingolfin, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: Fingolfin/Maedhros |
| Genres: Erotica | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 4, 872 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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how real hunger has a real taste by queerofthedagger
“It is called having friends, Fëanáro; you should try it sometime,” Nolofinwë spits, and it comes out sharper than he means it to, but he is—
Lord, he is tired; of Fëanáro’s vitriol, of how easily he himself still unravels at the slightest push. How effortlessly Fëanáro slides beneath his skin, and Nolofinwë wants to dig his finger into the unmarked flesh, wants to hurt, wants—
He wants; that is perhaps the most terrible part about it all.
Ever has the House of Finwë been renowned for its sense of competition. This, though, Nolofinwë knows, must put even the worst of it to shame.
Or: Fingolfin and Fëanor will turn even brother-fucking into a contest. Who could have guessed.
| Major Characters: Fingolfin, Fëanor |
| Major Relationships: Fëanor/Fingolfin |
| Genres: Erotica | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 5, 994 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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all's fair by queerofthedagger
He wants—oh, Fingon wants so many things. To flee the bathhouse, first and foremost. To meet Maedhros halfway, forget about the ruin they have made of each other—slowly, meticulously, over centuries—and kiss him until their lips are bruised and their lungs empty of breath. Wants to laugh at the absurdity of it all, and perhaps wrap his hands around Maedhros’ throat, ask if he still prefer that Fingon kill him, bloody his own hands once more in ways that can never come off, if only it will bring Maedhros his much-sought salvation.
Fingon wants; ever has it been his greatest vice, that hunger that gnaws through him, makes him reckless, selfish, rapacious.
Fingon merely needed a bath. Maedhros, as ever, complicates things.
| Major Characters: Fingon, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: Fingon/Maedhros |
| Genres: Erotica | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Sexual Content (Graphic) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 950 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
empty land by queerofthedagger
Once, in gold-cast days of careless bliss, the three of you used to be—something. A triangular shape, always revolving around each other. Warm hands, late nights, a tangle of limbs in opulent beds. A reprieve, a stolen treasure, and you all thought, then, that it could always be like that; that one day, the world would bend to your folly, and all would be well.
What fools you had been.
Fingon, Finrod, the Ice, and the gaping space between them.
| Major Characters: Fingon, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Fingon/Finrod |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 611 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
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to all things housed in silence by queerofthedagger
And Celegorm? Well, Celegorm simply wants a fight, wants revenge, wants to see his debts repaid. He wants to tear that godforsaken forest apart piece by piece, one step further on the inescapable road to their inevitable end.
He knows of monsters, after all. Knows how to speak their tongue, how to coax them along. His brothers, by then, are hardly any different.
Celegorm wants it all to end. He cares little, now, for how they will achieve such a thing.
The Fëanorians, the Second Kinslaying, and how they all reached that point—an attempt to trace their fall from grace, from Valinor to Doriath.
| Major Characters: Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amras, Amrod, Maglor, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: Amras & Amrod & Caranthir & Celegorm & Curufin & Fëanor & Maedhros & Maglor |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 8 | Word Count: 40, 580 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
faultlines beneath the ice by queerofthedagger
“Are they fighting again?” Idril asks, wandering over to the fireplace the moment Fingolfin lets her down.
“It is what you do with siblings,” Fingolfin says, and succeeds at not laughing at the irony.
Oh, how much would be different if it were not so true. She treats him to a look full of sceptical disbelief and sets to restacking the fire.
An exploration of the Nolofinwëans in early Beleriand, and the effect that Maedhros' rescue and abdication would have had on the relationships between them, in the wake of the Ice and all its horrors.
| Major Characters: Fingolfin, Fingon, Turgon, Aredhel, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: Fingolfin & Fingon, Fingolfin & Turgon, Aredhel & Fingolfin |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 14, 163 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The Stars Sending Messages by StarSpray
"I think something is going to happen soon.”
“Something good or something bad?” Maglor asked.
“Something important,” Elros said, looking suddenly very serious and far older than his years. He and Elrond both looked at Maglor with starlit eyes under shadowy hair, Melian’s children whom the birds and the stars would both love.
| Major Characters: Maglor, Elrond, Elros |
| Major Relationships: Elrond & Elros & Maglor |
| Genres: Family, Fluff, General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 165 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
Her Bride by Elrond's Library
Miriel returns quietly, without fanfare.
| Major Characters: Míriel Serindë, Indis |
| Major Relationships: Indis/Míriel |
| Genres: Femslash, Fixed-Length Ficlet, Fluff | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 101 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
half awake, takin' your chances by atlantablack
It is nice, the sunlight and the warmth of a solid body against his. It is nice to be able to think, at least for a little while, that perhaps Curufin had been speaking true when he said he was trying. Nice in a way that means Finrod will miss it terribly when it is gone again.
“You are thinking too loudly,” Curufin mumbles against his shoulder. “Go back to sleep, Ingo.”
| Major Characters: Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: Curufin/Finrod |
| Genres: Romance | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Incest |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 929 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
Fealty by Perching
The furs slip to Itarillë’s hips as she sits up. Laurefindil cannot help but admire the fall of her pale golden hair, the curve of her spine, how the oil lamp lights her skin as if from within. Underneath it all, there is a heart Laurefindil will do anything to protect.
After the pronouncement of the Doom of the Noldor, Idril has a question for Glorfindel.
| Major Characters: Glorfindel, Idril |
| Major Relationships: Glorfindel/Idril |
| Genres: Femslash, Ficlet | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 550 |
| Posted on | Updated on |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
