Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.
SWG News
New Challenge: Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy
The fan studies column Cultus Dispatches returns with a history of how Tolkien fanworks fandom has reacted and resisted generative AI by drawing strong boundaries in a way that is not typical for the fandom.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] How Tolkien Presents Ordinary People in "The Silmarillion" by Dawn Felagund
Inspired by collecting the prompts for the Everyman challenge, this essay considers how ordinary people are subsumed and silenced in The Silmarillion, which begins a three-book arc that ends with the rise of the humble and ordinary.
[Writing] Blessed are the Leave-takers by Isilme_among_the_stars
As prince Curufinwë Fëanáro makes an historical speech from the high court of the King upon Túna, those at the back of the crowd strain to hear.
A silly little scene inspired by Monty Python's "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" scene from The Life of Brian, written for …
[Writing] After the Kinslaying by Deborah Judge
A Teleri fishing boat captain turns to farming on abandoned Noldor lands after her ship is stolen. A Noldor farmer returns with Finarfin to find that his land belongs to the Teleri now.
[Writing] I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel
In his old age, Isildur's former esquire Ruinamacil, known to later histories only as Ohtar, writes his own account of his escape from the ambush at Gladden Fields and journey to Imladris, and the history of his friend whom Isildur ordered to flee with him.
[Writing] Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
[Writing] a riot of shadow and shine by Elrond's Library
These were simply flashes, a hint of a wider, greater world. A tantalizing glimpse of more, always at the edge of awareness, never within reach. Míriel would grasp it, if something as intangible as the concept of color could overflow in bounteous wonder over her hands.
But…
[Writing] The Exchange by Elrond's Library
An exchange is made during the Great Journey
Current Challenge
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Song of Exile
Create a fanwork about exile or exiles. About being exiled. About the people who are exiled. About the decision to exile, the leavetaking, the consequences. About metaphorical or symbolic exile. Read more ...
New in References
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.
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.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[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…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Around the World and Web
Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.
Aspec Arda Week 2026
This week-long event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
Angbang Week 2026
Angbang Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Morgoth and Sauron, running from May 5-11, 2026
April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is back for another summer of collaboration between artists and writers!
SWG News
Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Our May challenge will be an interactive Matryoshka challenge, meaning that challenge participants will provide prompts to each other. How it will work:
- If you want to provide prompts to participants, you can sign up one or all of your fanworks posted to our archive. These will become the clues in the scavenger hunt!
- When participants solve the clue, they will read/view and comment on one of your fanworks (or the specific fanwork you offer, if you choose to offer just one).
- You will reply to their comment with a prompt. You can create your own prompt(s) or the moderators can provide prompts for you to use.
Our hope is that this challenge encourages interaction and collaboration and results in comments for those of you who are offering prompts! A few additional details to keep in mind before signing up:
- The challenge will run May 15 through June 15. You do not need to be available every day to provide prompts, and the moderators will be available to provide backup prompts if you can't. However, if you're planning to spend three of those weeks off-grid in the wilderness, it's probably best to sit this one out.
- If you sign up a single fanwork and it is Adult-rated or if all of your fanworks are Adult-rated, we will mark it as such so that participants who need SFW (safe for work) fanworks can find them.
- You do not need to create a fanwork for the challenge in order to hand out prompts and enjoy the comments on your work!
- If you make your own prompts, prompts should be SFW and open-ended. Prompts should not require creating about a specific character, relationship, group, time period, place, genre, etc.
If you want to provide prompts for the challenge, you can sign up here.
New Challenge: Everyman
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
The Silmarillion is a story about heroes, often larger than life (sometimes literally, given how many characters claim to be the tallest) and the performers of deeds worth the historical record. Yet hovering around the edges of the lives of heroes are ordinary people. They are the companions, the spies, the messengers, the servants, and the soldiers, their actions given the barest glance and their names unknown. Yet as the compendium of their deeds—collected in this month's prompts—show, their impact on the tale is not insubstantial.
This month's challenge brings these unnamed, unknown characters to the foreground. Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in legendarium using one of our collected quotes about the unnamed and undistinguished people of Middle-earth. While you are welcome to write the scene from which the quote derives, this is not the only approach to the prompts, and we welcome all interpretations of the prompts (and some have been left intentionally vague!) You can use all or part of a quote. The only requirement of the challenge is that a background character plays a key role in your work.
You can find the prompts for the Everyman challenge here.
Thank you to Erdariel for this month's stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 May 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Fanworks fandom in 2026 is not a culture defined by boundaries. Generally, fans accept that all manner of fanworks (even if not to their personal liking) have a right to exist. AI-generated fanworks, however, have pushed the limits of even fanworks fans' considerable levels of tolerance.
When Dawn and Grundy were recently tasked with presenting about how the SWG developed its AI policy, they ended up taking a deep dive into the impacts of generative AI within the broader Tolkien fanworks fandom, finding that communities that are generally resistant to boundaries have set up firm limits on how AI can be used in their spaces. Social justice, ethics, and community governance all play roles in how fan communities have responded to generative AI—and how larger fandom institutions have not.
You can read the article "Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance" here.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Anna (IdleLeaves) will generously be continuing to host monthly instadrabbling sessions on our Discord server on the first Saturday of each month! We welcome all creators to join us for an few hours of creating, squeeing, and hanging out with fellow fans on the following dates:
- April 4, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- May 2, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- June 6, 2025 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.
When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!
Finally, we want to note that monthly instadrabbling has been running for a year now! Many thanks to Anna for hosting this monthly. Your commitment has brought a lot of joy to our server!
New Challenge: Famous Last Words
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Most people remember best what they heard last, and authors and songwriters have long capitalized on this trick of brain wiring by signing off their stories, plays, poems, and songs with a truly memorable last line. This month, we pay homage to some of history's best and most noteworthy last words by offering a selection of them as prompts for creating a fanwork.
Prompts for this month's challenge are assigned by a moderator. You can request a prompt by commenting on this news item, emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on our Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord. If you have a preference for a last line from a book, song, play, poem, or person, let us know! If you get stuck and can't do anything with the prompt we lob at you, feel free to ask us to try again.
If you create a challenge fanwork featuring a woman in a leading role, let us know, as we have a special stamp for Women's History Month.
Thank you to ecthelioffd for this month's stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 April 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
New Challenge: Title Track
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Enamored as he was with language, the chapters and titles of Tolkien's broad range of works are often small works of art in and of themselves. Some carry the ponderous weight of legend, others evoke complex metaphors and associations, and some dance like poems upon the tongue.
This month's challenge offers prompts based on titles within Tolkien's many and varied works. We've selected 125 titles from books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments of text to inspire your fanwork. Note that fanworks do not have to be about the work the title belongs to (although they certainly can be). As always, we encourage creative interpretations of our challenges, and you can use the prompts however you want.
Find the Title Track prompts here.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 March 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Our Annual Amnesty Challenge: New Year's Resolution
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
A new year often brings resolutions to achieve big changes. Our Resolutions challenge is much more moderate: reach for a creative achievement, no matter how small. Maybe it is a single drabble, a sketch, or a new chapter—the point is to begin a new year with an act of creativity and imagination!
Our annual amnesty allows you to pick from any of the previous year’s challenges. You do not need to use a new prompt to be eligible for this challenge. Participants can choose to complete any of the previous year's challenges. Did you miss a challenge you wanted to complete? Do it now. Did you start a fanwork for a challenge but never completed it? Here is your chance to finish. If you didn't leave any unrealized or unfinished projects behind you (congratulations!), choose from any of our 2025 challenges and start something new.
You can find the complete amnesty challenge guidelines and a list of 2025's challenges here.
You will receive a stamp on your 2025 collection for any challenges that you complete now, as well as a stamp for the New Year's Resolution challenge on your 2026 collection. When you post to the SWG archive, please make sure you select the 2025 challenge you're completing and the New Year's Resolution challenge.
This month's banner and stamps use images from the 18th-century “Chinese Arabesques” by Jean-Baptiste Pillement and Anne Allen, which plays with the theme of striving to reach the fantastical.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 February 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
"The Fëanorian Zine" Available to Read and Download
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
We are pleased to have been able to partner with The Fëanorian Zine to preserve the zine here, on the SWG archive, where it is available to read and download for free. A passion project dedicated to the house of Fëanor, it features fiction and art from thirty different creators, edited by JoeTamy and StarsOfArda into a stunning, full-color zine with over 150 pages of fanworks.
Congratulations to the editors and creators of The Fëanorian Zine for their beautiful publication! We know it will bring many hours of enjoyment over the December holidays!
Call for Artists for the 2026 Challenge Stamps
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
All 2026 challenges now have an artist so sign-ups are now closed. Thank you, artists!
It's that time of year again! The SWG challenge mods have been busy concocting challenges for 2026 that we hope will inspire and intrigue our fanworks creators. As part of our challenges, participants receive small "postage stamps" in a collection on their profile, and for the past three years, we have invited artists to help us create those stamps. No matter your level of expertise with traditional or digital art, we welcome all volunteers who'd like to share their work with challenge participants!
If you'd be interested in creating a set of stamps for one (or more) of our 2025 challenges, here is how it will work:
- Comment here (or otherwise contact the mods) and beginning on Monday, December 22, we will grant access to a bare-bones list of the 2025 challenges, the number of stamps needed, and the due date. If you want to remain absolutely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, than this is probably not for you! We will send additional details on the challenge and specific stamps needed once you choose the challenge you want to work on.
- Create your set of stamps. You have a lot of creative free rein here. Stamps must
- include the month number of the challenge. Most of the time, we also include the challenge name (or part of it) too, but this is not required.
- thematically match the challenge that month.
- be appropriate for all audiences: no violence, blood/gore, nudity, or sexual content.
- use our templates or a similar postage stamp template that is not drastically different from ours. (Please check with us first.)
- use only art and images that you have permission to use, which means that you must own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to use the image for this project, or the image is in the public domain.
- Email your completed stamps to the mods before the due date! We will send you a reminder about a month before your stamps are due.
Please note that while we can (and will) credit you as an artist on the challenge page and any announcements about the challenge, we cannot include credit on the stamps themselves or with every appearance of the stamps on our site.
You will also have the option of designing the challenge banner for that month if you wish to do so. (It is not required.) Banners are used on the challenge page, as well as in announcements on our site and social media about the challenge. Requirements for stamps apply to banners as well, with the addition that the banner should include the challenge name, dates, and text "SWG Challenge" or "Silmarillion Writers' Guild Challenge" somewhere on the banner. We prefer that the art used on stamps not be used on the banner as well. Banners should be at least 500px wide.
In participating in this project, you are granting the SWG the right to use your stamps and banner, including any art or photography that they contain, on our website and social media, in accordance with the terms described here. This includes minor modifications, such as resizing graphics to work with the layout of our site.
If you are interested in learning more or gaining access to the sign-up page, please comment here or contact us. Sign-ups are first-come, first-served, and we will close sign-ups on December 31 or once all have been filled, whichever comes first.
Great Beleriand Bake-Off PLUS! Instadrabbling
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Do you want to create a challenge response for the Great Beleriand Bake-Off challenge but haven't gotten around to it yet? Are you off for the holidays and looking to hang out with some fellow fan-creators? Do you just love instadrabbling or need something to do on a Sunday? Himring and Dawn will be hosting the Great Beleriand Bake-Off PLUS! instadrabbling session this coming Sunday, December 21, at noon Eastern Time (find this in my timezone). They will be featuring prompts from the current challenge and more, aimed at non-bakers (though twisting the prompts back to a baking-related prompt is welcome too!)
We hope you can join us, whether you want to write, sketch, or just hang out and enjoy fanworks and conversation!
What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.
When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!
