New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King
Cross "The Silmarillion" with a second text or fandom in this month's crossover challenge.
SWG News
A Sense of History: Thálatta! Thálatta!
While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
Choose a Name for Our New Column!
Our temporarily titled "location bio" will focus on the landscapes and locations of Middle-earth. We need your help naming it!
New Challenge: Tengwar
Each day for thirty-six days, we feature a randomly chosen letter from the Tengwar as a prompt.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] On a night of stars, a bird by Quente
Nimloth and Dior meet, and he is naked.
Alternatively,
Melian travels south to visit her daughter, and meets a familiar looking bird.
Written for the Tengwar prompt, Quessë (feather).
[Writing] Apprentice by Quente
Dior is in Menegroth learning to be his grandfather's heir -- but his grandmother decides to take him as apprentice too.
Written for the Tengwar Challenge, May 15: Súlë (spirit).
[Writing] Tengwar: To The Letter by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge.
All 36 prompts plus bonus chapter
[Writing] A blip on the radar by daughterofshadows
Humanity took to the skies. Eärendil and Ilmarë adjust.
[Writing] History abandons us by AdmirableMonster
During his incarceration in Roderick Burgess' basement, Dream receives a strange, ancient visitor.
[Writing] Tengwar Acrostics by Himring
Responses to the Tengwar Challenge in which first letters spell out the name of a tengwa.
1) Early Encounter (Nerdanel, Indis)
2) Numenorean Lullaby (Almarian, Aldarion)
[Writing] Tengwar Drabbles by cílil
A collection of Silmarillion-centric drabbles written for the Tengwar Challenge. Short and sweet!
Current Challenge
Crossroads of the Fallen King
Create a fanwork that crosses with a second text or fandom. Read more ...
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Songs of Arda
Create a fanwork about music. Read more ...
New in References
Thálatta! Thálatta! by Simon J. Cook
[]While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
[]
With Gildor Inglorion we finally climb the stairs of Elostirion and look on the view, and what we see appears to reveal a hidden thread in the story of Frodo Baggins. This post reads two annotated translations of two Elvish songs to step through a crossroads in the narrative to arrive at the tower on the margin of the story, wherein is a stone that is a window onto Valinor.
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.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Waybread (The Waybredlik) by Himring
[]Lembas speaks out.
[Series] Apr 1st Stories by Uvatha the Horseman
[]Once a year on April 1st, a canon character from LOTR or the Silmarillion gets pranked.
[Writing] Crossing Forest River by Dawn Felagund
[]Bilbo recounts, in verse, the attempt of Gandalf, Beorn, and him to cross the Forest River after the Battle of Five Armies. Written for the Hungarian Tolkien Society's 2024 Mailing Competition.
Around the World and Web
Mythcon 53: Fantasies of the Middle Lands
Mythcon 53 will be held 2-5 August 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the theme "Fantasies of the Middle Lands."
Teitho May/June Challenge: Joker
For the May/June Teitho challenge, you can pick ANY of our past challenges that stir your imagination and write a story or create art for it.
Monstrous May 2024
Monstrous May is a Tumblr event where, for each day of the month of May, there is a prompt involving and invoking the monstrous.
Fellowship of the Fics: Modern AU May
During May, Fellowship of the Fics offers modern AU prompt lists for setting, character occupation, and dialogue on Tumblr.
May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The May challenge has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic challenge: name; formal challenge: acrostic. As usual, these can be filled independently and freely combined with other prompts such as the SWG challenges. New participants welcome!
SWG News
Major Upgrade to SWG Site Software
Posted by SWG Moderators on 24 September 2022. Last updated on 24 September 2022.
This past weekend, Russandol and Dawn completed a major update to the site's software, upgrading us from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. This was an important upgrade but also a tricky one, as changes to the file structure between versions (why, Drupal, why??) meant that we also had to build in redirects so that existing links to our site would continue to work.
On September 19, 2022, we were thrilled to switch the lights back on to a Drupal 9 site. However, many minor issues remain that we are in the process of addressing. Just a friendly reminder that we maintain a page of known site issues that you can check; we will be updating here as we find new issues and fix those that have been reported. You can comment directly on the Known Issues page or email us if there is an issue we haven't listed that you need to report.
We greatly appreciate those of you who have reported issues and EVERYONE for being patient with us during the site outage last weekend and as we fix the final small problems with the site.
New Challenge: Major Arcana
Posted by SWG Moderators on 15 September 2022. Last updated on 14 October 2022.
Tarot cards first appeared in the 15th century as playing cards that were later used as well for divination. This month, we draw on the arcane and alluring imagery of the Rider Waite Tarot deck to inspire our fanworks.
You will select a card as your prompt. You can find the Major Arcana prompts here. You can use any aspect of the card's imagery, name, description—found below—or reading (upright or reversed) to inspire your fanwork. Want to let fate decide? Choose a random Tarot card here.
Fanworks should be posted to the archive no later than 15 October 2022 in order to be eligible for a stamp.
SWG Archive Read-Only for the Weekend of Sept. 16-18
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 September 2022. Last updated on 10 September 2022.
On the weekend of 16-18 September 2022, we will be putting the site into read-only mode so that we can upgrade our site's software and complete other important updates. There may also be times during that weekend where we need to take the site down altogether.
We expect to be back up by the end of the weekend with a site that is updated and more secure. As always, questions can be directed to the moderator team.
A Sense of History: On Oaths
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 September 2022. Last updated on 14 October 2022.
From the earliest ages of Arda to the culmination of the Ring War, characters in the legendarium swear oaths for various purposes. These oaths are depicted both positively and negatively. In this month's A Sense of History column, Angelica looks at how oaths were used by cultures throughout the world. Just like in Middle-earth, oaths form a part of the traditions of a range of cultures and serve a variety of purposes.
"Oaths in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings fit almost seamlessly into these models, showing the Professor’s undoubted familiarity with the main features of historical oaths," Angelica writes. The use of magic and extraordinary objects to bind a person to pledge has roots in places of the world ranging from Egypt to England.
Do You Create or Read/View Fanworks with Women Characters?
Posted by SWG Moderators on 2 September 2022. Last updated on 25 November 2022.
Do you create Tolkien-based fanworks that include women? Do you enjoy reading or viewing Tolkien-based fanworks about women characters?
Fandom Voices is a project that is part of our monthly Cultus Dispatches column where we ask fans to contribute their memories and experiences around a topic. For an upcoming column, we will be looking at how women are depicted in fanworks in the Tolkien fandom and whether this has changed over time.
Both creators and consumers of fanworks are welcome for this project. You can write as little or as much as you'd like. Responses will be published in an upcoming Cultus Dispatches column. You are of course welcome to remain anonymous if you prefer.
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Voices - Filmverse Fans
Posted by SWG Moderators on 27 August 2022. Last updated on 24 September 2022.
This month's Cultus Dispatches column wraps up our four-part series on the impact of the films on the Tolkien fandom. This month's article, Fandom Voices: Filmverse Fans, compiles the responses of more than thirty fans who joined the Tolkien fandom entirely or partly due to the two Jackson film trilogies. As in all Fandom Voices columns, several big takeaways are presented, but we also provide the complete responses so that you can draw your own conclusions.
How do film fans define the impact of the films on their own fandom experience? Three major effects emerged from the responses we collected. The films often led fans to seek out (or sometimes accidentally discover) the fandom. From there, they formed important friendships. And, as we've now reported through multiple Cultus columns, the films encourage new fans to read the books.
Finally, if you missed the original call for responses, you are not too late: Fandom Voices forms always remain open. If you joined the fandom because of the films and want to respond, you can do so here.
"Beyond the Silmarillion" Section Is Open!
Posted by SWG Moderators on 21 August 2022. Last updated on 24 September 2022.
We are very excited to announce the official opening of the Beyond the Silmarillion section of our archive! Here, creators who are already posting with us can archive their non-Silmarillion fanworks based on Tolkien's books and adaptations, and absolutely anyone can read and view those fanworks.
Who is eligible and how does one obtain permissions?
The Beyond the Silmarillion section is open to creators who have committed to posting their work with us, which we define as five fanworks or 10,000 words of fanworks. When you reach one of these milestones, a moderator will grant "Beyond" permissions to your account, and you will be able to post in the new section.
Permissions are monitored and assigned manually, by a human (i.e., not automatically, by a computer script). If you meet the requirements above, please allow us at least twenty-four hours to assign your permissions. After that point, feel free to query.
More than 200 of you met the requirements for the new section right away and can begin posting to the new section now!
If you think you should have permissions and do not, please contact us.
How do I know if I have permissions? How do I post to the new section?
You can check if you have permissions by opening any of the Add New Fanwork forms under the My Account menu. If you see a checkbox for "Beyond the Silmarillion Fanwork" under the Title field, you have posting access for the new section.
To post to the new section, simply check off this box and complete the form as usual. All types of fanwork (art, audio, link collections, multimedia fanworks, playlists, series, videos, and all types of written fanwork) are allowed in the Beyond the Silmarillion section. More detail instructions, with illustrations, can be found in the Beyond the Silmarillion FAQ.
While we have populated the Character tagset with the major characters from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, if you need a character or relationship that's not currently on the list, use the Moderator Request form as usual. Likewise, if you need a source that is not in the Source Text tagset, you can use this field to request it.
How will the new section impact reading on the site?
Beyond the Silmarillion is truly a separate section. We are still a Silmarillion fanworks archive; however, as more and more small Tolkien-specific archives close their doors, we know many of our members would like a place to archive all of their Tolkien fanworks outside of the large multifandom archives. In the recent past, we could point to a half-dozen generalist Tolkien archives where our members' work was welcome that didn't fit on our site's requirements. We can no longer do that and so feel it is an important need to meet for our creator base.
You can find the Beyond the Silmarillion section under the Fanworks menu. If you want all the fanworks, check out the Truly All Fanworks page (you can find a link on the All Fanworks page).
If you follow a creator or tag, and a Beyond fanwork is posted by that person or to that tag, you will receive a notification.
We will also include a section for Beyond the Silmarillion fanworks in our weekly newsletter.
We hope our readers/viewers and creators enjoy the new section of the site!
New Crossover Text Field
Posted by SWG Moderators on 21 August 2022. Last updated on 21 August 2022.
In our last round of updates to the site, we added a handy little field that we hope will help our crossover creators better label their work (and crossover fans better find fanworks they'll enjoy). Now, when you select "Crossover" as a genre, you will have access to a field, Crossover Text, where you can identify the text(s) you combined with Tolkien.
Currently, this tagset includes all crossover texts that are currently used in fanworks posted to the archive. If you need a crossover text that isn't in the tagset yet, please use the Moderator Request field on the fanwork submission form to request it, and we will update the tagset and your fanwork for you.
Soon, you will be able to filter the Crossover page by crossover text.
Many thanks to Independence1776 for looking through the crossovers on our archive and making the initial tagset for us!
New Challenge: Restoration and Rebuilding
Posted by SWG Moderators on 19 August 2022. Last updated on 15 September 2022.
The Silmarillion can feel like an unrelentingly tragic work. Yet at the end of every downfall comes a time of restoration that drives not just the storyline but our beloved characters of Middle-earth forward into the next chapter of their history.
In honor of Akallabêth in August, our annual celebration of fanworks set in the Second Age, this month's challenge will center on the themes of rebuilding and restoration.
You may select the prompt or prompts that speak to you. We will also be holding an instadrabbling event associated with this challenge on August 20 08:00-10:00 EDT and August 21 19:00-21:00 EDT. The prompts from the instadrabbling event will be added to the prompt list after the conclusion of the second session.
A Sense of History: The Easterling Hostages in Middle-earth and Their Parallels in Welsh Medieval History
Posted by SWG Moderators on 19 August 2022. Last updated on 9 September 2022.
Many years ago, Angelica wrote a monthly column called "A Sense of History," connecting Tolkien's legendarium with real-world history.
We are very pleased to bring this column back! To welcome it back, MirienSilowende has written an article about the parallels between medieval Welsh history and the history of the Easterlings and Gondor, focusing on hostage-taking.
The term hostage has chilling connotations in modern English. Historically, hostages were used as a means of controlling a neighboring people. The Gondorians, for a time, held Easterling hostages as a way of subduing the Easterling leaders and establishing cultural dominance. MirienSilowende finds parallels in Wales, where the history has a bloody conclusion. Even more tantalizing: What impact did Gondorian hostage-taking have on later relations between the Easterlings and Sauron? Would a softer touch from Gondor have led to a different outcome?
"A Sense of History" is a monthly column open to contributions that succinctly explain connections between the legendarium and history for a nonscholarly audience. If you have a historical topic you'd like to write about, find out more about contributing to this column here.
