SWG News

Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Voices - Impact of the Films

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 14 May 2022. Last updated on 18 June 2022.

The release of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films were the single most influential impactful event in the history of Tolkien fandom. They brought thousands of new fans to the fandom, grew communities literally overnight, and shaped fandom culture for the decades that followed. We continue to explore the impact of the films as part of our fandom history column Cultus Dispatches, and this month's column focuses on what you, the fans who lived this history, remember about how the two Jackson trilogies changed (or didn't?) your fandom communities and experiences. The first in the Fandom Voices series, a Cultus subproject that collects memories from fans about their fandom cultures and histories, this month's column presents the responses from about thirty respondents who were part of the fandom before one or both trilogies.

Fandom Voices columns present both a curated collection of responses with minimal commentary, designed to highlight trends that we noticed among the responses. However, we also include the full collection of responses, lightly edited, so that you can also draw your own conclusions about the impact of the two trilogies.

You can read the article "Fandom Voices: Impact of the Films" here.

Fandom Voices surveys never close. We will continue to collect responses and periodically update the response collections. If you were a fan before the either film trilogies (or both) and would like to contribute to this project, you can add your memories of pre-film fandom here.

If you were a fan brought to the Tolkien fandom by the films, our second Fandom Voices survey is also active and collecting responses to be included in an article later this year. You can share your memories of joining fandom as a film fan here.

Fanfiction Book Club: Explicit Relationships

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 14 May 2022. Last updated on 11 June 2022.

Sexual relationships are a creative inspiration for many authors in the Tolkien fandom, and have often been a topic for much discussion and debate. This is our chance to celebrate the imagination of fanfiction authors and how the community envisions sexual relationships among the various peoples of Arda.

This book club will be held on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5 in the #fanfiction-book-club-nsfw channel on the SWG's Discord server. If you are not a member of our Discord server and would like to join, log into your site account and find an invite link in the footer of the site. If you're not a member of the site, contact our moderators for an invite code. Your hosts for this event are Polutropos and Melesta.

Schedule

Saturday, June 4th

9:00-9:45 When honey spills, and apple swells by Nienna

10:00-10:45 Clash of swords by firstamazon

11:00-11:45 An Interlude by maedron

Break

13:00-13:45 Tryst by Anonymous

14:00-14:45 We All Fall Down by cuarthol

Sunday, June 5th

9:00-9:45 Piecing our Lives back together (Chapter 5)** by ChrissyStriped

10:00-10:45 A Secret Chord by polutropos

11:00-11:45 Let Me Come Back to Your Hand by AdmirableMonster (Mertiya)

Break

13:00-13:45 Traitorous Heart by starlightwalking

14:00-14:45 Account #1: Of the Quendi and the Maiar by Aipilosse

** Though it is not the main subject of the story, this fic contains implied/referenced rape/non-con. Readers who wish to participate but want to skip this can stop at the sentence beginning “Still, they could steal a few more minutes together before he sneaked back to his guest room." Discussion will be moderated and participants will be asked to spoiler using || on either side of any text mentioning this content.

An AO3 bookmarked collection with all the stories can be found here.

If you've never participated in one of our book clubs before, our Book Club FAQ has more information on what to expect. Questions can be directed to the event organizers on Discord or to the SWG moderators.

Character of the Month: Telchar of Nogrod

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 6 May 2022. Last updated on 3 June 2022.

Imagine Middle-earth without some of its greatest works of craft. What if there was no Narsil to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand? No Angrist to liberate a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth?

Although the story as we know it could not exist without these objects, chances are most Tolkien fans know the objects but not the name of the one who made them. This month's Character of the Month explores the master Dwarven smith behind some of the legendarium's most famous weapons and artifacts: Telchar of Nogrod. In this month's biography, Lindariel takes a look at what little information Tolkien wrote about Telchar, alongside a deep dive into the works of craft themselves and what further detail they reveal about this elusive but essential character.

You can read Telchar's biography here.

Banner image by Asad Nazir.

Did the Films Inspire You to Read Tolkien or Join the Fandom?

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 30 April 2022. Last updated on 30 July 2022.

Last month, we asked to hear from fans who were part of the fandom before the films. This month, we're turning to fans who became Tolkien fans entirely or in part due to the films. Did the films cause you to pick up the books? Had you read the books but the films inspired you to participate in fandom? Was your love for Tolkien rekindled by one of the film trilogies? If so, we'd love to hear of your experiences in fandom as a film-first fan!

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.

If you'd like to share your experiences as a film-first fan joining the fandom, you can find the response form here.

Playlists and Link Collections Are Coming!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 23 April 2022. Last updated on 14 May 2022.

This year, we hope to significantly expand what fanworks we are able to host on our site. We are preparing to build the next two fanwork types: playlists and link collections, and we'd love to hear from you about what features you'd like to see our site offer for these fanworks!

Playlists are collections of songs selected around a fannish theme. Currently, we are planning to offer the following fields when you post a playlist fanwork:

• Link(s) to a completed playlist (i.e., set up on Spotify or YouTube)
• Links to individual songs with a notes field for each song. The notes field allows unlimited text with formatting.
• Audio genre selection; if you choose "Music" as your genre, you will be able to select a music genre as well.
• Album cover art.

Links collections are exactly what they sound like! They can be used for myriad purposes—rec lists, collections of resources and references, collections of images and music for mood or inspiration—and will allow links within and outside the SWG. Currently, we are planning to offer the following fields when you post a link collection:

• Link, link title, and link description fields. The link description field allows unlimited text with formatting.
• Link collection genre selection (e.g., rec list, research, inspiration).

Both the playlists and link collections will have access to the fields available to all fanworks: title, co-creator, language, summary, fanwork notes, character, relationship, rating, warnings, challenge, and completion status.

Is there something you'd like to see offered for playlists and link collections that we don't have on our list yet? Comment below or leave a comment on our Dreamwidth. If you're on our Discord, the #town-hall channel is currently discussing playlists and link collections and welcomes feedback there as well.

Lead Writer Needed for Newsletter

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 22 April 2022. Last updated on 15 July 2022.

We are working to expand our newsletter to offer more original content, and we are looking for a lead writer for the column A Sense of History. This column was started many years ago by our moderator Angelica and offers short articles connecting real-world history to Tolkien's legendarium.

What does a lead writer do? You'd ensure that there is a monthly article for this column. You can write the article yourself or work with other writers. (Ideally, the column would involve a bit of both.)

What content would you be writing or seeking to have written? Articles for A Sense of History should be short—no more than 1,500 words—and written for a general audience. They have a specific focus on a historical topic; examples might include trolls in folklore, weregild, or historical archery. This is not a column that requires highly detailed and technical historical information but aims to provide a broad overview of a historical topic and identify points of connection with Tolkien. Note that academic sources are not required for this column, and popular history sources are acceptable. The complete call for contributors has the requirements of the column, as well as a list of ideas for columns.

What would qualify a person for this job? You should have a solid foundation and interest in history so that you can identify possible topics for the column and produce accurate, engaging articles. You would be able to meet deadlines and have good communication skills, both with writers you are working with and SWG editors and moderators. Ideally, you'd have a basic understanding of how to select good sources and attribute those sources in writing; however, the SWG editors and moderators can also offer training and coaching in this area.

What specific tasks would I have to do?

• Maintain a schedule of articles at least three months in advance using a shared Google Document. The schedule should include diverse topics (e.g., not solely focused on military history or taking only Eurocentric approaches) and ideally involve multiple contributors.
• Collaborate with contributors to meet the expectations of the column and deliver an article on time. Editors and moderators will be available to help you here if the support a writer requires is more than you are able to provide.
• Research and write articles on historical connections to Tolkien that meet expectations of the column.
• Meet a monthly deadline for a completed article, either written by you or another author.
• Communicate with editors and moderators as needed to prepare an article for publication, which will include working with our art editor to select art for the article and responding to questions during the copyediting process.
• Be willing to be listed as the contact person for this column and answer inquiries about the column via email when they come in.

What does this job not require? You would receive assistance from the SWG moderators in recruiting contributors to the column (although you are certainly encouraged to use your networks and contacts to accomplish this as well). The final articles will be copyedited and posted to the site in accordance with SWG Reference guidelines by an editor or moderator.

Conflicts occasionally arise in fannish contexts. We never expect our volunteers to handle conflicts or tolerate disrespectful communications from anyone. SWG moderators will be available to take over such communications immediately in the unlikely event that they occur.

What supports are available? At the SWG, we believe in encouraging fans and non-academics to contribute to the field of Tolkien Studies. As such, we are willing to train, coach, and support contributors at various levels to see their work published. If you do not have all of the skills required for this position but think it sounds like something you'd be interested in, we encourage you to contact us. We will likely be able to help you gain the skills needed for the job.

Furthermore, the SWG editors and moderators will be available to you to offer any supports and answer any questions that you have. We aim for a 24-hour turnaround time but more often respond much faster.

Does this role sound interesting to you? Contact us if you'd like to be considered or if you have any questions!

Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

"Durin" Character Tag Updated

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 21 April 2022. Last updated on 21 April 2022.

For almost fifteen years now, a single Durin character tag has served our site. Yes, he is the Deathless, but he is getting tired of doing the work of all of the Durins—after all, there are seven of them! As a favor to our wearied Father of Dwarves, we have broken out his tag into seven distinct Durin tags.

The moderators have gone through all of the Durin fanworks and attempted to make sure that each is assigned the correct iteration of the deathless Dwarf dad. If you've authored a fanwork and have tagged Durin in it, please check to make sure that we've assigned the correct one. If we've changed your fanwork (and you have your contact form enabled), we've contacted you to let you know. If you didn't hear from us, we assumed (correctly or not) that your fanwork involves Durin I.

If we got it wrong, you can select the correct Durin by clicking the Edit tab at the top of your fanwork, or comment here, letting us know the title and which Durin you desire, and we will fix it for you.

New Challenge: On a Different Page

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 14 April 2022. Last updated on 15 May 2022.

Tolkien may have been the maker of Middle-earth, but that wasn’t all he wrote. This month we encourage everyone to explore Tolkien’s other works—prompts for this challenge will come from Tolkien's non-Middle-earth works.

Please remember that we are a Silmarillion archive, and fanworks for the challenge must have a significant basis in The Silmarillion. The challenge is to create a Silmarillion fanwork using prompts from Tolkien's non-Middle-earth texts; it is not a challenge for fanworks about those texts, although crossovers remain welcome on our archive. See our FAQ on "Silmfic" for more information on how we define Silmarillion-based fanworks.

To receive a prompt for this challenge, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, post to the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, or message us through the SWG site.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 May 2022. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Character of the Month: Maedhros

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 8 April 2022. Last updated on 6 May 2022.

Maedhros is the most popular character on the SWG archive. As of this writing, there are 774 fanworks about Maedhros, a number that grows by the day. More than fourteen years after we began our Character of the Month column, Maedhros finally gets his own biography as part of the collection.

This month's article is the first of a two-part biography by Oshun and considers Maedhros's early life: his time in Aman, his father's rebellion and disastrous oath, and his short stint in Beleriand before his captivity by Melkor. Even in these early years, we see Maedhros making the kinds of choices that make him so complex, enigmatic, and popular with fans.

You can read Part One of Oshuns' two-part biography on Maedhros here.

Banner image credit to Siggy Nowak.

Cultus Dispatches: Becoming Bookverse

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 2 April 2022. Last updated on 14 May 2022.

The new Amazon Rings of Power series is on many of our minds. With the Super Bowl trailer drop, releases of a series of posters, and articles and teasers cropping up across the Tolkien fandom like mushrooms after a rain, the new series has become impossible to ignore. And for many existing Tolkien fans, they wonder: How will this new show shape the fandom communities that I love?

Over the next few months, Cultus Dispatches will look at this question by analyzing the impact of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies on the fandom. "Becoming Bookverse" is the first article in this series, in which Dawn uses Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to make the case that, in the fic fandom, the films brought in fans in droves—and then they became fans and authors of fic based on the books.

You can read April's column here: Becoming Bookverse: Jackson's Films as an Initiation Point for Tolkien's Book Fandom.

As part of this series, we are seeking to hear from fans who were part of the Tolkien fandom before one or both of the film trilogies. How do you think the fandom changed (or did it)? If you'd like to contribute a fandom memory, you can do so here.

Cultus Dispatches is always looking for contributors to our column about Tolkien fandom history and culture. Find out more about writing for this column here.