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] 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!
[Writing] If i get home before daylight by BloodwingBlackbird
a traveler meets a stranger at a crossroads.
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
Breaking Boundaries
Create a fanwork that shows a meeting between characters of two or more cultures. 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
Were You a Part of the Tolkien Fandom Before the Films?
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 23 March 2022. Last updated on 23 April 2022.
As the debut of the Amazon Rings of Power series approaches, many Tolkien fans are left wondering how the new show will impact the fandom they love. Over the next few months, our fandom history column Cultus Dispatches will tackle this question from various perspectives.
For one of our upcoming columns, we'd love to hear from you! Were you participating in the Tolkien fandom before either (or both) of the film trilogies took the world by storm? We're looking for fans willing to share what this experience was like and how they saw the fandom change (or not!) at these pivotal moments in its history.
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.
Newsletter Subscriptions Now Work for Everyone
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 13 March 2022. Last updated on 13 March 2022.
When we reintroduced our newsletter a little over a week ago, we unfortunately hadn't gotten subscriptions up and running yet for nonmembers. We're excited to announce that absolutely anyone can now subscribe to the SWG newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here or use the subscription box at the bottom of the sidebar on our website.
What wonderful and fabulous things can you expect with your subscription? Every Saturday, you will have the latest news and updates from the SWG and other fandom groups and events delivered right to your email inbox. You will receive a list of all of the fanworks added or update that week on our archive. And you will be the first to get to read that week's article or column!
Remember, too, that we are looking for contributors to our newsletter. Whether you want to write a column, an article, or collaborate with our newsletter team, check out our contributors' page for more information.
Current Challenge: Arda on Ice!
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 12 March 2022. Last updated on 14 April 2022.
As the Northern Hemisphere bids farewell to winter, we pay homage to a sport that, just like writing and art, involves both technical skill and artistry: figure skating. For this challenge, you will design a skating program using the prompts below. Before you begin, select the prompts you want to incorporate into your program. You can complete a program at four different levels:
- Novice: 3 prompts
- Junior: 5 prompts
- Senior: 7 prompts
- Pair/Team: 8 prompts shared between two or more creators
Prompts can be used in any order that you want and are intentionally broad, inviting a variety of different interpretations. You can find the prompts for the Arda on Ice challenge here.
You can also collaborate with one or more other creators for the pair and team events! You can collaborate on a single fanwork, or you can collaborate to create multiple fanworks using a set of prompts. For example, one person might create a work of art, another might write a story about it, and a third creator could make a playlist, compose a poem to introduce the story, or conduct research to produce a comprehensive set of notes.
Thanks to Wanyin for suggesting this month's challenge and thanks to Lyra for the artwork used in the banner and stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 April 2022. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Cultus Dispatches: The Tolkien Estate and Fanworks
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 12 March 2022. Last updated on 1 April 2022.
Within the past week, there has been an explosion of commentary on the recent update to the Tolkien Estate's website, which included changes to their FAQ on fanworks. Does this spell the end of fanworks?
The short answer is no. In a collaborative article written by our newsletter staff, we look at the history of the Estate's stance on fanworks, which has always been bad and never acted on, and the new FAQ on fanworks, which changes in style but not substance. We include a primer on copyright, a frequently misunderstood concept, and discuss why the Estate has chosen this moment in time to spring this upon fans.
You can read the full article "A Sudden Outcry: The Tolkien Estate and Fanworks" here.
This article is the first of our new column, Cultus Dispatches, which explores the history and culture of Tolkien fandom. Cultus Dispatches is looking for contributors interested in sharing more about their fandom communities.
Update to Site Etiquette and Terms of Service
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 6 March 2022. Last updated on 7 March 2022.
It is important, for legal reasons, that activity on the SWG remain strictly not-for-profit. And while this has been our de facto position for as long as the site has been in existence, we realized that this is never directly stated in any of our policies. Therefore, our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service has been updated to add the following language:
For legal reasons, the SWG must remain strictly not-for-profit. Do not use the SWG or its social media to request or offer commissions for money. If a fanwork was commissioned, do not mention that commission. Links in your profile, the fanworks you share, or on posts to SWG social media should not point to sites where you will make a profit, such as Kofi, Patreon, GoFundMe, Venmo, and similar sites. Violations of the above will be immediately taken down.
Please note that the translated Site Etiquette and Terms of Service have not yet been updated.
As always, if you have any questions, you can contact the moderators or comment on this post, and one of us will get back to you.
SWG LiveJournal No Longer Posting Announcements
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 5 March 2022. Last updated on 6 March 2022.
The SWG moderator team has decided that we will no longer be updating the SWG's LiveJournal with official group announcements. This community does not receive a high level of engagement, and the values of LiveJournal's owners continue to be at odds with the values the SWG embraces.
This does not mean that we are closing this community. We invite people to continue to post fanworks, meta and discussions, and announcements about fandom events here. However, this community should no longer be used to keep up with SWG-related news and announcements.
If you want to keep up with what's happening on the SWG, we have social media accounts on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Discord. (For a Discord invite, contact the moderators.) On our website, you can find announcements on our News page, and if you are a member of the site, you can subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. (Go to My Account and click on the "Newsletter" tab to sign up.)
Our LiveJournal community, along with our Yahoo! Group, was the SWG's original online space. For almost two years before our website and archive opened, we shared fanworks, discussed Tolkien and writing, laughed, played, and made new friends here and on Y!G. We are sad to take the next step to move on from LJ but grateful to all of the people who made this such a vibrant community and a cornerstone of our beloved group for so many years.
Character of the Month: Ossë
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 5 March 2022. Last updated on 9 April 2022.
Ossë was one of the first characters Tolkien wrote in the legendarium. Neither his name nor his core storyline changed over the course of six decades of writing and revision.
Ossë as a character, however, underwent many changes. Initially a perilous rebel, Ossë was slowly transformed over many decades of revision to a character who was not only more cooperative and constructive but benevolent to the peoples of Middle-earth most closely associated with the sea.
In this month's Character of the Month biography, Dawn Felagund traces the slow evolution of Ossë's character from a god depicted in similar terms and language to Melkor to one who not only aids his friends and peers but yields to authority in a way inconceivable as he was originally writter.
Our Newsletter Returns!
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 27 February 2022. Last updated on 26 March 2022.
The SWG's newsletter will be returning this week! SWG members can subscribe here or by clicking the Newsletter tab on your member profile. Non-members cannot subscribe quite yet, but we are working on it! Anyone, member or not, can subscribe here.
Why subscribe? The SWG newsletter will deliver a weekly round-up to your email inbox each Saturday. The newsletter will include SWG news and Around the World and Web announcements, so you can keep up with happenings and events in and beyond our group. Need some Sunday reading? The newsletter will include a list of new fanworks added that week and fanworks updated that week. Busy week and didn't get to check the site? You no longer have to worry about falling behind or missing updates!
In addition, we will be offering more original articles and columns, including featured artwork for each. The Character of the Month has been running for years and will resume, and we'll be adding more to the lineup, which will be included in the newsletter.
Contributors Wanted
We are currently seeking feature article writers, as well as columnists for A Sense of History and Cultus Dispatches, as well as backup writers for the Character of the Month. Feature articles explore a Tolkien-related or Tolkien-adjacent topic (i.e., a topic relevant to Tolkien studies, such as history, linguistics, fan studies, et cetera), while columns offer a briefer take on a specific topic related to a broader subject. See our call for contributors for more information.
If you have an idea for a new column or project that would fit in our newsletter, feel free to contact our moderators to propose your idea.
The SWG remains committed to the belief that we all benefit when we welcome more voices to the conversation. If you're a new writer or research, speak English as a second (or third, or ...) language, or have a disability that impacts language use, we are willing to offer the support you need to contribute and have your voice heard. Our editors can help during the writing and research process (including with obtaining references) and with editing. Our call for contributors has more on how we can support our writers.
Please also signal-boost our call for contributors! You do not need to be an SWG member or even a fanworks creator to contribute to the newsletter.
History of the Newsletter
Our newsletter debuted in September 2005 and ran every month until we suspended the newsletter with the opening of our rebuilt site in March 2021, making the newsletter older than our website by almost two years. For all of those years, the newsletter was written, compiled, and coded by hand every month by a team of volunteers. Because our old site made it difficult to compile and share content, our newsletter was how we ensured that our members were able to keep up with happenings in and around the SWG. Former and current site moderators have many emails in their archive that open with, "It's that time again ..."
Over the years, the newsletter expanded from group announcements and the monthly challenge. We added the Character of the Month and, occasionally, other columns and even comics. We started listing all the fanworks posted and updated that month on our site. For a while, we featured a new podfic each month. We started collecting and sharing links and announcements from outside the SWG in a section titled Around the World and Web.
If you look at the site now, you'll see all of that information-gathering has been automated by our new software. Visitors can easily find the latest site news, Around the World and Web announcements, and latest fanworks collected and linked in various places around the site--no hand-coding required! That made our old newsletter format redundant and obsolete. We hope that the energy we once spent every month into putting the newsletter together can now be turned toward showcasing new content exploring the legendarium from diverse and fascinating angles.
Our first edition of the new newsletter will debut this coming Saturday, March 5. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it!
Fanfic Book Club: Female Characters Book Club
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 27 February 2022. Last updated on 26 March 2022.
Female characters in Tolkien's universe are often left on the margins of canon. This is our chance to celebrate the imagination of fanfiction authors and how the community envisions female characters.
We will be hosting a book club for female-centric stories on March 26-27, 2022 on our Discord server on the #fanfiction-book-club and #fanfiction-book-club-nsfw channels. Your hosts for this event are @Melesta and @Sidra. While sign-ups are now filled and closed, all are welcome to join in discussing this round of stories. 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.
Schedule
All times are in UTC. Here is a timezone converter if you need to convert to your timezone. Please keep in mind that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend for some locations!
Saturday - March 26th
14:00 - AdmirableMonster‘s i’ll be waiting here till the stars fall out of the sky
15:00 - Aipilosse‘s The Nature of Stone
Break
17:00 - Melesta‘s Politics, War and Love
18:00 - cuarthol‘s That She Might Render Aid
Break
20:00 - elennalore‘s Waiting for Tyelperinquar
21:00 - starlightwalking's elwenya
Sunday - March 27th
14:00 - Idrils_Scribe‘s A Web of Stars (Chapter 4)
15:00 – Anérea‘s In Light Of Dreams
Break
17:00 - undercat‘s Last Year's Words Belong to Next Year's Language
18:00 - JazTheBard‘s You Belong Among the Wildflowers
Break
20:00 - SkyEventide's To die in the light
21:00 - asterisq‘s The answer lies in limbo and the harvest will be hard
Please remember that, while we do not require authors whose work is being discussed to participate in discussing the work of others, we ask that authors make a good faith effort to attend and discuss the work of at least two other authors. If you'd like to know more about how book clubs work, see our book club FAQ.
Current Challenge: Opposites Attract
Posted by Dawn Felagund on 24 February 2022. Last updated on 15 March 2022.
Yavanna and Aulë. Andreth and Aegnor. Gimli and Legolas. You know what they say, opposites attract…or do they? In this month’s challenge, it’s entirely up to you! We’ll present you with a pair of opposites to do with as you choose, whether that’s romance in the air or tragedy in the offing.
If you’d like to receive a prompt for this month’s challenge, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, or contact us.
As in years past, because February is Black History Month, we encourage fanworks about characters of color and will have a special stamp for them. In addition, we are opening our new Art section, so artwork will also receive a special stamp.
You can find the page for the Opposites Attract challenge here, including a list of the fanworks that have been created for the challenge so far.
