SWG News

A Sense of History: The Rock Garden

Posted by SWG Moderators on 8 September 2023 . Last updated on 7 December 2023 .

This month's A Sense of History continues Simon J. Cook's series on Tolkien's renowned lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Roundly considered to be a watershed moment in Beowulf studies, Tolkien uses an extended metaphor of a tower, some stones, and coterie of friends and neighbors to comment on the state of Beowulf criticism in 1936.

What often goes overlooked is that the people in the tower analogy were in fact real people: Tolkien's colleagues and fellow scholars, whose ideas about Beowulf he harbored various feelings about. In this month's column, Simon looks at an old draft of "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," which presents a simplified version of the tower analogy and sheds some light on whom the various figures in the metaphor represent.

You can read Simon J. Cook's "The Rock Garden" here.

Character of Month: Ómar-Amillo

Posted by SWG Moderators on 2 September 2023 . Last updated on 29 September 2023 .

The work that would eventually be published as The Silmarillion has deep roots, having been first written down in the 1910s when Tolkien was still a young man fighting in World War I and beginning his career as a philologist. The earliest work on the "Silmarillion," published as The Book of Lost Tales, is a collection of characters, events, and ideas that, like mayflies, often survived only briefly beyond their birth before being replaced or stricken altogether. Ómar-Amillo is one such character, appearing only in the Lost Tales before Tolkien took his thoughts in a new direction.

This month's biography discusses the brief appearance of Ómar, who was a music god (along with several others ... part of the reason he possibly didn't stick around for long). As the brother of Salmar, Ómar illustrates the importance of music and the oral tradition in the legendarium, but his character and its eventual disappearance both also show how Tolkien's ideas about Arda aligned (and didn't) with the myths, legends, and histories of the peoples who inspired much of his work.

You can read Ómar's biography here.

Tolkien Fanartics: Interview with Ylieke

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 August 2023 . Last updated on 23 September 2023 .

Ylieke's artwork is mostly portraits, but don't let that convince you that her work is in any way boring or routine. From within the page, her characters' expressions capture a moment that fairly begs the viewer to imagine the story that is occurring around that single captured glance. Fingolfin watches in defiance and terror as Morgoth's boot descends. Nerdanel's peaceful gaze contrasts Fëanor's surliness. Gandalf's eyes flash, astute with youth, from a wizened face.

For our latest Tolkien Fanartics column, firstamazon spoke with Ylieke about her techniques and training, her influences, and the direction she sees her work going in the future. (Spoiler alert: She has some exciting plans!)

You can read firstamazon's interview with Ylieke here.

New Challenge: Roaring Twenties

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 August 2023 . Last updated on 16 September 2023 .

Ah, 2019. That hopeful year when we all looked forward to a second go at the Roaring Twenties, before 2020 sent us all into lockdown to doom-scroll news about covid outbreaks, rising fascism and nationalism across the globe, increasingly terrifying climate change, and ever-more-bizarre (and believed) disinformation.

For this challenge, we're going to do our best to put all of that our of our minds for a grand episode of escapism to the Roaring Twenties with a bingo challenge. After all, Tolkien defended escapism and used his Roaring Twenties to do major reworking on the tale of Beren and Lúthien, an escapist text worthy of the optimism of the 1920s if ever there was one. Bingo cards are loaded with prompts from the 1920s, and you may pick your card(s), and use one prompt, complete rows or lines on the cards, or fill an entire card. We do not call numbers as part of regular bingo challenges, so choose the prompts you want and skip the ones you don't. If you choose multiple prompts, you can incorporate them into one or multiple fanworks.

Click here for the complete Roaring Twenties challenge, where, you will find bingo cards as well as text-only prompts. Remember that if you need assistance in putting together rows or other patterns using the text prompts, you can contact the mods and we're happy to help.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2023. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Many thanks to Grundy for designing this month's bingo cards, banner, and stamps!

Cultus Dispatches: Tolkien, His Gnarly Canon, and His Authority

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 August 2023 . Last updated on 16 September 2023 .

If you've ever stumbled into a comment section that is discussing fanfiction—and leaning anti-fanfiction—you are familiar with the fact that you (if you are a fanfiction writer) are a criminal. At least, that is how the objections to people playing around with texts and characters they didn't create for fun and not for profit are often depicted by people who don't know any better. (Hey, we're a fanfiction archive! We're allowed to be biased on this point.)

The reason these discussions escalate so quickly into accusations of criminality (and other villainy) is because of the perceived incursion on other people's authority over the original text. This month's Cultus Dispatches column considers authority, Tolkien's canon, and fanfiction. Fanfiction writers may be character-thieving rapscallions (according to some), but most of them do consider (and sometimes even respect!) Tolkien's authority in some areas, making for a complicated dance of creative and canon choices. Using data from the 2015 and 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Surveys, Dawn looks at the attitudes of fanfiction writers toward factual details, morality, and Tolkien's perceived approval of their stories.

You can read Dawn's article "Tolkien, His Gnarly Canon, and His Authority" here.

A Sense of History: 1936

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 August 2023 . Last updated on 8 September 2023 .

How do you make sense of the future? In 1936, Tolkien delivered his pivotal address "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," and there would have been much thinking—and worrying—about the future.

In this month's column for A Sense of History, Simon J. Cook goes back to 1936, when Tolkien delivered "Monsters" (and was in the midst of significant work on the "Silmarillion" materials), to consider how he used imagination to plumb the past for clues to the courage that would allow him to face the future. From our vantage point in 1936, we see World War II looming large on the horizon—and also know that this war will end victoriously, on the side of right, although at great cost.

But from Tolkien's vantage point within 1936, there were stirrings of war but no certainty of victory. Simon makes the case that "Monsters and the Critics" describes looking to the past to answer the question of not how to win the coming fight but: How does a person bear up when the metaphorical dragon comes?

You can read Simon's article "1936" here.

Character of Month: Húrin, Part Two

Posted by SWG Moderators on 5 August 2023 . Last updated on 2 September 2023 .

In June, Melesta shared the first half of Húrin's biography, where they make the case that he is a prototypical hero within the legendarium, a character who possibly inspired Third Age heroes like Aragorn. This month, in the biography's second half, Húrin's life takes a turn for the tragic. (But of course! It is The Silmarillion!)

Húrin might have one of the rawest deals in a book of raw deals. After sacrificing himself so that Gondolin could survive, he experiences physical and psychological torment in Morgoth's hands, helplessly watches the tragic demise of his family, and once freed, goes forth not to a hero's welcome but to mistrust and a series of betrayals. Melesta teases out the elements of this part of the story that have deeper historical and literary resonances, including what Húrin's story tells us of heroism.

You can read Part 2 of Húrin's biography here.

Tolkien Fanartics: Interview with Ismene

Posted by SWG Moderators on 29 July 2023 . Last updated on 2 September 2023 .

Tolkien artist Ismene's illustrations and character portraits fairly leap off of the screen ... or now the page. Ismene's artwork was recently featured on the cover of the Tolkien Society Seminar proceedings for Tolkien and Diversity. Since Shadow recently reviewed this volume, we hoped that Ismene would chat with us about what it's like to be a self-taught Tolkien fan artist whose work was chosen for the proceedings of the best-attended Tolkien Society Seminar, and she kindly obliged.

In this month's Tolkien Fanartics, Anérea spoke with Ismene about the draw (pardon the pun!) of The Silmarillion as an inspiration of fan art, her creative process, and of course the Tolkien character she would meet in person if given the chance. You can read Anérea's interview with Ismene here.

Volunteer Wanted: Assistant Art Editor

Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 July 2023 . Last updated on 21 July 2023 .

Do you love Tolkien fan art? Do you want to help artists get more recognition for their work? Would you like to get more involved with the SWG as one of our volunteers?

Since rebuilding our site two years ago, one of our primary aims has been to give more focus to the many talented artists found in the Tolkien fandom. With each of our newsletter articles, a work of art is selected to accompany the article, with preference given to fan artists whenever possible, a task that is currently managed by Aneréa, our art editor.

We are looking for an assistant art editor to help Aneréa manage this growing area of our site. As an assistant editor, you will help Aneréa communicate with newsletter writers to generate ideas for artwork, source the art that appears alongside newsletter articles, contact artists for permission, and feature that art on Tumblr. The role will require up to a few hours per week.

If you're interested in helping out with art for our newsletter, contact our moderator team.

A Sense of History: Beleriand in Beowulf

Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 July 2023 . Last updated on 12 August 2023 .

Back in 2009, Angelica considered the Anglo-Saxon influences in The Silmarillion in her article Beowulf in Beleriand. In this month's A Sense of History column, Simon J. Cook turns that concept on its head, considering in what ways Tolkien saw Beleriand in Beowulf, namely the "northern feeling" described by so many readers of Tolkien's First Age work, where history grinds toward a seemingly inevitable decline and loss. Simon considers specifically the metaphor of the tower, present in Tolkien's influential 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where a man uses old stones to build a tower to gaze upon the sea. The sea, Simon argues, is the unknown that has been forgotten by the Anglo-Saxons in Beowulf—or the "wise talkers" of Middle-earth who look back in nostalgic half-remembrance to a drowned world.

You can read Simon's article, "Beleriand in Beowulf," here.