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!
SWG News
New Challenge: Tengwar
Each day for thirty-six days, we feature a randomly chosen letter from the Tengwar as a prompt.
A Sense of History: Crossroads
In the ongoing series on towers in Tolkien's work, a thread runs through "The Lord of the Rings," revealing the divine assistance of Varda in the travails of the Fellowship.
Cultus Dispatches: Canon Deviations, Multifandoms, and Original Content
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data gives some insight into what connections, if any, exist between fanfiction and original fiction.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Tengwar (working title) by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge. To be updated as new prompts are completed.
Current up through 'Anca'
[Writing] I Stood Aside by Flora-lass
Maedhros' horror at the burning of the ships. Inspired by a painting (see notes).
[Reference] 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.
[Writing] Words of Wisdom by AdmirableMonster
One or more drabbles about Pengolodh and his babysitter Salgant.
[Writing] Les Mots de Sagesse by AdmirableMonster
Plusieurs petites histoires qui parle de Pengolodh et Salgant pendant des moments differents.
[Writing] "Tengwar" ficlets by chrissystriped
Fics written for the "Tengwar" challenge.
[Writing] Upon Cirith Thoronath by StarSpray
A horrid cacophony of cries erupts ahead of them, as orcs appear—up the cliff on hidden ledges, on the path, with bows and swords. And behind them rises a figure of darkness and flame. The heat rolls down the path over them, bringing the smell of burning flesh and bitter fear with it. Someone…
Current Challenge
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Middle-earth Museum
Stroll the halls of an imaginary Middle-earth Museum and choose one (or more!) objects from our prompt list to inspire the creation of a fanwork. 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
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!
May 2024 Calls for Papers
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers in May 2024.
Angbang Week 2024
All new, unpublished fanworks about the Angbang (Melron) ship are welcome during this Tumblr event, running 6-12 May 2024.
SWG News
A Sense of History: Fawlty Towers
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 October 2023. Last updated on 11 November 2023.
When we look at our own creative work, we are often conscious of the historical context that produced it. Fanworks explored sexuality, gender, race, and disability in Tolkien's legendarium are often linked to events and discussions happening in our particular historical moment. But this same sense is sometimes lost in Tolkien. In this month's "A Sense of History" column, Simon J. Cook continues his series on Tolkien's extended metaphor of the tower in his lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" by looking at the characters who populate that metaphor.
Tolkien scholars have often taken these characters as neutral components of the metaphor. Simon makes the case that they were real people, and viewing them as scholars who were part of Tolkien's orbit, driving the debates that informed his academic work, transforms how the metaphor is read. The loss of this historical context, Simon argues, impacts how the metaphor is read within the larger trajectory of Tolkien's work and leads to some ... strange ... conclusions from popular Tolkien scholars.
Call for Volunteers!
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 October 2023. Last updated on 25 November 2023.
If you enjoy the SWG and want to help keep the site alive and thriving, we are looking for volunteers to help with a few minor but important roles running the site. You can always find open volunteer positions on our volunteer page with complete up-to-date details on each role. The following new roles have been added:
Social media manager: works with the moderator team to ensure that announcements posted to the site make it onto our social media accounts on Discord, Tumblr, and Dreamwidth.
Around the World and Web editor: ensures that that section of the site is updated at least weekly.
Both roles require about 30 minutes to an hour of time commitment per week. SWG moderators and volunteers always work together to ensure that we cover time off for each other when needed.
We are also sunsetting our Character of the Month column for the simple reason that most of the major characters have now been covered! We have a few characters we want to make absolutely sure we include: Elendil, Gothmog, Yavanna, Eönwë, Manwë, Hador, Nienor, Melkor, Curufin, Marach, and Olwë. If you'd like to take on one of these characters, writers of all ability levels are welcome, and we are happy to provide support to writers new to nonfiction and research writing.
Interested in helping us out? Contact the mods with questions or if you'd like to volunteer!
Fandom Voices: Fanon
Posted by SWG Moderators on 7 October 2023. Last updated on 11 November 2023.
For the past several months on our Cultus Dispatches column about Tolkien fan studies, we have been looking at canon and authority. This has begun to shade into fanon and fan authority. Historically, these have been complicated topics in the Tolkien fandom, generating disdain from some even as others gleefully embrace fan-created elements in the fanworks they read, write, and view.
We are looking to hear from you about your perspectives on fanon and other fan-generated elements in fanworks! Fandom Voices is a periodic project that is a part of Cultus Dispatches and seeks fan perspectives on topics related to the fandom. If you read, view, or create fanworks, you are eligible to participate. Note that the question is very open-ended and intentionally so! We welcome anything you wish to share about fanon in Tolkien-based fanworks.
Character of Month: Amlach
Posted by SWG Moderators on 29 September 2023. Last updated on 4 November 2023.
Amid the gritty heroism of the Edain, it is easy to think of them primarily as a people who arrived and became allied in the fight against Morgoth, a mission that prefigures Aragorn's role much later in the legendarium. Amlach is an intriguing character because he hints at the complexity of the political situation that lurked behind the rapid-fire and often aggrandized history that is The Silmarillion. Initially a skeptic in Marach's embrace of the Elvish mission against Morgoth, Amlach's mind is changed when he is the victim of a particularly sinister demonstration of Morgoth's dark powers.
In this month's Character of the Month biography, Himring explores the character of Amlach. Seemingly a minor character (he is mentioned just four times in the published Silmarillion), his story is not only intriguing in its own right but invites speculation about the political relationships between the various houses of the Edain and the different groups of Elves they would encounter upon their migration to Beleriand.
Tolkien Fanartics: Mapping Arda, Part I
Posted by SWG Moderators on 23 September 2023. Last updated on 4 November 2023.
Tolkien cared very much for the geography of his second world, which extended to making multiple maps to help him visualize place and nail down details such as travel times. This proclivity has passed on to many of his fans. Many of us recall poring over the map in our first copy of The Lord of the Rings or flipping frequently to the back of of The Silmarillion to find a location on its map.
For other fans, Tolkien's cartography has inspired them to build beyond what he gave us by making their own maps of his world. Anérea's new series within the Tolkien Fanartics column focuses on fan-made maps of Tolkien's world. In the first part, she looks at maps that detail the building of Arda and of Aman, areas that, compared to the well-trodden paths of the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and even Silmarillion maps, require a lot more digging, conjecture, and imagination. In addition to finding stunning examples of maps of Tolkien's earliest legendarium, Anérea spoke with several artists about how they envision the maps they make, blending Tolkien's canon with their own imaginings.
You can read Anérea's "Mapping Arda, Part I: Terraforming" here.
New Challenge: Turgon's Rock Opera
Posted by SWG Moderators on 16 September 2023. Last updated on 21 October 2023.
We built this city… we built this city on rock and roll! On the anniversary of the publication of The Silmarillion, we’re reflecting on the importance of music in Arda. From the song of the Ainur to Sam singing and Frodo answering, Tolkien’s legendarium rings with music. Many key moments or events would not be the same without it. We’re also taking inspiration from Gondolin, the hidden city whose names reference music and stone. (Close enough to rock for us!)
This month’s challenge prompts are rock songs. You are free to use any aspect of a prompt, whether it’s the title, the artist or band name, song or album cover art, the music, the lyrics, the video, or the general vibe! To receive a prompt, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, post in 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 October 2023. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Cultus Dispatches: Tolkien Fanfiction and Fanon
Posted by SWG Moderators on 16 September 2023. Last updated on 21 October 2023.
Some of fanfiction's most beloved ideas, pairings, and details were never so much as imagined, much less written down, by Tolkien. Fanon, or fan-generated ideas and details, pervade fanworks, but these details are more than just inventions or even personalized touches added to the legendarium. In many cases, they are the fruits of conversations carried across decades.
Yet fanon hasn't always enjoyed a comfortable acceptance in all corners of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. At times, despite its ubiquity, it has been dismissed as frivolous or even harmful to Tolkien's legacy. Yet evidence suggests these viewpoints have shifted over time.
In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, Dawn uses Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to consider fanon and fan-generated ideas more broadly. Looking at both how readers and writers view fanon, she reveals shifting attitudes as the fandom matures.
You can read Talking amongst Ourselves: Tolkien Fanfiction and Fanon here.
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.
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!)
