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
Plot Thickens
Create a fanwork that depicts characters in the act of plotting something. 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
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?
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.
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.
New Challenge: Dip the Ladle
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 July 2023. Last updated on 19 August 2023.
But if we speak of a Cauldron, we must not wholly forget the Cooks. There are many things in the Cauldron, but the Cooks do not dip in the ladle quite blindly. Their selection is important. The gods are after all gods, and it is a matter of some moment what stories are told of them. … Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men.
~ Tolkien, On Fairy-stories
Tolkien is often credited with establishing the modern fantasy genre as it is known today. Certainly, his work has inspired authors, artists, filmmakers, and other creatives for decades. However, as his 1938 lecture On Fairy-stories attests, he saw his own work as a "cauldron of story," drawing with skill from centuries of myth, legend, and tales to come before him.
This month's challenge considers Tolkien's many inspirations, from the books and poems he read, to the illustrations they contained, to the places important in his life. If you wish to participate this month, you will be assigned a prompt by a moderator that you can use to create a fanwork. As always, you can interpret your prompt however you want and use any part or parts you want—we encourage creative uses of our prompts! If a prompt doesn't speak to you, let one of our moderators know, and we'll dip the ladle again.
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. If you have a preference for the type of prompt we send you, please specify if you would like an image of a location, an image of a book cover/illustration, or a quote.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 August 2023. As July is Disability Pride Month, we also offer a stamp for any fanworks featuring a character with a disability. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Many thanks to Oxbridge for this month's stamps!
Read & Review: "Tolkien and Diversity"
Posted by SWG Moderators on 8 July 2023. Last updated on 8 September 2023.
Diversity in the works and fandom of J.R.R. Tolkien has been a topic of much discussion in recent years as recognition grows that Tolkien's "mythology for England" is read by far more than the English ... or English speakers even. The Tolkien fan community is an international one, with fans from every inhabited continent on the globe bringing their perspectives to bear on the legendarium. Within this international community, Tolkien fans belong to myriad identity groups, some of them marginalized in both Tolkien's and the real world. Significant media coverage devoted to the diverse casting of Amazon's Rings of Power series rocketed these discussions—once limited to some fannish and scholarly enclaves—into the realm of popular discourse.
The 2021 Tolkien Society Seminar on the theme "Tolkien and Diversity" was therefore timely. The best-attended seminar to date, Tolkien and Diversity has now been published as a book containing some of the papers delivered at the seminar. In our latest Read & Review column, Shadow takes a look at the proceedings and what they have to offer to the Tolkien fan who is interested in the topic. They conclude that the proceedings balance discussion of the international fan community with papers about marginalized identities and provide a summary of each paper before offering advice to potential buyers about whether the book is a good addition to their Tolkien collection.
Character of the Month: Draugluin
Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 July 2023. Last updated on 19 August 2023.
Wolves populate the shadows of much of Western folklore, and Tolkien's legendarium—ladling as it does from that Cauldron of Story—is no exception. Draugluin is one of several wolves or wolfish beings who appear in Tolkien's stories: the lord of the werewolves. Although only briefly appearing, his presence in the story is a memorable one, as he challenges (and is slain by) Huan, and his skin is used by Beren to sneak into Angband.
In this month's biography of Draugluin, Narya explores not only the evolution of his character in the legendarium (hint: he was early-appearing but in very different form) but the folkloric roots that Tolkien may have drawn from ... and those he definitely did not. As is often the case with Tolkien, Narya finds deep roots in language and lore that helped inform the character of Draugluin.
