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!
Morning Mist and Silver Sun by StarSpray
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Friend of Beasts
Written for the 2019 Back to Middle-earth Month Bingo, for the prompt "animal guide" on the Setting as Character card, and the prompt "I don't know exactly what a prayer is" on the Late Great Mary Oliver card.
Beren collapsed gracelessly beneath a tree, curling up in his cloak and dreaming of bread and cheese, or even of wild roots and berries. He had been unable to find anything edible that day, and his own stores had run out long ago. Worse, it was growing dark, and he did not know this part of Dorthonion well enough to find a place to rest that would be well hidden from the orcs on patrol.
His head jerked up at a rustling in the brush. As he tensed, a deer emerged. It stopped and stared at him, and he at her, for what felt like a year and a day. Finally, she moved, stepping forward and leaning down to nudge at his shoulder. Beren exhaled slowly, and reached up with trembling fingers to pet her smooth neck once, then twice. Then she stepped away, regarding him with soft dark eyes for a moment more. Another nudge to his shoulder, and she turned away, walking carefully and near-silently back to the honeysuckle thicket from which she had emerged. Beren watched her disappear into it, and then blinked when she appeared again, looking at him almost expectantly.
It was like an answer to a prayer he had not spoken. He got to his feet and stumbled after the doe. She led him through thick honeysuckle laden with flowers, and through flowering blackberry brambles, until they came to a clear stream bubbling up from a spring, and by the spring a great tree that he could climb and yet find a place high out of the reach of orcs to sleep in. High in its branches a nightingale trilled.
The deer nudged his arm again, and he reached up to pet her head, scratching behind her ears without thinking, as he had pet his father's hounds once upon a time. "Thank you," he whispered hoarsely.
The spring water was the sweetest he had drunk in weeks, and he slept that night in the branches of the tree more soundly than he had since his father had died, beneath clear skies filled with stars.
