New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.
SWG News
Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.
New Challenge: Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy
The fan studies column Cultus Dispatches returns with a history of how Tolkien fanworks fandom has reacted and resisted generative AI by drawing strong boundaries in a way that is not typical for the fandom.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] The Second Music by Hilya Lórienva
The story diverges from canon at the beginning of the Second Age (SA 600). In this alternate timeline, Sauron does not adopt the guise of Annatar to deceive the Elves of Eregion. Instead, he pursues a different path of dominion - one that threatens the very foundations of Arda itself.
[Writing] Funeral Dirge by Artano
Two Dwarves mourn the loss of their lord after the Ninraeth Arnoediad.
[Writing] She who holds a Circa by vigil_ardensole
She is one and many, the heroine and the victim, the courageous and the victim, the dead and the living, her feelings and sufferings are felt and shared together, and no justice, divine or earthly could mend her pain in the aftermath.
[Writing] Systems in place by daughterofshadows
Tuor arrives in Gondolin and admires the gardens.
[Writing] From That Rubble by StarSpray
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I…
[Writing] Add Another Stone by StarSpray
The thing about forgiveness, he thought, was that it was so much easier when the object of it was far away—or dead. It was so much easier to let it all go when those responsible were far away and unable to do any more harm.
[Writing] How Tolkien Presents Ordinary People in "The Silmarillion" by Dawn Felagund
Inspired by collecting the prompts for the Everyman challenge, this essay considers how ordinary people are subsumed and silenced in The Silmarillion, which begins a three-book arc that ends with the rise of the humble and ordinary.
Current Challenge
Scavenger Hunt
Solves clues to find your prompts for this Matryoshka challenge. Read more ...
Random Challenge
First Lines
Choose a famous first line to start your own story or inspire a non-written fanwork. Read more ...
New in References
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.
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.
Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the parallels between the concept of abnegation in the scientific work surrounding the atomic bomb and in The Silmarillion. The relinquishment of self-interest in favor of the interests of others, abnegation was identified by Tolkien as a powerful act of spirit and reason. The legendarium has many examples of the complexities of abnegation, which parallel similar discussions held by physicists during and after World War II.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
Bilbo, the strange old hobbit with the wandering feet, senses something special in young Frodo the first time he sees the lad; as they become close, they find in each other a cameraderie not well understood by other hobbits. Five poignant moments between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins over the course…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Around the World and Web
Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.
Aspec Arda Week 2026
This week-long event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is back for another summer of collaboration between artists and writers!
Comment by Himring for Elladan and Elrohir
Those two do have an impressive genealogy, don't they?
There's a lot in here! I'm looking forward to the second half.
Re: Comment by Himring for Elladan and Elrohir
Awww! Thanks! (I need to get back to it. I took a break and now its almost bio-time again!)
Comment by elfscribe for Elladan and Elrohir
Fantastic work, Oshun -- as always. You condense a lot of material into very readable fashion, which is especially hard to do, I think, when there is a lot of genealogy to sort through. lol. I'm the one who can never remember the difference between once removed and second cousin. The twins have always been among my favorite LOTR characters but, of course, they have very little face time in the actual books. I liked your comment about how much fanfic has filled in for them, such that as a result they loom larger in the story than they are in actual canon. Yay for fanfic! I especially appreciated your comment about them as romantic Arthurian-type knight characters, even down to Tolkien's language about them. Well done!
Re: Comment by elfscribe for Elladan and Elrohir
You are a sweetheart to read it and hop in here and tell me how you like. I am minutes away from finishing the final half of this one. So I have to go back and wrap it up! I hope you can find the time to read it too. Old school LotR fans and fanfic writers do so love to love Elladan and Elrohir--I place myself firmly in that camp! Seriously! What is not to love about them. Not sure I have done them justice, but at least I got it out of my system (mostly). I keep telling Dawn that this conclusion I am writing now is the "good part." The good part actually might have been written by a number of my early-2000s post-movie fanfic writers.
Comment by Spiced Wine for Elladan and Elrohir, Part 2
This was wonderful, Oshun. I have read about and occasionally written these two, and you have painstakingly unearthed and set out all their history. They’re so peripheral in LOTR, but so fascinating, and this was wonderfully written. (As always).
Re: Comment by Spiced Wine for Elladan and Elrohir, Part 2
Thank you so much! I appreciate you reading it and taking the time to comment. My intent when researching them was to try to find out what made characters about which so little is said to be so attractive to readers. I never really answered that question, but finally came up in my head with the idea that it is context--the weight of history they carry and the time and place within which they struggle and the fact that, at that moment, they are slipping, like their kinsman and those who came before them, out of history into legend.
Comment by ziggy for Elladan and Elrohir, Part 2
Brilliantly informative and inspiring. Thank you for writing this- when I just need some inspiration and fact checking, I always come here! SHould have left countless reviews but lazy and taking you for granted:/ Thank you again. Got what I needed and off again, inpsired and enthused:)
Re: Comment by ziggy for Elladan and Elrohir, Part 2
Oh, thanks so much! I do enjoy comments, but I want people to pop in whenever they want to find what they need. If the bio doesn't contain the info, we try to provide enough sources, that one of those will send you in the right direction.
Thanks again. I got a kick out of writing Elladan and Elrohir! A labor of love.