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] I Stood Aside by Flora-lass
Maedhros thinks about the burning ships. Inspired by a painting (see notes).
[Writing] Tengwar (working title) by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge. To be updated as new prompts are completed.
Current up through 'Anto…
[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…
[Writing] Fire in Four Quarters by sallysavestheday
For the Tengwar challenge, four poems in which Beleriand and Middle-Earth are threatened by flames (once from each cardinal direction).
Current Challenge
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Soundtrack
While usually the scenes are filmed first and the soundtrack is composed later, this month we want to challenge you to create (or continue) a story after listening to one of our musical prompts. The prompts will be pieces of classical and instrumental music. Read more ...
New in References
[]
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.
In the House of the Fairbairns by Simon J. Cook
[]The first of some posts on the Elf-tower on the western margin of The Lord of the Rings attempts to frame the relationship between the narrative and the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and an analysis of Frodo's dream-visions.
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.
W by Himring
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Chapter 1: Wains
A glimpse of a female Wainrider and her younger sister on their retreat eastwards, after attack.
No warnings, except for a hint at a darker background.
On a more usual day, they would have halted at sunset, but now the wains went rumbling on as dusk deepened about them. Her arms felt stiff with holding the reins so long and her eyes felt gritty with the dust churned up by the hooves and the wheels. Mian pushed out her head and shoulders from behind, peeking out under the cover, and, when this earned her no reproof, clambered out beside her on the driver’s seat. She lifted up her arm, allowing Mian to snuggle up against her side.
It was now fully dark and still they went on, slowing, but not stopping.
‘Look,’ said Mian, ‘the stars have come out.’
It was true. The night was clear, away from all the smoke, and the stars shone bright.
‘Look,’ she said herself, with a gesture of her chin. ‘Do you see those seven stars over there? That is the Wain. Can you distinguish the axletrees and the shaft?’
‘Like our own wains?’ asked Mian, craning her head.
‘Exactly like our wains,’ she answered. ‘The Great Wain above guides our wains below. And so, wherever we go, we can never be lost.’
Chapter End Notes
During the revolt in T.A. 1899, camps of the Wainriders south of Mirkwood were burned and young women fought to defend their homes and children. They did not all retreat eastwards, after the battle, but they were weakened and some may have thought it the wiser course.
The Great Bear (or Big Dipper) is sometimes called the Wain or Charles's Wain (and the Little Bear the Lesser Wain). This name occurs in The Hobbit, although in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings the constellation is called by other names.
Tolkien would have encountered the senses "wagon", "chariot", and "Great Bear", when working on the Oxford English Dictionary entry wain. But it is doubtful whether he had any ideas about Wainriders yet, as they did not appear in his writing until much later. It is I who have connected the celestial Wain with the Wainriders.
As far as I know, we know nothing about the language of the Wainriders. The name "Mian" was just my fancy.
