New Challenge: Allusive
Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
SWG News
Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
New Challenge: Building Middle-earth
Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey
Ten years of demographic data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey show consistencies in who reads and writes fanfiction, as well as a few key demographic shifts.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] House of Finwë by softmoonlightmelody
One drabble per Finwëan. Currently on first and second generations.
[Writing] The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
[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] A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
[Writing] Into the West by Grundy
Dawn does not call sailing off into the unknown with a guy they've only known a few days a great plan.
[Writing] Explain This by Elrond's Library
Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.
[Writing] Message in a Bottle by StarSpray
Over the course of his very long life he had found a handful of messages in bottles, but it had been a very long time. So when he found the glass bottle on his little stretch of pebbly beach, he picked it up with the intention of tossing it into his recycling. But it wasn’t, he found, just…
Current Challenge
Random Challenge
New in References
"The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far) by Dawn Walls-Thumma
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies mark perhaps the most influential events in the history of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. As the Rings of Power show approaches its third season, data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows that it is not even close to matching the impact of the films ... yet.
Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Artwork] A Memento of Faery by Grundy
TRSB26 art 144 - an artifact brought back from Faerie by a Starbearer.
[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…
Around the World and Web
Sindar Week 2026
A Tolkien event week for the Sindar, the Grey-Elves, from the Years of the Trees to the Third Age.
Finwean Sibblings Prompt Fest 2026
A prompt-based fandom event aiming to focus on celebrating Finwë's children: Fëanor, Findis, Fingolfin, Lalwen, & Finarfin - ships, gen relationships, or character-centric
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
Gigolas Week 2026
Gigolas Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Legolas and Gimli
Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.
Very beautiful, very…
Very beautiful, very powerful! (forgive the somewhat facetious remark but it's the first thing that came to mind!) This *was* both, though, and such wonderful imagery!
But I’m a Vala of extremes
Oh isn't *that* the truth!!
I teach you the meaning of change
?
Thank you! I'm happy that…
Thank you! I'm happy that you liked it. ?
☯️
Yoh! Your poem is thought provoking, presenting Melkor here as very yin: calm, quiet, dark, potential — in contrast to his very yang manifestation on Arda. Just like yang refers to the sunny side of the hill and yin is the shady side, with each having their time in the cycles, and neither being constant, instead merging, complementing, flowing through each other as essential parts of the whole...
"You can’t stop the time you’ve created
And time is a spiral, not a line
[...]
I’m searching for a greater light"
Your drawing in itself is very evocative of his emotion, his posture and expression. And I really love the way the he glows in the dark with the light behind and the stars in the distance.
Ooh, nice thought that he is…
Ooh, nice thought that he is here in his "yin" phase compared to his usual "yang", but indeed, that was something I tried to describe here!
The light and "stars" in the drawing are actually impurities: sunlight caused the light effect on paper as I took a photo of my art, and the stars are loose pastel powder... but I was quite happy with the unintended effect, and did not take another picture!
Stunning poem and art
I'd not read or seen this before and it is utterly beautiful. Even in the Void, Melkor is banking his power, knowing that another time for him will come. Just wow.
Oh, thank you so much! I'm…
Oh, thank you so much! I'm happy you find it beautiful. Melkor is a character who you can almost better describe in poetry than in prose.
This was fascinating; I love…
This was fascinating; I love how it takes what many see as a negative punishment and changes the perspective to biding one's time to fully grow. And the idea throughout of him being a seed adds an interesting impression to the poem, where it becomes one of life instead of focused purely on the destruction he will wreck when he escapes. Finally, the line "I know the song of change" is a very cool reference back to the beginning of the Silm!