On 15 February, the Organization for Transformative Works celebrates International Fanworks Day, "a recognition of fanworks in all their forms—fics, art, vids, zines, and more—and of their awesomeness and importance for fans across the world." This year's theme is "When Fandom Collide" and focuses on crossover fanworks.
The SWG accepts crossover fanworks, so we certainly welcome takes on this year's IFD theme on our archive if they involve significant Silmarillion content. However, even if crossovers aren't your fandom jam, we want to use IFD as an opportunity to celebrate what each of you do as part of fandom, the Tolkien fandom, and the SWG specifically.
The Tolkien fandom began with the publication of The Hobbit—after all, The Lord of the Rings was written at least partly in response to fan demand for more of the world they glimpsed in The Hobbit. The first documented Tolkien-based fan writing appeared in the late 1950s, and the fandom has been writing stories, meta, and poems; making art; and creating other fanworks nonstop ever since, leaving the Tolkien fandom as one of the oldest fanworks-producing fandoms in existence.
Of course, the richness of Tolkien's worldbuilding accounts for the almost seven decades of fanworks (not to mention other fandom activity) that exist. But none of it would exist without us either: the fans who have cared not just about Middle-earth but about each other and the creative works that we make that keep the legendarium alive.
So this week, whether a creating a crossover fanwork tempts you or not, we encourage you to honor International Fanworks Day in whatever way feels most meaningful to you: create a fanwork, comment on someone else's work, join a discussion, share a resource, or check in on a fandom friend you haven't connected with recently—or whatever else inspires you! We wish you all another year of creativity and connection!
SWG News
New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New Archive Formatting Options
It recently came to our attention that center- and right-aligned formatting were not available on text fields on the archive. We have fixed this issue, so left-, center-, and right-aligned text should all be available. (Note that the <center> HTML tag, which has been deprecated since the Years of the Trees but has tended to continue to work, finally does not work. For those of you writing old-school HTML, we did try to keep it for you. Alas, the internet Ainur refused to hear our prayer. If you want to center-align text, please use the button on the rich-text editor or add a "text-align-center" class to your paragraph tag.) We've also added subscripts and a Paste from Word button.
For fun, we've also given everyone Font Awesome access, so you will be able to use Font Awesome icons in fanworks. (Why would you need subscripts or Font Awesome icons?? We don't know, but we know our community well enough to be sure someone will come up with a good use for them!) To use Font Awesome, click the flag icon in the toolbar and type the name of the icon you want.
Please let us know if you try to use these new features and they don't behave as you think they should.
New Fanworks
Is it raining with you? by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
In the last days of Númenor, two very different men meet in Umbar and fall in love.
(Please note that while this work is heavily inspired by Disco Elysium, no knowledge of the game is necessary to read the fic!)
Read more ...Wrensong and Roses by Isilme_among_the_stars [Writing]
Concerned by his responses to the paraphernalia of healing, Fingon steals Maedhros from his room for an impromptu garden excursion. Maedhros battles with dark thoughts.
Read more ...Bon(e)fire by Fuin [Writing]
On the night before the battle, Caranthir and his ally share thoughts about their peoples' traditions:
Burning bones ward off evil.
Read more ...McShady by Babblecat [Writing]
Melkor has himself a bad time in the Void.
Read more ...
Updated Fanworks
A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray [Writing]
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.
Read more ...Nasyalossë by Lovimmy3365 [Writing]
Erestor lay up against a tree, brown washed to black in the wet of the snow. The black disc of the new moon sailed across the dark sky. Erestor wished it were gone. He had no need to look into dark eyes any longer.
He was dying.
(AKA Erestor unwittingly travels back in time to the days between the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, meets the sons of Feanor, Thingol and his ilk, many Laiquendi, many Dwarves, and Men besides, and THEN decides to solve the drowning of Beleriand himself. This has nothing to do with his personal problems. Nope. Not at all. Erestor is having regular feelings.)
Read more ...Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna [Writing]
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
Read more ...From That Rubble by StarSpray [Writing]
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 have much else to do. I need to build something new there,” he said after a few moments. “To do that, I must first clear away the old and broken things.”
Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Read more ...The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
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 life and finds he has a queer connection with Maedhros, Himring's lord. As their intimacy grows, however, so do the dangers surrounding them, both without and within. What secrets are hidden inside the depths of Anniavas's lost memories--and how will those with whom he is forging and deepening bonds react, when those secrets are at last revealed?
Read more ...Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael [Writing]
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously thought on the matter who the Ainur are, who Eru is, how he matches our own religious pantheon, and this has been conducted after serious research of many esoteric teachings of our own planet's heritage.
Read more ...Around the World and Web
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026 to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.”