For at least several years now, the oldest Tolkien fanfic was identified as George Heap's Departure in Peace. Published in 1960 in the fanzine I Palantir—itself credited as the first Tolkien-only fanzine—this is a clear and obvious fanfic, described in the editor's introduction to the zine as a "fictional narrative."
Recently, in one of those serendipitous collisions, SWG member and newsletter contributor Lindariel was researching the fiber hithlain used in making the Elven ropes described in LotR. She found a blog post by the scholar Douglas A. Anderson that mentioned a fanzine "article" about hithlain and was able to hunt it down at the library.
And it was fanfiction.
A Study of the Hithlain of the Wood-elves of Lórien by Arthur R. Weir is contemporaneous with "Departure in Peace"—in fact, it was published in the same issue of I Palantir. Like Heap's story, Weir's is published online via Marquette University's FellowsHub fanzine archiving project, so it is not obscure; one doesn't have to be as diligent as Lindariel was, in other words, to find and read it. So why did it go unnoticed as a fanfic for so long?
This month's Cultus Dispatches takes a look at these two old fanfiction stories. The analysis hinges on the concepts of "transformational" and "affirmational" fandom, with Heap's obviously an example of the former: It poses an alternate history of the Ring War, with Sauron the embattled and self-sacrificing defender of Mortals against colonialist oppressors. But Weir's story is more affirmationally oriented, full of textual citations, extensive notes, and structured like a research paper—likely why it went unnoticed as fanfiction ... until a fanfiction writer picked it up.
Also note that we started a new challenge this past week: our annual Matryoshka challenge, this year with prompts based around mystery novel tropes. Check out A Secret Gate here and remember that you can simply hit Reply to this email to request a prompt set.
SWG News
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.
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.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New Fanworks
Explain This by Elrond's Library [Writing]
Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.
Read more ...Message in a Bottle by StarSpray [Writing]
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 another beer bottle.
Read more ...Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard by Independence1776 [Artwork]
A Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard.
Read more ...Updated Fanworks
The Stars of Home by Idrils Scribe [Writing]
Elrohir has been found after his long abduction by the Black Númenóreans of Umbar. He comes home to Rivendell, but all is not well: the Elf-child that was taken is now a Man grown. War and darkness have left Elrohir deeply scarred, and even at home there is danger...
An alternate universe for the Under Strange Stars series, in which Elrohir goes with Glorfindel instead of running away from him after the events of Under Strange Stars. This story can be enjoyed without having read the original.
Many thanks to Grundy and Marchwriter for their excellent beta-reading and brainstorming.
Read more ...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 ...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 ...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
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
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.
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
