New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King
Cross "The Silmarillion" with a second text or fandom in this month's crossover challenge.
SWG News
A Sense of History: Thálatta! Thálatta!
While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
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!
New Challenge: Tengwar
Each day for thirty-six days, we feature a randomly chosen letter from the Tengwar as a prompt.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Tengwar: To The Letter by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge. To be updated as new prompts are completed.
Current up through '…
[Writing] A blip on the radar by daughterofshadows
Humanity took to the skies. Eärendil and Ilmarë adjust.
[Writing] History abandons us by AdmirableMonster
During his incarceration in Roderick Burgess' basement, Dream receives a strange, ancient visitor.
[Writing] Tengwar Acrostics by Himring
Responses to the Tengwar Challenge in which first letters spell out the name of a tengwa.
1) Early Encounter (Nerdanel, Indis)
2) Numenorean Lullaby (Almarian, Aldarion)
[Writing] Tengwar Drabbles by cílil
A collection of Silmarillion-centric drabbles written for the Tengwar Challenge. Short and sweet!
[Writing] If i get home before daylight by BloodwingBlackbird
a traveler meets a stranger at a crossroads.
Current Challenge
Crossroads of the Fallen King
Create a fanwork that crosses with a second text or fandom. Read more ...
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Songs of Arda
Create a fanwork about music. Read more ...
New in References
Thálatta! Thálatta! by Simon J. Cook
[]While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
[]
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.
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
Mythcon 53: Fantasies of the Middle Lands
Mythcon 53 will be held 2-5 August 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the theme "Fantasies of the Middle Lands."
Teitho May/June Challenge: Joker
For the May/June Teitho challenge, you can pick ANY of our past challenges that stir your imagination and write a story or create art for it.
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!
The Myth Hanging Heavy Over You by stormfallen
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Chapter 1
"Do you remember...?"
"Nana sang as she rolled lembas dough. A song about, um, strength and...no-nour–healthy food! Do you remember?"
"She handed it out to everyone. Edhil and Edain. Do you remember?"
"She looked so sad when she ran out. She wanted to bake more, but there was too little corn. Do you remember?"
"She always saved a piece for Ada. I saw her leave the house with it once when you were sleeping. Do you remember?"
"She came back with empty leaves when I woke up early. She'd been crying. Did she eat it?"
"Do you remember?"
“Your mother jumped off the cliff. She turned into a bird. She hasn’t come back for you. I’m busy, go find Maglor.”
“No you’re not. That’s a 357 import schedule from Thargelion you’re pretending to review.”
“Fine. She screamed at us. Called me various rude words. Asked where her family was. That was rhetorical, I presume. Then she told us it was all for nothing and jumped. She hit the water and turned into a bird. We realized afterwards that she'd tried to draw us away from you."
"She hit the water first?"
"That is not a sound one forgets."
“Elwing?” Oropher jerks upwards from the sword he sharpens, hawk-like gaze drilling into Elrond’s own. “She was brave, and dedicated, and ruled our people with justice and wisdom, and never bowed beneath the burden laid upon her. That…filth was unworthy to merely lay eyes on her." He returns to his sharpening with renewed vigor, as if said filth dulled the blade. "A true heir of Elu Thingol! I would have followed her to the pits of Angband if she asked."
But you would not follow me, Elrond does not say. There is too much of that filth on him.
Gil-Galad stands quietly as the question hangs in the air between them, but that is hardly unusual from his king. “Your mother was proud, and fierce when needed, but she knew her peoples' hearts. As proud as hers. They never accepted me as anything more than an ally, and so neither did she. She could only be a queen around me."
"So you did not know her well at all?"
"I knew her very well! Queen Elwing was still Elwing. The face of rulership was the one she wore most often. Her other faces, you would know better than I."
The High King of the Noldor in Aman is beyond exhausted and no longer trying to hide it. “Your parents miss you desperately. My wife’s people built a tower on the northern shores for Elwing, where Vingilot docks when Eärendil returns to land. There’s spare rooms, for both of you.”
Elrond hears what Finarfin does not say: I came here for my family. How can I return with none of them?
But the tower on the far shore is but a vaguery. The dirt streets and hasty shacks of Mithlond are what’s real, are home, are where he is needed.
Círdan’s eyes don’t leave the hull he’s repairing. “I remember a little girl, carrying a weight none should bear, already far too skilled at masking her fear. I remember her welcoming band after band of ragged refugees with grace and kindness, learning how to be a queen at Idril’s knee, laughing with Eärendil in the surf. I remember wings of pure Light bursting from the sea, streaking westwards unerringly. But most of all I remember that girl, when offered shelter on Balar, staring in my eyes and replying that her people would make their own refuge. Pass me that hammer.”
"Hmm? No, I barely went to Sirion, for obvious reasons. After the Kinslaying was only the fourth time; Círdan was hoping I could convince any of my uncles' stragglers to stand down. I helped dig through what was left of her house, looking for you and Elros. Hmm. There were shells on every windowsill. Two chests full of smocks and trousers for you to grow into. Handkerchiefs stashed in odd places behind shelves. Dozens of watercolors of trees— I tried keeping those for you, the ones that weren’t burnt, but they were lost in the War. As below, so above!”
“Lady Elwing?” Glorfindel raises an eyebrow. “Alas, I did not have a chance to meet her in Aman. She has her own fiefdom there, north of Alqualondë. All who cannot otherwise find a home in the Blessed Realm are welcome, and many of the survivors and Returned of Sirion have settled there as well. They mainly govern themselves, and Elwing merely sits as judge when needed. When I visited Eärendil, she kept her distance. I thought it wise not to press. But that sight, the meeting of wings and ship as the sun rises—that I was glad to witness."
With Rivendell’s strongest telescope, salvaged from the wreck of Ost-in-Edhil, Elrond can just make out the shape of Vingilot in the heavens. With Vilya’s guidance, and centuries of practice, he can mimic shedding his rhaw to cast his mind aloft into the skies, and seek the ship. It is limited, and imprecise, and terribly straining to them both, but in this manner he can, in some way, know his father.
He sends radiant wings, dark hair streaked with silver, a queen’s pride, laughter among the waves, lembas, handkerchiefs. He receives home, with such ardentness that he weeps for a week.
Celebrían hands him the letter that night, as the joys of reunion fade into the steadiness of finality, of knowing that at long last his story is concluded. “From your mother. She tried sending it during the War, but it was lost.”
“You have met her? What…what do you think of her?”
Oh, how he missed that laugh! “A woman like any other! Aye, she has known grief beyond reckoning; a loss few on this shore comprehend.”
Like you, he cannot help to think.
“But she is kind, and strong, and much relieved from her burdens.
“Go to her.”
From a letter, never delivered:
"I love you as the sky loves the stars, as the forest loves the deer, as the waves love the sand. I have loved you since you were but a spark of hope in this dying world, and I will love you until its last ashes are forgotten. I'm so proud of what you've become. I wish I could have seen you grow. I'm so sorry. I left you. I gave you up. I did not return. I'm so sorry."
From a reply, given in person:
"I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you."
Chapter End Notes
Somewhere beyond the bounds of Arda, Elros is shouting “There’s nothing to forgive!”
(He’s right, but it’s not what Elwing needs to hear right now)
Rough timeframes for when the conversations occurred:
Elros: ~540 FA
Maedhros: ~550 FA
Oropher: ~570 FA
Gil-Galad: ~570 FA
Finarfin: 590 FA/1 SA
Círdan: ~10 SA
Celebrimbor: ~800 SA
Glorfindel: ~1700 SA
Eärendil: 2511 TA
Celebrían: 1 FoA
Elwing: letter written 588 FA, reply 1 FoA
Go read some other good short Elrond and Elwing fics which helped inspire this:
History Obliterates by consumptive_sphinx
Memories, Like Grains of Sand by cuarthol
Stained Glass by polutropos
après moi, le déluge by HerenorThereNearnorFar
joy is a bird, a fragile thing by estuarie
