In 2006, after the films had ended and as the Lord of the Rings fandom began to fade like First Age Elves with no wars to fight, an anonymous* fan proposed the idea of Back to Middle-earth Month or B2MeM. The concept was simple: Pick a day of the week and post something Middle-earth-related on that day throughout the month of March.

B2MeM, then, was never owned by anyone. So while it is deeply entwined with the SWG's history, there is no point where B2MeM was an SWG event. Rather, for many years, the SWG ran a B2MeM event ... but other groups were free to run B2MeM events too and in fact often did!

This year is the nineteenth year that B2MeM has run in some form. It is a tale that has grown in the telling. From its humble origins, it grew in some years to highly organized and complex events. (In other years, the mods attempted to tame it to reasonable proportions, with mixed success.) In a fandom that has many large events, B2MeM is unique in that way: Part of the point was that every year should be different. (Of course, B2MeM belongs to no one so this isn't mandatory! But it is definitely how it's unfolded so far.) When the SWG ran a B2MeM event, we tried to make every year's event different from the last. For example, it was an unofficial rule that daily prompts would never run multiple years in a row! The thinking behind this was maximum inclusivity. If this year's event wasn't your speed, there was a good chance the next year's might be.

It's now March, so it's Back to Middle-earth Month. And, for the nineteenth time, there is something happening for B2MeM. This year's event is The Minhiriath Midway, and this year's organizers have many ways to get involved. Or go back to the OG B2MeM concept: read or view a fanwork, write something, make something, draw something, comment on someone's work, reblog or signal boost, jump into a discussion, answer someone's question, spend an hour reading a favorite chapter or work from Tolkien. Do something. Keep the fandom not just alive but vibrant!

*At least, they've remained anonymous this long. If you know who came up with the idea of B2MeM, hit REPLY and let me know! Their idea is responsible for many years of joy and thousands of fanworks ... and a Tolkien fandom that long outlasted the LotR films.