When we first started our Akallabêth in August challenge in 2008, the fandom was very different. Second Age fanworks were relatively rare—hence the challenge—as were fanworks focusing on women and characters of color. As for femslash??
As we close out our seventeenth Akallabêth in August—which we've mostly run unofficially since its inception but which shapes the challenges we plan during August—fanworks look different in a lot of ways. Many creators aim to increase the visibility of women, characters of color, and LGBTQ+ characters in their fanworks, and of course, the Second Age is no longer an obscure pocket of Arda's history. For our very first Themed Collection, Himring has gathered fanworks that prove that point in many ways, focusing on the three ruling queens of Númenor: Tar-Ancalimë, Tar-Telperiën, and Tar-Vanimeldë.
"Named female characters with any accompanying biographical information are not all that common in the Legendarium," Himring writes in her introduction to the collection. "Even fewer of these are shown exercising political power." The three ruling queens are a notable exception to that rule—yet they still remain somewhat obscure, with most information about them coming from Unfinished Tales, and as Himring also notes, with "tantalizing gaps in the available canon material that invite filling in and expansion by fan interpretations." As Himring's collection shows, creators have done admirable work to fill those gaps, often expanding the diversity of the people of Arda as they do so.
Himring has selected eleven works of fanfiction and fanart that show various perspectives on the ruling queens. But our Themed Collections are not in any way intended to be definitive, and if you find that your favorite story, art, or other fanwork about these three intriguing women is missing, we encourage expanding the collection by leaving a comment so that others can fall in love with it too!
You can check out the fanworks Himring chose for "The Ruling Queens of Númenor" here.
Finally, we invite anyone who is passionate about fanworks focused on a specific topic to consider creating a Themed Collection for an upcoming newsletter. You can find our call for contributors here.
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Featured Article
The Ruling Queens of Númenor by Himring
For our first Themed Collection, Himring collects fanfiction and fan art about the three ruling queens of Númenor: Tar-Ancalimë, Tar-Telperiën, and Tar-Vanimeldë.
Art Credit: Narisz (Tumblr)
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
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