Tolkien Meta Week Round-Up (Volume 19, Issue 51)

Last week, we closed out our first time running a Tolkien Meta Week. With our Mereth Aderthad 2025 event coming up in July and our call for presenters currently open, we are spotlighting all of the brilliant work that fans do in advancing what we know and understand about Tolkien's world.

Fans can often push the boundaries of how we understand Tolkien's world in ways that academics can't. After all, we are not navigating the politics of a workplace (and one in academia at that!). That's not to diminish how hard it is to have one's cherished ideas panned or attacked in fan communities and social networks. Our fandom history is full of examples of fans advocating for new readings of Tolkien and then experiencing harassment and aggressive opposition to their ideas, and this continues to this day with the alt-right misappropriation of Tolkien. But without our work attached to our jobs and our ability to use pseudonymity as a buffer between our fanworks and threats to our livelihood, fans have pushed Tolkien studies in new directions in ways that often go unrecognized.

We were writing, discussing, and debating the role of women in the legendarium, queer readings of Tolkien, disability in the legendarium, and reading the legendarium as history, among others, long before these became hot topics on the scholarly side of Tolkien fandom. Mereth Aderthad seeks to recognize fan contributions to Tolkien studies, and Tolkien Meta Week was part of that. We ended up with thirty-one works of meta posted to our tumblr and the SWG archive. These works spanned all topics, ages, texts, and characters and used a variety of formats and approaches to share ideas about Tolkien.

We hope that at least some of our Tolkien Meta Week contributors will consider sending us a proposal to share their work at Mereth Aderthad. However, we recognize that making this leap is a big one. In the weeks to come, watch this space, our site, and our socials for more information on how we will be supporting fans who want to present their work, either at Mereth Aderthad or at another Tolkien conference.

A huge thank you and congratulations to our Tolkien Meta Week participants! All thirty-one of their works are below. If you find something you love or that got you thinking, we encourage letting the creator know or (if on Tumblr) reblogging their work!

The adaptation of Elves in Peter Jackson's movies and how it influences my (and I would guess our?) perception by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

The Aging of Elves by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

Aredhel, the White Lady of the Noldor by @erendur (Tumblr)

Arwen Character Analysis by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

A Change in Circumstances by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Denethor and Theoden as Fathers: A Comparison by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Elves are per default bi-sexual. Period. Sex always marks marriage is bullshit. Period. There are polyamorous relationships in Valinor. My hot-takes on the Laws and Customs by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

Eowyn and Gothic Horror by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Eowyn and Masking by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Eowyn and the Hobbits by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Eowyn and Theoden by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Fibers in Fiction - A Silmarillion Writer’s Guide to Þerindë's Craft by @amorbidcorvid (Tumblr)

Finding Celebrían by @balrogballs (Tumblr)

From the Book of Lost Tales to the Silmarillion and further - the rounding off of a character by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

Galadriel's Successor by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Gender Roles and Faramir's Ultimate Triumph by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

Heroes of old and despair by @nerdanelparmandil (Tumblr)

Libraries at the Edge of Middle-earth: Fanworks, Archives, and Communities as Heritage by Dawn "Felagund" Walls-Thumma (SWG archive)

My Open-Source Tolkien Studies Data Sets by @dawnfelagund (Tumblr)

On Dwarves and Glass-making by Artano (SWG archive)

On Feanor Asking for Galadriel's Hair: A Meta on a Long-Debated Topic by @mircallaruthven (Tumblr)

Open Letter to Silmarillion- and Wider Tolkien-Fandom by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

The Self-Destruction of Elu Thingol by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

Tolkien's "Collected Poems": A Link Collection by Himring (SWG archive)

Tolkien through an Aromantic Lens by daughterofshadows (SWG archive)

Untitled by @in-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras (Tumblr)

Untitled by @kanalaure (Tumblr)

Untitled by @torchwood99 (Tumblr)

What is canon in Tolkien's universe? How to deal with the History of Middle-Earth and Tolkien's Letters by @ladysternchen (Tumblr)

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild Presents Mereth Aderthad 2025 - July 19, 2025, Burlington, VT and online - A celebration of creativity and scholarship inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien

SWG News

New Fanworks

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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?

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.

SWG News

New & Updated Fanworks

Current Challenge

Random Challenge

New in References

Featured Themed Collection

Beyond the Silmarillion

Around the World and Web

Subscribe to the SWG Newsletter

SWG News

New Fanworks

Updated Fanworks

Around the World and Web