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)