Mereth Aderthad is coming on July 19, 2025! In celebration of our twentieth birthday, we are gathering in-person in Burlington, Vermont, USA, and online to share presentations of meta and fanworks based on the works of Tolkien.

This week, we opened our interest form for creators who would like to share a fanwork as part of Mereth Aderthad. There will be two options for fanworks, which will accompany the research and meta presentations that are also part of the event. Fanworks of all types are welcome! Mereth Aderthad is a live event, so we will have time set aside for sharing fanworks as part of the event. If you'd rather not present your fanwork live, we will also produce a fanzine as part of the event.

As we build the schedule for Mereth Aderthad, we cannot overemphasize that our priority is that people who want to share their work as part of Mereth Aderthad be able to share their work as part of Mereth Aderthad. We know that speaking at an event is not for everyone. Pre-recorded presentations are welcome. Having someone else read your fanwork is welcome. If you want to participate but need accommodations, you can reach out to the SWG mods at any time, and we will do our best to make that happen.

Right now, we are asking creators who might be interested in sharing a fanwork as part of Mereth Aderthad to complete our interest form. If you fill out the form, we will contact you twice. On February 7, we will send out the presentations for Mereth Aderthad that we need fanworks for. On February 15, we will email you the sign-up form. Filling out the interest form does not obligate you to sign up for Mereth Aderthad.

If you want to know more about what we're looking for, the full call for fanworks is available on our website. If you have questions, hit REPLY on this email or contact the mods through the website or any of our social media.

This weekend, we will be instadrabbling on our Discord server! Instadrabbling is a Tolkien fanworks tradition that has been going on for more than twenty years. Creators gather on a chat together, someone tosses a prompt out out to the group, and everyone creates a small fanwork in response and shares it in the chat. While traditionally, fanworks are drabbles, we put less stock in tradition than we do in welcoming as many creators as we can, so all Tolkien-based fanworks are welcome, regardless of length or format. This round, any prompts are welcome, though the mods promise prompts aimed at earning stamps for the Jubilee challenge. Likewise, if you want to come hang out and enjoy the fanworks being created, you are also welcome! You can join our Discord server here.

SWG News

New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.

Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.

Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.

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. The interest form for fanworks creators is open! Fanworks sign-ups begin on February 15.

Fun and Games

Tolkien Connections

We periodically feature Tolkien-themed puzzles made by our members. The New York Times' game Connections requires players to group a set of words into four groups of four. This week's puzzle is Something Tolkien-y, created by Elleth! Find full directions on how to play here. If you'd like to make a puzzle, reply to this newsletter or contact us. Past games can be found in the Tolkien Connections collection.

Something Tolkien-y by Elleth - click to play

New Fanworks

Is it raining with you? by AdmirableMonster [Writing]

In the last days of Númenor, two very different men meet in Umbar and fall in love.

(Please note that while this work is heavily inspired by Disco Elysium, no knowledge of the game is necessary to read the fic!)

Read more ...

Wrensong and Roses by Isilme_among_the_stars [Writing]

Concerned by his responses to the paraphernalia of healing, Fingon steals Maedhros from his room for an impromptu garden excursion. Maedhros battles with dark thoughts.

Read more ...

Bon(e)fire by Fuin [Writing]

On the night before the battle, Caranthir and his ally share thoughts about their peoples' traditions:

Burning bones ward off evil.

Read more ...

McShady by Babblecat [Writing]

Melkor has himself a bad time in the Void. 

 

Read more ...

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.

Read more ...

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.)

Read more ...

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. 

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 ...

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?

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

Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.

Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.

Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026 to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.”