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: Allusive
Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
New Challenge: Building Middle-earth
Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
Fun and Games
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.
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
Finwean Sibblings Prompt Fest 2026
A prompt-based fandom event aiming to focus on celebrating Finwë's children: Fëanor, Findis, Fingolfin, Lalwen, & Finarfin - ships, gen relationships, or character-centric
Gigolas Week 2026
Gigolas Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Legolas and Gimli
Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
