Last week, we held two instadrabbling sessions on our Discord server that, togther, totalled about ten hours of creating and sharing fanworks together. (Check the New Fanworks list below to find many of them!) Live events are always really fun, and last week was no exception.

If you enjoy live events on our Discord server, we want to encourage you to consider hosting one! The quote in this week's newsletter title comes from the Ainulindalë and speaks to the power of many minds and hands building something together. The SWG moderators host live events a couple of times per year, but these are typically oriented toward SWG events. However, we welcome events hosted by members and, if you have an idea for an event, are here to support you in making it happen!

What types of events do we host on our server? Of course, there is instadrabbling. While instadrabbling has a traditional format, we welcome hosts to completely abandon it if they want. If you'd like to organize an impromptu micro-fanworks creation session, whether open-ended or themed, consider hosting an instadrabbling session! Also note that the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server is always open for impromptu sessions as well.

We've also hosted fanfiction book clubs in the past where we gather and discuss fanworks written about a specific topic, character, pairing, genre, or theme. Book clubs are positive-focused discussion groups that read fanfiction as literary (or literary criticism) and offer the chance to take a deep-dive into what makes a story tick.

Finally, we also host live readings of fanworks in our stage channel. Again, these sessions can be built around a theme, can be open-ended, or take an open-mic approach (or a mix of the aforementioned). In all cases, we hope to both encourage the creation of more Tolkien-based fanworks and showcase the beautiful, thought-provoking, an entertaining work our members create.

In all instances, the SWG moderators support hosts as needed with promotions and logistics. While you will primarily plan and host your event, we're always available behind the scenes to offer assistance when and where needed. We are also happy to help first-time hosts with the questions and worries that always arise when trying something like this for the first time!

Most events are held on our Discord server, but the SWG also has a Zoom account. And if you have an idea for an event that doesn't fit any of the above, let us know what you're thinking, and we'll help if we can to make it happen. If you're interested in hosting an event, reply to this email or reach out using any of our usual contacts!

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 can be found here! 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.

Tolkien Connections #2 - 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.”