Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch knows most people reading this don't like Elu Thingol. And she's really not here to convince you differently.
"I’m not aiming to make anyone like Elu Thingol," Stella explained in a recent interview with Quente about her upcoming Mereth Aderthad presentation "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist – a defence of Elu Thingol." Stella goes on to say, "I just find that fandom really treats him unfairly."
Stella gets why people think Thingol is a jerk. "He is not the most likeable character, I don’t deny that he did much wrong," she says, "but so did most characters in The Silmarillion we get into contact with." In her presentation, Stella is hoping to make the case for reading Thingol with more nuance—nuance that is often granted freely by fans to other characters who are often jerks and worse—and like a real person in all his human complexity.
Stella's interview is part of an ongoing series we are doing in the lead-up to Mereth Aderthad, to let attendees get to know presenters and creators and a little about their work before the event. You can read Quente's full interview with Stella here and find her fanworks on our site under the penname LadySternchen.
In other news, Anna (IdleLeaves) has kindly offered to host monthly instadrabbling sessions on the SWG Discord! The first is this Saturday, March 1, at 18:00/6PM UTC. (You can find that in your timezone here.) If you're not a member of our Discord, you can join here. This month's theme for prompts is song lyrics.
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. Tolkien Connections #5, created by Cuarthol, can be accessed 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.


Featured Article
Interview with Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch by Quente
Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch has always felt deeply connected to the character of Elu Thingol. In this interview, Quente asks about this connection and how Stella sees Thingol as unjustly treated by many in the fandom.
Art Credit: Elu Thingol by Carlandrea (Tumblr)
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.