Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.
SWG News
New Challenge: Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy
The fan studies column Cultus Dispatches returns with a history of how Tolkien fanworks fandom has reacted and resisted generative AI by drawing strong boundaries in a way that is not typical for the fandom.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] How Tolkien Presents Ordinary People in "The Silmarillion" by Dawn Felagund
Inspired by collecting the prompts for the Everyman challenge, this essay considers how ordinary people are subsumed and silenced in The Silmarillion, which begins a three-book arc that ends with the rise of the humble and ordinary.
[Writing] Blessed are the Leave-takers by Isilme_among_the_stars
As prince Curufinwë Fëanáro makes an historical speech from the high court of the King upon Túna, those at the back of the crowd strain to hear.
A silly little scene inspired by Monty Python's "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" scene from The Life of Brian, written for …
[Writing] After the Kinslaying by Deborah Judge
A Teleri fishing boat captain turns to farming on abandoned Noldor lands after her ship is stolen. A Noldor farmer returns with Finarfin to find that his land belongs to the Teleri now.
[Writing] I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel
In his old age, Isildur's former esquire Ruinamacil, known to later histories only as Ohtar, writes his own account of his escape from the ambush at Gladden Fields and journey to Imladris, and the history of his friend whom Isildur ordered to flee with him.
[Writing] Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
[Writing] a riot of shadow and shine by Elrond's Library
These were simply flashes, a hint of a wider, greater world. A tantalizing glimpse of more, always at the edge of awareness, never within reach. Míriel would grasp it, if something as intangible as the concept of color could overflow in bounteous wonder over her hands.
But…
[Writing] The Exchange by Elrond's Library
An exchange is made during the Great Journey
Current Challenge
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
Random Challenge
New in References
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.
Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the parallels between the concept of abnegation in the scientific work surrounding the atomic bomb and in The Silmarillion. The relinquishment of self-interest in favor of the interests of others, abnegation was identified by Tolkien as a powerful act of spirit and reason. The legendarium has many examples of the complexities of abnegation, which parallel similar discussions held by physicists during and after World War II.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
Bilbo, the strange old hobbit with the wandering feet, senses something special in young Frodo the first time he sees the lad; as they become close, they find in each other a cameraderie not well understood by other hobbits. Five poignant moments between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins over the course…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Around the World and Web
Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.
Aspec Arda Week 2026
This week-long event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is back for another summer of collaboration between artists and writers!
this illustration is so…
this illustration is so beautiful and so cozy and so warm! you've really captured the "Hobbit" aesthetic in a thing that isn't a hobbit hole and I love it!
♡
Thank you! I'm glad it feels cosy Hobbity. (I actually wouldn't mind staying there for a while!)
Given my love of teaching…
Given my love of teaching about Africa and any approach the legendarium that incorporates (in a celebratory way) cultures and influences outside of Western Europe, I absolutely love this. Headcanon 100% accepted! I agree with Azh that the warm colors make the work feel very comfortable and warm, and I love how you can almost see forward in time to Bag End: the tea kettle, the round door, the soft furniture, the warm light of the lamps.
♡
Thanks Dawn, I'm so pleased you like it. And I'm glad it carries a feel of Bagend too. (Some things don't really change that much!)
I have further headcanons about KhoiSan!Hobbits, those that migrated south instead of North, but that's a tale and painting/s for another day.
This is so gorgeous! It's so…
This is so gorgeous! It's so perfectly hobbitish while still being so different from the Shire, and the warm colors make it seem so cozy <33
♡
Thanks so much Starspray, I'm delighted you like it and find it so Hobbitish and cosy. May I pour you some tea and offer you a date-cake?.
An interesting and plausible…
An interesting and plausible theory. And the tent-hole is delightful!
♡
I'm so pleased my theory interests you and you like the Hobbit tenthole. I realise I got my timing muddled with the Entwives though: if the Hobbits only headed North after the changing of the world, the Entwives' gardens would have already been burned. Although there is the possibility, if any Entwives did survive (and I like to think some at least did) that the Hobbits met some further east, along the way.
If the Hobbits migrated…
If the Hobbits migrated directly directly after the changing of the world, there is a time window before the destruction of the land of the Entwives, which apparently happened during the War of the Last Alliance. It sounds shorter than it is, because of those long-lived Numenoreans, but it would be long enough for what you envisage, I think. (Not that I thought too hard about it earlier, but now that I'm checking, it's more than a hundred years, time enough for Elendil and his sons to found realms.)
Ahh, yes! Thanks for…
Ahh, yes! Thanks for unmuddling me. For some reason I was suddenly (un)thinking the Last Alliance was before the Change. 🙈