This past week was the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, which is a good reminder to me to pause and reflect with gratitude on the many people who make the SWG possible. A group of this scope would be impossible for one person to run; the SWG would have folded years ago, by necessity, if not for the ongoing support of our moderators and volunteers.

First, I want to recognize Saelind, who after six years as a moderator on Discord, is stepping back to pursue other exciting opportunities outside of fandom. Serving as a Discord mod is a role with unique challenges. Our moderator channel looks rather like the stereotypical firehouse, where the firefighter-mods are mostly playing cards, cooking chili, and throwing a ball for the firehouse Dalmatian, until ... fear, fire, foes! Discord allows us to interact in real time, but this also means that conflicts kick off in real time too, and our server mods often must drop what they're doing to handle situations that, in the moment, can feel a lot like a house on fire. Saelind has spent six years helping us through these moments and has always given wise counsel. We wish her the best in her new endeavours!

Also on our mod team, Grundy is a server and challenge mod. She is the person who gives out the challenge stamps! Anyone who remembers the stamp collections on the old site knows I was not so timely as she is! Shadow, also a Discord mod, has stepped up as a third challenge mod in Lyra's old role, as Lyra is on hiatus, and I am grateful for their willingness to take on this new role. Challenges are one of the aspects of our site that keeps it vibrant and lively, but twenty years in, coming up with fresh and new approaches to making fanworks is, pardon the pun, a challenge. Thank you, Janeways, our final Discord mod and the creator of many of the beautiful banners that are featured for our newsletter articles. I am grateful for your willingness to share your artistic talents and to jump in wherever you're needed!

Russandol is my co-admin in running the site from a tech standpoint. She manages much of the backend of the site. She and I have spent many white-knuckle hours in DMs, trying to figure out why the site is broken or running updates that we hope won't break the site. "Why, Drupal, why??" is our motto. I always appreciate her willingness to share her tech skills with us to keep our site secure and running!

On our newsletter staff, our art editor is Anérea, whose vast knowledge of the art side of Tolkien fandom means we have diverse and lovely artwork to accompany newsletter articles. Varda delle Stelle is the assistant art editor and also helps source art and with gaining permissions. Elrond's Library is our Around the World & Web editor, who keeps the announcements in our newsletter updated so that, we hope, SWG members can connect with events and challenges that enchant their muses.

Also assisting on Discord are our Istari, Ettelenë and Nienna, who help to welcome newcomers and answer questions. Anna (IdleLeaves) has been running monthly instadrabbling sessions on Discord as well for the better part of a year, and these are always a highlight of the month! (One is coming up next week.)

I want to note as well something that I've observed about volunteers in my two decades of running this group. Everyone here does much more than what I recognized them for. Despite what is already on their plate as volunteers, theirs are the hands that raise first when something needs to be done, and many of them run events outside of the SWG as well. Much of this work goes unseen and unsung.

Tolkien fandom has existed for many decades now. Thank you to ALL of the fandom volunteers, past and present, who have given their time, energy, and talents to keeping the gates of Middle-earth open so that we can return again and again.

SWG News

New Challenge: Title Track
Tolkien's titles range from epic to lyrical to metaphorical. This month's challenge selected 125 of them as prompts for fanworks.

Instadrabbling Sessions for January, February, and March
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.

Character of the Month: Marhwini
A minor character who doesn't appear in any of Tolkien's major works, Marhwini nonetheless plays a key role in the histories of Rohan and Gondor, and his character exemplifies the essential theme of the importance of acting in service of an alliance.

New Fanworks

Umnenyalië by by Serinquanion [Writing]

He was going to die. The molten rocks would burn him just like the cursed gem in his palm did. Maybe less painfully but still being burnt hurt and Maedhros knew it. He intimately knew it from his time in Angband where Þauron burnt him often in frustration and to toy with him and his master burnt his skin even more often just to mock his ancestry. At least here he would pass on to Mandos and not linger in pain only to be sewed back together to be tortured again and again.

But it wasn't true for his next clear memory was of the same pain from which he escaped soon and half-mad entered the Girdle to never never leave till now.

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Winter Warmth by by Serinquanion [Writing]

A winter night in Himring. But inside the quarters where fire blazed in hearth was warmer, and not only from the fire or quilt.

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In Early Spring by by Serinquanion [Writing]

In what Maedhros was re-embodied early and was sent back to Middle Earth on his volition with Glorfindel.

This isn't about what happened right then but years after Fall of Sauron when he still refused to return to Valinor.

He found a strange sapling at the shore of what remains of Cuiviénen.

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Who Will Hear Me? by by XirinOfArvada [Writing]

A lonely elf finds a flute half buried beneath the sand and wonders if its owner will hear him when he calls.

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Loyal, Faithful by by Himring [Writing]

Late in the Second Age, one of the Faithful reflects critically on past developments. (Free verse.)

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East Away! by by Flora-lass [Writing]

Aldarion storms off towards Middle-earth. For the Title Track challenge.

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Don't You Ever Look Away by by Elrond's Library [Writing]

“They can’t just assume we’ll let them leave us behind.”
“But they are, and they will. Our fathers are the Heads of their Houses. Fëanáro is king. Defiance would be treason, beloved.”
“I am his firstborn.”
“You are his only daughter.”
“I have done everything to be the son he wished me to be.”
“And yet, you are not.”

Findekánë and Maitindë do not go to Beleriand with their fathers. This changes very little, and yet so much.
For Scribbles and Drabbles 2025 SFW Slide 213 Two Queens

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Break Me by by Elrond's Library [Writing]

“You’re not going to break me,” Russo huffed, finally cracking open his eyes, which were bright with amusement. “They could not, what makes you think you could?”

For Scribbles and Drabbles 2025 SFW Slide 33
 

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Three Black Islands by by Idrils Scribe [Writing]

When Celebrimbor's attempts at forging the Rings of Power fail yet again, Annatar knows where to find the missing know-how.
For all the wrong reasons, Celebrimbor agrees to an expedition to the ruins of Angband to search Morgoth's own laboratory, deep in the icy Northern Wastes.
What awaits those two in the Hells of Iron?
A spooky season special, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness'.

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The Fall by by Elrond's Library [Writing]

Ossë raged.

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The Mirror Crack'd by 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?

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Beating Fate by by Paul Williams [Writing]

Lúthien, a woman who has spent her entire existence being acted upon — desired, directed, possessed, mourned, celebrated, but never truly seen — reaches the end of her borrowed life and discovers that death is not an ending but the first free choice she has ever been permitted to make.
 

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Updated Fanworks

One Flesh, One Soul. Part I by by FellFireFan [Writing]

As beautiful as he is dangerous, Aegnor, an elven prince, stands against the looming shadows of Angband. Brother to Galadriel, he commands the siege with a fierce intensity, a duty that exacts a heavy toll on him. Beneath the iron walls he has built lies a broken soul, haunted by a devastating trauma and a well of deeply guarded secrets. His demons, kept at bay by his unyielding intensity that is both his greatest gift and his biggest curse. 

Little does our Noldorin prince know that a chance encounter with a terrified young girl of men will set him on a collision course, igniting an extraordinary bond wrought with challenges, sacrifices, and intense love that threatens to unravel his guarded heart, and all he keeps within it.

Brace yourself for Part I of this captivating tale, where the primal power of love and devestating loss will tear lives apart forever.

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert by by StarSpray [Writing]

“Come on.” Maedhros grabbed his hand and pulled him along down the path, both of them quickening their pace now, until the trees opened up into a wide meadow filled with flowers, bright yellow celandine and dandelions and sweet-scented pale chamomile mingling with cornflowers and irises. On the other side of it was a larger party than Maglor had ever seen in Lórien—five figures sitting in the grass. Huan barked again, and they all looked up. “It seems everyone has come to fetch us home,” Maedhros said, laughing, as all their brothers scrambled to their feet.

After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.

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Beyond the Silmarillion Fanworks

here you will dwell, bound to your grief by by Elrond's Library [Writing]

Arwen grieves, and loves.

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Around the World and Web

March Challenge - Tolkien Short Fanworks
Tolkien Short Fanworks is running a challenge for the month of March to create a Back to Middle-earth Month themed challenge.

Back to Middle-earth Month 2026
Back to Middle-earth Month is returning for it's 20th year with many prompts and archival efforts.

Tolkien Fashion Week 2026
This two-week-long Tumblr event is dedicated to honoring the world of fashion and textiles Tolkien wrote about in his books.

Celegorm and Curufin Week 2026
Celegorm and Curufin Week is a Tumblr week celebrating the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin Feanorion