As we draw close to the end of the year, we often try to host a few events: opportunities to gather with other Tolkien fans and make, enjoy, and celebrate fanworks and the world Tolkien built. We have a few events coming up in the next month and hope you can join us!
Himring and Dawn will be co-hosting an instradrabbling session in the next couple of weeks, which will include prompts from our current Great Beleriand Bake-Off challenge with additions and twists for the non-bakers among us! We are still in the process of firming up a date and time, so watch our website or social media spaces for the final details. (Not sure what instadrabbling is? Keep reading because the amazing Anna will continue to offer more opportunities for quick, collaborative fanwork-creating in 2026 as well!)
On December 28 at noon Eastern Time (find this in my timezone), we will be hosting a live reading around the theme of celebrations. 2025 was, of course, a major year for celebrations for the SWG: We turned 20 years old and gathered as part of the second-ever Mereth Aderthad event. The season presents many more reasons for celebration: holidays, a new year, and the return of light for those of us in the north.
Live readings are held on the stage channel on our Discord server. Participants can read a selection up to five minutes long, either an excerpt from Tolkien, a fanwork they created, or an excerpt from a fanwork they created.
If you know you want to participate as a reader, you can sign up here. Signing up ahead of time gets your name on the program, which means the audience can follow along with your fanwork as you read, read the full fanwork if you're just presenting an excerpt, and leave you comments. However, you do not have to sign up ahead of time! Not sure if you can make it or still mustering the courage? There will be an open mic session at the end of the program for anyone who wants to read!
Reading selections should be related to the theme of celebrations, but as always, we interpret this broadly and loosely. In other words, your choice does not have to focus on seasonal celebrations, winter celebrations, or holidays.
You should only sign up a fanwork that you wrote. However, if you'd like someone else to read your fanwork for you, you can do so, but please make these arrangements prior to signing up.
And of course listeners are most welcome! Even if you don't want to read, we hope you will join us to hear the wonderful fanworks and Tolkien passages that our readers choose to share!
Finally, as noted above, Anna (IdleLeaves) is generously hosting another round of monthly instadrabbling sessions on the first Saturday of January, February, and March at 18:00/6PM UTC. You can find more details, including these dates and times in your timezone, here. This round will mark a full year of monthly instadrabbling hosted by Anna—truly something to celebrate! If you've never instadrabbled before, this is a longstanding Tolkien fanworks tradition where creators gather in a chat, toss out prompts, and make quick, impromptu fanworks to share with each other and squee over. It is low-key and fun, and all are welcome to join!
All of these events are hosted on our Discord server. Not a member? You can join our Discord server here.
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.
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.”
