In January 2017, we reconfigured our long-running creative challenges to the current format. Participation to this point had fallen off to where many challenges had no participants at all, and our moderator team at the time decided to change things up a bit in a last-ditch effort before shutting down challenges. By this point, many of us had gained experience running fandom events through annual events like Back to Middle-earth Month, and one thing we had learned was that small graphics as "prizes" were motivating and were win-win: participants liked getting them, they didn't cost a thing but the time it took to make them, and, for organizers, creating these graphics was often one of the most fun tasks to complete! We decided to offer small "postage stamps" for both creators and commenters who participated in the challenges.
We are entering our tenth year of the revised challenge system and, therefore, also the tenth year of challenge stamps. Three years ago, we decided to also ask around to see if fandom artists wanted to help with creating these stamps, and we're at that time of the year again! No matter your experience level, if you'd like to make a set of stamps for this year, reply to this email or contact us through the site. On Monday, we will share a sign-up for stamp creators.
You can find more information about the process and expectations for the finished stamps here.
Be aware that the stamp creator sign-up will include brief descriptions of the 2026 challenges and so will be slightly spoiling! If you like to be surprised each month, this might not be the best fit for you.
Also, as many of our members are celebrating the winter holidays, hopefully enjoying some time off, and perhaps wanting to make and share some fanworks, we will be hosting some events on our Discord in the coming weeks.
Tomorrow, 21 December, we will be hosting the Great Beleriand Bake-Off PLUS! Instadrabbling. Get some challenge fanworks created using prompts that offer a twist or go beyond the challenge prompts. The event starts at noon Eastern Time (find this in my timezone). If you've never instadrabbled, you can learn more about it here.
Next Sunday, December 28, we will be hosting a live reading of Tolkien excerpts and fanworks at noon Eastern Time (find this time in my timezone). Anyone is invited to read. If you want to be on the event program, you can sign up here. There will also be an open mic block at the end of the program that is open to anyone who wants to read. All are welcome to listen in as well!
You can join our Discord here. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!
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.”