Back to Middle-earth Month 2026
Back to Middle-earth Month 2026
Project Pengolodh & Fellowship Fest
Who was Pengolodh?
Pengolodh was an Elven Loremaster of the First Age and beyond. He is attributed with keeping history, traveling to places, and providing translations or allowing others to copy his works so that this history of ages past remained known to future generations.
What is Project Pengolodh?
Project Pengolodh will be an ongoing call to document fandom information. While it is encouraged to add information as one is interested in doing so, the intent is to provide events every ten years, matching with the anniversary year of Back to Middle-earth Month, when the fandom is encouraged to collect information and add it to or create relevant Fanlore articles and to document their personal journeys in fandom. Project Pengolodh starts February 14, 2026!
2026: Save the Dates!
February 1, 2026:
Fellowship Fest form opens: In late March, there will be a weekend of live events hosted on discord. This casual convention will be free to attend! Volunteers are needed to deliver presentations, host roundtables and drop-in discussions, for live fanfiction readings, and to lead games and other activities. The volunteer form opens today!
Fanlore Ideas form opens: This form allows anyone to submit ideas for Fanlore articles which need updating, or Fanlore articles which have yet to be created. This spreadsheet will be available to anyone who wishes to participate.
February 14, 2026:
We <3 Tolkien Day: A day to gather with others in text and voice chats to brainstorm ideas for the Fanlore Ideas form, or to hold other fandom events celebrating Tolkien. As B2MEM is an overarching fandom event not limited to one group, so too will We <3 Tolkien Day be such an event, and it is encouraged that groups across the fandom host We <3 Tolkien Day events. (Events can be cross-posted to the Spring Into Arda discord server.)
Fanlore Additions form opens: This form is a place to document the updates to entries or entries which become newly created (if you wish - not required). Information submitted to this form will be used for the 2027 Back to Middle-earth Month TCG event in March of 2027, which will recognize the work of the Project Pengolodh participants.
March 1, 2026:
B2MEM 2026: Back to Middle-earth
In celebration of the 20th anniversary, you are invited to revisit the past 20 years of B2MEM and to use and reuse prompts to create new fanworks, but also to recommend past fanworks of your own and others.
You can find the information on previous B2MEM prompts at Fanlore and on the Spring Into Arda website.
For anyone who decides to use bingo cards from any year when bingo was the theme, bingo numbers will be called daily on the Spring Into Arda Tumblr!
Throughout the month, there will be ‘fandom history sprints’, encouraging those participating in Project Pengolodh to add to and create entries for the fandom on Fanlore.
Fellowship Fest Registration Form Opens: Those wishing to attend Fellowship Fest will be able to register beginning today. This virtual convention is free!
March 25, 2026:
Tolkien Reading Day: An event of the Tolkien Society, this is a yearly occurrence. Find out more here!
March 27-29, 2026: (may vary slightly depending on your time zone)
Fellowship Fest!:
Celebrating the destruction of the One Ring, and the Fellowship of Fandom, Felowship Fest will include both text and voice chats at scheduled times, and rooms for drop-in fun. There will be roundtables, time for organized crafting, writing, or arting, presentations, cosplay contests, fun and games, live fanfiction reading, excerpt discussions and booktalks, and other fun. Connect with other fans in real time! This online convention/moot is completely free!
April through December, 2026:
Reminders will be sent out on the Spring Into Arda discord and on Tumblr to add to Fanlore.
