Our monthly fan studies and history column, Cultus Dispatches, has been on double hiatus, first while we prepared for last year's Mereth Aderthad event and then while awaiting data from the third installment of the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, which closed at the end of 2025. We are glad to be back, with a reminder that Cultus Dispatches is a column open to anyone with a story to tell related to Tolkien fandom history and cultures. Reply to this email if you have an idea for a future column!

This month's column was researched and written by Dawn and Grundy, two of the SWG site moderators, initially for a presentation at a roundtable on Tolkien fandom and AI. We had agreed to present about how our moderators and members developed the SWG's AI policy in May 2023. The tale—or the presentation—grew in the telling, as these kinds of simple-seeming tasks often do, inviting questions that ranged beyond our original purpose.

First, we wondered about how other small communities and events were responding to AI-generated fanworks. So we made a spreadsheet and collected data on fifty-eight Tolkien fandom events and their AI policies. From this effort, one conclusion was very clear: Tolkien fandom communities don't want AI-generated fanworks in their spaces.

That this boundary was drawn so firmly was noteworthy. Fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries. By definition, fanworks are transgressive, working as we do with texts to which we do not own the rights. Fanworks fandom is also a space where you can engage in interests that you wouldn't share at lunch with coworkers or on your weekly call to Grandma and generally expect to be left alone and not judged. When fanworks creators place something unequivocally on the side of NOPE, there is something significant going on.

So next we wondered about big multifandom archives. What were they doing with genAI? What were they seeing? And we wondered too if genAI was really that unique in earning the fandom's ire, or were fandom events using their rules to take a stance on approaches to fanworks that they found objectionable?

You can read what we found in Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance.

SWG News

New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.

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.

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 Fanworks

Somber Reflections by Artano [Writing]

Finrod ponders on the mortality of Men and how few he has met, and Bëor is there to pull him back to reality.

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The Spruce Tree by Dagstjarna [Writing]

A young Celegorm and Curufin befriend an old Spruce tree. 

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Otornassë by vulpeculi4r [Writing]

In the aftermath of the third kinslaying and the death of Amrod and Amras, Maglor needs to reassure himself that Maedhros is still there with him.

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Updated Fanworks

I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel [Writing]

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.

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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. 

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Hill and Water Under Sky by StarSpray [Writing]

a collection of drabbles and mini ficlets in the meanwhile the world goes on 'verse that aren't long enough to stand on their own

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One Flesh, One Soul. Part 2 by FellFireFan [Writing]

The fate of lovers has been sealed. After Aegnor pledges his love to Andreth, he seeks out council one last time from his wiser and more grounded eldest brother. However, his hopes that Finrod would join him in this newfound happiness are quickly dashed and it does not go well between the brothers. Finrod finds himself forced to navigate his ferocious and unhinged younger brother with extreme caution, plunging even his own safety into uncertainty. Aegnor finds himself faced with an agonising decition, one that will rip his entire being asunder. Yet hope may remain, and it rests in the palm of none other than Illuvatar himself who, through the sheer force of Aegnor's undying love for one mortal, takes notice. Bending the very stars in the heavens..

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On the Nature of Time by Elrond's Library [Writing]

A series of half-drabbles using the one word prompts for the March/April 2025 Birthday Bash Challenge, looking at the perception of time through the eyes of Maiar (in general), Maedhros (specifically), and Aragorn and Arwen (specifically).

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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.

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White Horn Tower by Himring [Writing]

After the fall of Dorthonion, Edhellos (originally named in Quenya Eldalote), Angrod's wife, has chosen to move to Barad Nimras, the tower that Finrod built in the Falas on a headland west of Eglarest.

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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 Native Language Appreciation Fest 2026
A Tumblr event to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the Tolkien fandom.

Boromir Week 2026
If you are Boromir girlies/gents/stans/simps, then this event is for you! So, come join us, and bring your fanfiction, art, gifs, moodboards, and headcanons that highlight everything you love about our Captain of Gondor!

Silmarillion Epistolary Week 2026
Silmarillion Epistolary Week is a Tumblr challenge dedicated to creating fanworks to tell the story of the Silmarillion in the style of an epistolary novel.