Most people, when they use a website, don't think much about the software behind it. This week marks five years since we reopened the SWG with Drupal software, so it seemed as good a time as any for a quick digression into what keeps the SWG running for the tech nerds and tech-curious among us.

Like the majority of automated Tolkien fanfiction archives (63%, according to Dawn's data), the SWG initially used eFiction. Originally coded by Rivka—herself a Tolkien fan and the founder of the website Council of Elrond—eFiction was easily installed and used but stopped being actively developed in 2015. Because the internet never stops evolving, when software doesn't keep up, eventually it breaks, and in 2019, that's what began to happen on the SWG as our webhost continued upgrading our server but eFiction stagnated.

Where to go from eFiction was a difficult call. We needed software that could be adapted to function as a fiction archive. We also needed something that was likely to be supported into the foreseeable future—in other words, so that we weren't rebuilding and migrating the site again in another twelve years. We eventually settled on Drupal, an open-source content management system, as the most likely candidate. In August 2020, with the world largely shut down due to COVID-19, Dawn began rebuilding the SWG archive with a local installation of Drupal 8.

It was not easy. None of the SWG moderators knew anything about Drupal, which utilizes core software extended using open-source contributed modules. Perhaps in a normal year, unable to resist the siren call of summer, the rebuild would have happened much slower or not at all. Obstacles arose regularly, seemingly as impassable as Caradhras. Eventually, however, the SWG archive existed in parallel form: in eFiction and in Drupal.

Russandol next had to figure out how to migrate 3,500 fanworks from eFiction to the new Drupal site. This also came with frequent snags, but by March 2021, the new site opened for beta, and five years ago, it opened officially.

eFiction certainly has a nostalgic appeal. It was a simple software, easy to run, and hard to break. Drupal is much more complicated and, therefore, finicky. Major updates feel just shy of terrifying, and the Venn diagram of Dawn-and-Russa-are-swamped and someone-reports-a-white-screen-of-death-on-the-site is nearly a circle. However, Drupal brings a lot more flexibility, and we have been able to extend and grow the site in ways we never could with eFiction. This is the fun part: building and adding features that make the site better for our community. And most importantly, Drupal is being actively developed and has a robust community behind it, meaning it should serve the SWG for some time to come.

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.

Read more ...

The Spruce Tree by Dagstjarna [Writing]

A young Celegorm and Curufin befriend an old Spruce tree. 

Read more ...

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.

Read more ...

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.

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 ...

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

Read more ...

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..

Read more ...

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).

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 ...

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.

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 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.