'My friends are caught in the willow-tree,' cried Frodo breathlessly.

'Master Merry's being squeezed in a crack!' cried Sam.

'What?' shouted Tom Bombadil, leaping up in the air. 'Old Man Willow? Naught worse than that, eh? That can soon be mended. I know the tune for him. Old grey Willow-man!'

We are currently in the midst of a Scavenger Hunt challenge, and if you feel like Merry, stuck without hope of escape, this week's newsletter will include expanded clues on the interactive path with additional hints for the challenge! Remember, too, that the challenge can be tackled collaboratively. There have already been hints and solutions posted to the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, and you can ask for help there if you get stuck.

If the challenge is finding time to create, don't forget that our next instadrabbling session is Saturday, June 6, 2025 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone) on our Discord! If you're new to instadrabbling, find out more about it in the instadrabbling FAQ here.

Keep reading for hints for the scavenger hunt!

  • Like a magpie, Bilbo collected Elven texts and crowed his achievements in the Red Book. He worked in this location, which is also this creator and SWG Discord mod's pen name.
  • This creator's name, in the ancient world, specifically ancient Greece, is sometimes read as similar to the Quenya curu and sometimes read as fitting with Gandalf's reminder that "Not all those who wander are lost."
  • Writer, artist, and one of our first Discord moderators (now retired) and with a name of angelic ferocity, this creator is the only person so far on the archive to write a romance about Aragorn's parents.
  • This creator's pen name is a fortress in the First Age and becomes an island after the War of Wrath.
  • The home office of the SWG is located in a country that celebrates its 250th birthday this year. The pen name of this creator, who writes Silmarillion/Star Wars crossovers, references the birth year of that country.
  • One of our most prolific and talented poets, this creator's name is constructed of two words that the following characters all have in common: Rose, Marigold, Meril. For Mereth Aderthad, she read a poem voiced by a treacherous jewel.
  • Annatar gave many gifts and has many names. This creator uses a pen name that is one of these names, used in the Second Age, and often writes about Dwarves, including a 30-Day Character Study of Mím.
  • One of our finest and most dedicated artists, this creator is also the SWG's art editor, the mastermind behind the Tolkien Fanartics column in the newsletter, and the designer of the Mereth Aderthad zine.
  • One of our Discord moderators, this creator often writes fanworks that incorporate science into the legendarium but has recent fanworks involving steampunk Númenor, a space opera, and Miranda Otto.
  • You might have to scroll to the bottom of the list to find her, but in addition to being a talented writer and poet, this creator is also a skilled musician and was our lone musical performer at Mereth Aderthad 2025, where she sang a Dwarvish hymn.
  • This moderator still hasn't finished her Taboo challenge response years later, but is better known for enthusiastically handing out stamps and is a frequent creator of crossovers.
  • This creator's pen name is an English translation of the name Elros. She is one of the most prolific creators on the archive.
  • This creator is a moderator on our Discord, did the graphics design for Mereth Aderthad, and takes her pen name from a character in one of fanfiction's OG fandoms, the fandom that gave slash its name.
  • This creator is possibly a distant relative of a Noldorin prince known for his cave-hewing skills and bringing too much crap with him from Valinor. Though the sunrise is in her name, she's actually quite the night owl.

SWG News

Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.

New Challenge: Building Middle-earth
Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.

Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.

New Fanworks

Wound Care by StarSpray [Writing]

He’d ventured into the little fishing village in search of food and maybe a dry place to sleep for a night of rain and wind—he hadn’t expected this, to be bullied into a hot meal and a healer’s attention.

Read more ...

Swelling from the Sea by annarobots [Writing]

Tuor and Elwing’s recreational sailing excursion goes terribly awry when a carnivorous siren casts her gaze upon their vessel. With her song, she enchants the mariners and boards with evil intent. She kills and eats their crewman, she demands Tuor’s hand in marriage, and for dessert, she plans to eat Elwing. A vile, terrible creature is she!
And then things take a turn for the worse.

A fill for the 2026 Rare Kink Buffet, a Bad Guys Made Them Do It story.

Read more ...

i am not there, i do not sleep by StarSpray [Series]

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 ...

Living Stars, Living Bright by Elrond's Library [Writing]

She shook her head, quietly reveling in the physicality of having her wife’s hands on her. “How can I hold you at fault for the events of the past centuries when you have not been here, able to act?”

Indis has been summoned to the Halls of Vairë on behalf of one thought lost.

Read more ...

Foundations by AdmirableMonster [Writing]

The Mouth of Sauron visits the Witch-King in her newly-founded kingdom of Angmar.

Read more ...

Updated Fanworks

Laws and Customs (Cover and Art Edition) by AdmirableMonster [Multimedia]

While searching for a series of his lost notes on Gondolin, the scholar Pengolodh is taken by bandits and used cruelly.

Rescued by a friend and taken to the remnants of Melian's Girdle, he begins a slow road to recovery that will lead to the apprehension of the attackers, the judgement of the king, and unexpected friendships and cultural exchanges.

Read more ...

Shaped From Rock by Fuin [Writing]

A Dwarven merchant travels from Nogrod to the far south in search of greater wealth – and finds something else entirely. 

Read more ...

The Name of the Fire by Kios [Writing]

Some journeys cannot be lightened, and some destinies cannot be commanded.

Fëanor rejects Mandos. He burns Halls and leaves ash behind him, as defiant in death as he was in life. 

In the Void, he encounters something else. 

 

Read more ...

A Song Amidst His Torment by Elrond's Library [Writing]

Of course it was a trap.
Maitimo has to survive. He must. But what price is too high to pay for survival?

Read more ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

As beautiful as he is dangerous, Aegnor, an elven prince, stands against the looming shadows of Angband. Brother to Galadriel, he commands the siege with a fierce intensity, a duty that exacts a heavy toll on him. But beneath the iron walls he has built lies a broken soul, haunted by a devastating trauma and a well of deep, guarded secrets. His demons, kept at bay by his unyielding intensity that is both his greatest gift and his biggest curse. 

Little does our Noldorin prince know that a chance encounter with a terrified young girl of men will set him on a collision course, igniting an extraordinary bond wrought with challenges, sacrifices, and intense love that threatens to unravel his guarded heart, and all he keeps within it.

Brace yourself for Part I of this captivating tale, where the primal power of love and devestating loss will tear lives apart forever.

Read more ...

Around the World and Web

Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.

Silvergifting Week 2026
A week dedicated to Celebrimbor/Mairon | Annatar | Sauron pairing, aka Silvergifting. August 10-16, 2026