If you look around yourself in Tolkien fandom, who do you see? Who is reading stories? Who is writing them?
Every five years, Maria K. Alberto and I run the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey. We are now on our third iteration of the survey, spanning ten years, and over the coming months, I will be sharing our findings each month in the Cultus Dispatches column, beginning this month with the demographic data from the survey.
I always have mixed feelings about working with the demographic data. On the one hand, it rarely feels revelatory, especially compared to some of the survey items still to analyze. It usually seems to describe what we all already know. (Because it involves a lot of free-response items, it's also a lot of work!)
On the other hand, as the survey traces ten years of Tolkien fanfiction history, the demographic data offers insights into how the fandom has changed in that decade. Who participates—and who doesn't—often indicates broader patterns in the Tolkien fandom, fanfiction fandom, and the world beyond.
Ten years is not a long time given the longevity of Tolkien fanfiction, which has been written for at least sixty-six years, yet that decade has seen demographic changes that quite likely parallel what we are writing about and how we engage with Tolkien's works. In other instances, the changes the survey has documented upend the "canon" of fanfiction studies.
If you want to learn more about the demographics of Tolkien fanfiction fandom, according to the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, check out Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey.
Finally, don't forget that today is our monthly instadrabbling session on Discord, led by Anna (IdleLeaves)! If you're not a member of our Discord, you can join here. The session begins on Saturday at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in your timezone).
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?
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