Around the World and Web

Alliterative Verse by Speculative Fiction Authors

Forgotten Ground Regained is designed to make it easy to find, read, and appreciate modern alliterative verse -- the kind of poetry we see in such medieval classics as Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. On this site I have collected alliterative verse by a wide range of modern poets -- provided a field guide for poets who want to write their own alliterative poems -- and provided all kinds of information and resources for people who want to study the form.

One of the main ways alliterative verse has spead is throgh the science fiction and fantasy community. Authors have often built worlds in which alliterative verse plays a central role, and in response, fans have taken what their favorite authors have created and run with it. The links on this page provide a panoramic view of the creativity thus unleashed.

Check out the listing of alliterative verse works by speculative fiction and fan authors and the full Forgotten Ground Regained site.

Mythopoeic Society Online MidWinter Seminar: Something Mighty Queer

Join us for a virtual conference centered around queerness in fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, or other mythopoeic work. “Queerness” is an intentionally ambiguous term, demonstrating the diversity of queer experiences, and the necessity of situating queerness as a liminal, complex paradigm. Queer theory is wider than the study of gender identity or sexuality, extending to taking positions against normativity and dominant modes of thought, and engaging with the indefinite.

The conference will be held February 17-18, 2024 via Zoom and Discord.

Registration is $20 USD. Register here with the Mythopoeic Society's MidWinter Seminar.

A list of presenters for the MidWinter Seminar can be found here.

Hidden Paths 2024

Hidden Paths was created as a low-pressure, low-commitment opportunity to explore the lesser known Tolkien canons (e.g. Sellic Spell, Mr. Bliss, The Notion Club Papers) and create and share fanworks based on them.

The dates will be the same as last year, 14th - 28th Feb, with optional prompts at the start of each week of the event.

For more info on the event and how it works, check out our AO3 collection or our Dreamwidth sticky post.

OC Kiss Week 2024

OC Kiss Week celebrates original characters by having original characters share a kiss of any kind during the week of February 12-18. OC Kiss Week is run on Tumblr.

• What is OCkiss? It’s a week long event in which artists, writers and other creators produce content about OCs kissing.
• Who can participate in OCkiss? Do you have an OC? Do you want to participate in OCkiss? Congrats, you’re in! Create something and upload it during the event with the tag #ockiss24
• My OC doesn’t have a significant other, can I still participate? Of course! OCkiss is not restricted to romantic kisses - they can be friendly, they can be familiar, they can just be kissing their pet!
• Can I use other people’s OCs? If they have stated that their OCs are up for grabs for this event, of course! If you’re not sure, please, please always ask the OC’s owner first.
• I’m a bit lost and don’t know what to create! You can ask other people for prompts, make your own, or follow the official #ockiss24 prompt list (to be released soon!).
• If you have more questions, please refer to the main FAQ!

Tolkienshortfanworks challenge for February posted

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for February has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. As usual, the two parts can be filled independently or combined and also freely combined with other prompts and challenges. (New participants welcome.)

The thematic challenge is: a gift or gift-giving.



The formal challenge is: ballad.

This could be a poem in traditional ballad metre.

In the English tradition that usually means in stanzas of two couplets of four feet and three feet in alternation (as in the Lay of Nimrodel), but there are other traditions elsewhere.

Or it could be a poem that tells a story in the style traditional ballads do, regardless of form.

More details on the challenges can be found at the linked entry.

 

 

 

Smubbles February and March 2024 Schedule

"Smubbles" is a portmanteau of smut + drabbles (and "smoodles" are smut + doodles). Smubbles is a monthly call to create more short-form smut. 

Check the schedule for when the next smubbles collection opens on AO3, and when it does, post some smubbles (or smoodles) into it! No need to sign up or join anything, just go wild and create things.

(If you want to you can join us on Discord, where we’ve got bots set up to facilitate creating and filling prompts, but that’s totally optional.)

10 February: Dragontines

It’s the Lunar New Year, celebrating the Year of the Dragon! A full smubbles event running through Valentines, because who here has never wanted to romance a dragon?

23 March: Near Miss Day

Lightning round: on this day in 1989, an asteroid missed the planet by just 500,000 miles. 👀💦 Interpret the theme ‘Near Misses’ how you will.

All past smubbles are collected under the Smubbles Parent Collection.

Bring Her Bleeding Heart to Me 2024

Year six! Somehow! Bit rude of time to pass so quickly but on the other hand, how nice it is that Femslash February is back again! You know the drill by now, February is a dreich month redeemed by the existence of Femslash February, let's celebrate our redemption from the weather by creating dark femslash! If we suffer our faves should suffer, or something like that, and also the purity brigade gets more annoying by the year.

Rules

• You must be 18+ to participate
• One prompt per comment.
• Prompt comment subject lines should follow the format "Fandom - Ship - short description of prompt", for example "Fate: The Winx Saga - Farah/Rosalind - noncon somnophilia"
• Fills should be posted as replies to the prompt comment, with subject lines following the format "FILL: Title - Rating", for example "FILL: in your dreams - Explicit"
• 'Any Fandom', '[Canon character]/Any female character' and 'Any female character/Any female character' prompts are allowed'.
• If filling an 'Any' prompt, fandom and/or ship names in the fill titles are appreciated but not mandatory
• Warnings at the start of fills are appreciated but not mandatory. In fact, the entire comments section is a choose not to warn-friendly space.
• Multiple fills and self-fills are both allowed.
• Don't be a fuckwit. Kinkshaming, ship-bashing, and any other harassment will get you banned from my journal.

Comment here with your prompt to participate.

Teitho February/March Contest: Side Ships

Tell us about your favorite side ship! Is it Faramir and Eowyn? Eomer and Lothiriel? Sam and Rosie? Surprise us with stories of Celebrian and Elrond. Or take us back to the shores of Aman and the relationships forged across the water.

Or will you give us the unfulfilled love stories of Aegnor and Andreth? Finduilas and Gwindor?

Or is there one that you particularly love? Bring on all the side ship for this prompt!

We look forward to your stories for this challenge!! Please submit to teitho.contest@gmail.com by March 31, 2024.

(Ships don’t have to be canon)

Teitho contest rules can be found here.

February 2024 Calls for Papers

Tolkien at UVM 2023: The Psychologies of Middle-earth (Deadline Extended!)

This hybrid conference will be held 13 April 2024 at the University of Vermont.

This is our 20th annual conference. The theme is The Psychologies of Middle-earth. We are excited to have Dr Sara Brown as our keynote!

Please submit abstracts (150 words) to Dr. Chris Vaccaro (at cvaccaro@uvm.edu) by the deadline of January 15th 2024. The registration fee is $25 and covers breakfast and lunch and helps to pay for our tech support for the virtual modality.

Abstracts can cover various applications of psychology including myth, religion, art, sexuality, world building, race and ethnicity, feminism, queer theory, class consciousness, ideology, PTSD, trauma, desire, disability, and much more.

Proposals Due: January February 15, 2024

Note that SWG members often attend this conference! Message Dawn if you are thinking of attending and want to meet up.

Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien's Romantic Resonances

We are now calling for papers for the Tolkien Society 2024 seminar, on the theme Tolkien’s Romantic Resonances, which will be a hybrid event held online and in-person at the Hilton Hotel, Leeds on 6th July 2024.

This seminar seeks fresh and innovative readings of Tolkien’s Romantic Resonances that are in dialogue with modern scholarship on Romanticisms, Romantic aesthetics and Romantic-period histories. The seminar understands ‘Romanticism’ and the ‘Romantic’ as complex, nuanced terms that elude simplification, traditional historical markers, and solely Anglocentric readings. We welcome proposals that address the broader application of the terms.

Proposals should be no more than 300 words and biographies no more than 100 words. An additional box has been provided for proposed bibliographies if you wish to include one. The deadline for the call for papers is end of day Thursday 29th February 2024. Paper proposals should be submitted here.

Find the full call for papers here.

German Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien and His Editors

Tolkien, in paratextual parts of his main work The Lord of the Rings, introduced himself as the editor and translator of the Red Book of Westmarch. A similar conjecture can be found in Farmer Giles of Ham, which comes with a scholarly preface and purports to be the translation of a medieval manuscript. These rather playful examples should be set alongside the real-world editors of Tolkien’s works. In his will, Tolkien made his youngest son Christopher (1924-2020) his ‘literary executor’ with “full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto” (official copy of Tolkien’s will, 23 July, 1973). Until his death (16 January 2020), Christopher actively fulfilled his role as ‘literary executor’ and edited and made available to a wide audience countless texts from Tolkien’s estate – and thus strongly influenced the perception and understanding of the works already published during Tolkien’s lifetime. Above all, The Silmarillion (1977), which he edited and, as was established in retrospect (Kane 2009), was heavily modified by him, had a major influence on Tolkien research.

In addition to the central figure of Christopher Tolkien, who could have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024, the roles of the editors Stanley and Rayner Unwin, the biographer Humphrey Carpenter (Biography; Letters), the student and later colleague Alan Bliss (Hengest and Finn), the daughter-in-law Baillie Tolkien (The Father Christmas Letters) or the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship should also be examined.

The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to explore the various questions and problems posed by the publication of Tolkien’s work.

Possible starting points for presentations would be:

• Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as ‘co-author’ of Tolkien’s work
• Censorship and restriction: the search for the ‘true’ Tolkien biography
• Tolkien’s posthumous academic work
• The publication of the works on the Elvish (and other) languages
• Access to and handling of Tolkien’s manuscripts and notes in the Bodleian and the Marquette

The 20th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format at the RWTH Aachen from 11-13 October 2024. 

Interested applicants are requested to send a short synopsis (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance in person or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 31 May 2024: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de

See the full call for papers here.

Mythmoot XI: The Resilience of Imaginatino

This hybrid conference will be held 20-23 June 2024 at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia.

Mythmoot annual conference brings together students, fans, staff, and friends of Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, Signum SPACE, and Signum Academy. Our online and in-person completely hybrid event combines the best of scholarship and friendship in four glorious days.

This year, our theme is “The Resilience of Imagination.” Imagination intrinsically ties into stories and the creative work that creates the world and characters contained within said stories. Imagination does not limit itself just to writers though – anyone who creates or interacts with art relates to imagination. What does imagination mean in a story? How do you use imagination? What does it encompass?

We are accepting proposals for Papers, Panels, Workshops, and Creative Presentations about our theme of “The Resilience of Imagination” in the following areas:

• Imaginative Literature including film and other media (ex: Howl’s Moving Castle, Dune, The Broken Earth Trilogy, Naruto, The Left Hand of Darkness, Star Trek, Kindred, The Vorkosigan Saga, Lord of the Rings, Watership Down, etc.)
• Tolkien and Inklings Studies
• Classic Literature from ancient times to the present
• Philology, Historical Linguistics, ConLangs and invented worlds 
• interrelated topics such as superheroes, philosophy, media, and fandom studies

See the full call for papers here or to submit a proposal. Proposals are due March 31.

The conference webpage is here.

Signum University Regional Moots

These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.

---

Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!

Fellowship of the Fics: February Sweet & Spicy Bingo

Fellowship of the Fics is a writer-ran blog to help promote our fellow Tolkien fanfiction writers.

The time has come for bingo! You get a choice between some Sweet prompts or something a little more Spicy ;) Or, you can mix and match between the two boards!

You can play this a couple of different ways: 

1. Try to go for a bingo within the month of February on either or both boards.
2. Or get your followers to send you asks featuring squares on the card!

Please be sure to use the tag #fotfics and submit your posts to be guaranteed to be put into the queue!

Find the sweet and spicy bingo boards here!

Find more about Fellowship of the Fics here.