Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Celedriel Week 2026
Celedriel Week 2026 Prompts
July 14
First Meetings, Impressions, The Heart Stirs
A Gaze Caught. The Fire Ignites.
“Is this the love they speak of in songs and poems?”
July 15
Dedication. Courtship. The Heart Blooms.
Gifts of Love. Words and Songs.
“Oh beloved mine, where might I rest but your embrace?”
July 16
Marriage, Vows, The Heart Bound in Love
An Exchange of Rings. Melding of Houses.
“This I vow from here on forth, and beyond the world’s end.”
July 17
Kingdoms. Refuge. The Heart Endures
Crowns of Silver. Realms Rise and Fall.
“With you by my side, I have nothing to fear.”
July 18
Separation. Conflict. The Heart Grieves.
War and Loss. When Paths Diverge.
“How far will the lonely road take us before we renew our love again?”
July 19
Lothlorien. Children. The Heart Heals.
When Wounds Mend. The Throne of Elvendom.
“By our toil, future generations shall persist before the Shadow.”
July 20
The West. Undying Love. The Heart is Eternal
Beyond the Tribulations. The Last Ship.
“In the end, it is you and I who remain past the fading of the ancient days.”
Esoteric Tolkien Week 2026
That's right, Esoteric Tolkien Week, your center for all things strange, mystical, inexplicable, and unfathomed in Arda and beyond, is back for round two! We are open to all types and ratings of fanwork, and are eager to welcome returners and new faces alike. A few bits of useful tattle for the moment:
- Further information and event guidelines can be found here
- Event planned to run July 13th - 19th, 2026
- An ao3 collection will open closer to the run date—if you have any work hanging around that you'd like to submit now, or just want to get inspired, you can find the small but mighty 2025 collection here
Prompts
Day 1 - Lands, Wander, Documents
Day 2 - Waters, Return, Music
Day 3 - Skies, Demand, Inventions
Day 4 - Underground, Trammel, Relics
Day 5 - Ruins, Bargain, Art
Day 6 - In the Dark, Endure, Weapons & Armor
Day 7 - At Home, Abandon, Gifts
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
This is a week to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.” There is a great wealth of wonderful gen content in the Tolkien fandom, but those creations are not always the most visible because of the shipping-focused nature of fandom at large. This week is an effort to give them the appreciation they deserve.
This year, Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026!
Any content and creations are welcome as long as it is non-romantic and non-sexual! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! Please tag your posts with #tolkiengenweek AND @ mention this blog @tolkiengenweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider. You may also post your creations to our AO3 collection.
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This post will lead to an explanation for each one.
- DAY ONE: Family ● Mentorships ● Community
- DAY TWO: Friendship ● Animals ● Group Dynamic
- DAY THREE: Gray Spaces ● Enemies and Rivalries ● Fealty
- DAY FOUR: Solo ● Work and Craft ● Language
- DAY FIVE: Culture ● Diversity ● Traditions
- DAY SIX: Environment ● Places ● Objects and Symbols
- DAY SEVEN: Freeform
This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or my main.
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
Starting July 1st ObscureDurins will be hosting
TOLKIEN DISABILITY PRIDE
This event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
You can do worldbuilding, fan fic, fan art, share a favorite character, your favorite headcanons, write a song, poem, show us your LOTRO Oc!ANYTHING providing-
- Absolutely NO USE OF AI IN ANY PART OF THE PROCESS
- Ableism and violence against Disabled character should be done with nuance and plot in mind. Remember this is a pride event we are more than willing to have dead dove- provided it is done justly and tactfully.
- Tag all your works appropriately and place under a read more.
Tag: "tolkien disability pride" AND "obscuredurins" to get your work featured.
This is a spoonie friendly event! We accept past works, WIPS, and encourage this as our time to display PRIDE in our community.
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
June 1: Sign-ups and art submissions open
July 7: Artist sign-ups close
July 19: Art submissions close
July 24: Gallery opens
July 25 & 26: Art viewing parties
July 30: Author sign-ups close
August 1: Claims Day (Times to be announced)
August 2: Additional Claims Open
August 3: Art posting begins
November 1: Drop-out without penalty deadline
November 15: Fic submission deadline
November 28: Reveals!
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Gen-Uary Fic Rec Fest
Send some love to your favorite gen fics!
Submit your rec directly to us or write your own and tag this blog, we'll be posting and reblogging all your faves throughout January!!
Any fandom, any focus, any format!
Teitho December/January Contest: Snow
We are very excited to be back with a new Teitho challenge for December/January!
Our challenge this time is SNOW.
Where will you take us with this prompt? Mountain peaks or cruel Caradhras? The frozen terrain of the Helcaraxë?
Or perhaps the snowy fields of Rohan. A blizzard in the Shire. Winter at the Havens.
Bundled up inside or braving the elements? A gentle fall of snow or a winter storm? Or perhaps snowed in?
It’s all up to you and we can’t wait see what you have for us this time!
Please submit your stories before January 31, 2024, to teitheo.contest@gmail.com.
My Slashy Valentine 2024 Sign-Ups Open
From the Years of the Trees to the Fourth Age, from sultry tales of the Silmarillion to romances in the Ring Wars … sound familiar? That’s right, Slashy Swaps are back and it’s once again time to make your Tolkien fanfic dreams come true.
My Slashy Valentine is a hand-matched slash fiction exchange focused on the people of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Sign ups are now OPEN so spread the word, recruit your friends and fellow authors, and get ready for MSV 2024.
Sign-up Period: December 7th to December 21st
Assignments distributed: by December 28th
Deadline for first time participants: January 31st, 2024
Deadline for veteran participants: February 7th, 2024
Archive opens: February 14th, 2024
Take a look through our rules and faq – or on AO3 if you’re on the mobile app, because Tumblr – and then come along to our SIGN UP PAGE and share the adventure.
Silmarillion Daily Newsletter
Silmarillion Daily (2024) is set up and ready for subscriptions! if people are interested in seeing The Silmarillion in chronological order over the course of a year.
Every day from January 20th to December 31st will cover three years of in-book time, running from the Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen (Years of the Trees and Years of the Sun will be treated the same). January 1st to 19th will be a prologue covering material prior to the Awakening of the Elves.
LotR20
LOTR20 (11–17th December 2023) is a week-long event celebrating the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The event will run from Monday to Sunday, with three prompts for each day. You can choose one or more of these prompts, and you can decide how you'd like to interpret them.
Tag your original works with #lotrweek (not #lotr20) and they will be reblogged here!
Any questions? FAQ list
LOTR20 prompts:
Day 1 (11th Dec): memory | history | home
Day 2 (12th Dec): language | culture | beauty
Day 3 (13th Dec): fear | courage | adventure
Day 4 (14th Dec): friendship | family | loyalty
Day 5 (15th Dec): loss | sacrifice | despair
Day 6 (16th Dec): triumph | healing | hope
Day 7 (17th Dec): free day – 20th anniversary of The Return of the King
Thorin's Spring Forge 2024
Calling all Thorin fans! We are happy to announce that sign ups for Thorin’s Spring Forge (TSF) 2024 are now open!
What is TSF? TSF is a minibang style event where writers and artists come together to create fanworks centred on Thorin Oakenshield. Fanworks can be based on the book or the movie version of the character. Any pairing or gen are welcome and we look forward to seeing what you create!
You can participate in this event as a:
- Writer;
- Artist;
- Beta reader;
- Pinch hitter (writer);
- Pinch hitter (artist).
Explanations of what each of these roles is can be found in our FAQ. You may sign up for more than one role, but there is a maximum of two fanworks per participant (i.e. you may write two fics, or create two artworks, or do one of each).
Participating authors create a short summary/synopsis of a fic, which is posted anonymously for artists to view and claim. Artists will then create art based on the fic they chose, and authors will write a complete fic (minimum 2,500 words).
Sign up as a writer
Sign up as an artist
Sign up as a beta reader or pinch hitter
Sign ups for authors and artists will be open until January 5th 11:59 pm EST.
Sign ups for beta readers and pinch hitters will remain open for the duration of the event!
Please be sure to familiarise yourself with our rules and schedule before signing up!
Questions? Visit our FAQ or contact us via thorinsspringforge@gmail.com, send us ask or DM on Tumblr.
We have also opened up a form to submit prompts!
If you are unsure of what you want to write: Check out the submissions.
If you have an idea you want to share: Add something to the form.
Prompt amnesty at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth
As previously, the December challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth is a prompt amnesty.
Although our challenges don't expire and prompt fills can be posted at any time, this is a special invitation for you to write any idea a prompt may have given you and that you didn't get around to writing, or complete a prompt fill you had started working on, or cross-post something that you wrote for another challenge with one of our prompts in mind and never got around to posting to the community.
Also, you can just pick any previous prompt or challenge that tickles your fancy and recombine prompt elements, too, if you like.
Check out the linked post for a full prompt list and more details on these challenges.
December 2023 Calls for Papers
Centre for Fantasy Literature Studies: Magic System as the Key Element in Fantasy Worldbuilding
This conference is hosted online on 25th –26th January at 11am (+2 GMT) by the Centre for Fantasy Literature Studies at the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
How does one choose a magic system for a fantasy world? How do we employ magic to build a dialogue with reality? Fantasy fiction is brimming with magic systems ranging from ritual magic to elemental, from dominating and manipulative magic to the one that is shaped by a dialogue between equals. A magic system in fantasy literature can be defined as a conglomeration of magic sources, manifestations, practices and implements that interact with one another and the environment and are employed by magic users to produce an impact on the world at various levels or to create an illusion of such an impact in accordance with the in-universe laws. You are invited to participate in a conversation about the principles of magic system modelling and functioning in fantasy fiction. Issues to be discussed include but are not limited to:
- Magic systems in fantasy short stories / novels / series / worlds;
- Magic systems typology within one world or at the metagenre level;
- Magic systems in action: sources, mechanisms, implementations, potentials and limitations;
- Magic systems as a space for creative experiments and collaboration between
- the author and the reader. Magic systems and fandoms;
- Magic system analysis through the prism of poetics, genre, narrative theory, etc;
- Correlation of fantasy magic systems with contemporary social, psychological, political concerns (gender, postcolonial, environmental studies, etc.).
Proposals are accepted till 10th January 2024.
To submit a proposal, please fill in the form.
Languages: English and Ukrainian
25-minute presentations will be followed by 5-minute discussions
Tolkien at UVM 2023: The Psychologies of Middle-earth
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 15, 2024
Note that SWG members often attend this conference! Message Dawn if you are thinking of attending and want to meet up.
Mythmoot X: Homeward Bound
This hybrid conference will be held 22-25 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.
The call for papers for this conference has not been posted yet. 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!
"Disability in Tolkien Studies" by Clare Moore
Clare Moore is a Tolkien scholar who works on disability in Tolkien, among other areas. Her annotated bibliography includes a list of scholarship that investigates this topic.
White Oliphaunt Gift Exchange 2023
Welcome! The White Oliphaunt is a Tolkien fandom gift exchange. Similar to a other gift exchanges, everyone who signs up to participate will make and also receive a present from someone else. As with real-life White Elephant exchanges, we encourage-but do not require-gifts to be humorous in nature!
Schedule
- November 17th: Sign-up forms are open
Use this form to sign up for the exchange!
- November 30ths: Sign-up forms are closed
Sign-ups close at 23:59 EST
- December 1st: Assignments are sent via email
As there is currently only one mod, this date is an approximation. If there is a delay, I will be sure to let you know!
- December 25th: Anonymous posting and last call for dropouts
Starting on December 25th, you may post your gift anonymously. Simply do not tag the recipient of your gift (Make sure you remember to tag them on the 31st!)
- December 31st: Gift reveal!
Post your gift and tag your giftee! All gifts should be tagged with your giftee’s blog, this blog @WhiteOliphaunt and use the hashtag #WO202 (If you do not wish to have your gift reblogged by White Oliphaunt, please let us know). All gifts MUST be posted by January 1st 23:59 EST
