Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Ainur Week 2026
Ainur Week will be returning from November 16 to 22, 2026.
Glorthelion Week 2026
𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
Hello everyone and welcome to another year of Glorthelion week! An entire week dedicated to Glorfindel and Ecthelion relationship.
The event will run on Tumblr from November 16th to November 22nd. All creations are welcome, as long as it is created by you. Don't forget to tag #glorthelionweek and mention the blog (to make sure I can see your creation in case tags don't work).
Prompts are not mandatory! You can follow them, be inspired by them or let your imagination go wild and create whatever you want! Event rules can be found here.
Prompts 2026:
↳ Day one: A Glance across the Square | The Bells of Festivals | Gifts of the Heart
↳ Day two: Words in the Dark | Following the Star | The Weight of the Sword
↳ Day three: Silver and Gold | Sun and Moon | The Roar of the Waterfall
↳ Day four: Silver Flutes | The Language of Flowers | Water Mirrors
↳ Day five: A Final Glance | Entrusted Secrets | "I will find you again"
↳ Day six: Ashes and Sorrow | Waiting in Mandos | Forever Changed
↳ Day seven: Beyond the Circles of the World | Constellations | The Promise Kept
Happy creating!
Nolofinwëan Week 2026
Nolofinwëan week welcomes fan creations centering any members of the House of Fingolfin and their descendants through the ages.
Nolofinwëan week welcomes fan creations centering any members of the House of Fingolfin and their descendants through the ages.
To Participate:
- Create fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, close readings and musings, moodboards, photography, rec lists or anything else that inspires you to celebrate Nolofinwëan characters.
- Mention the blog @nolofinweanweek in your post and include the hashtag #nolofinweanweek2025 in the first 10 tags.
- If you would like, add your work to the AO3 collection.
- Take inspiration from the nonmandatory daily prompts.
- Complete one or more of the community challenges.
Rules & Requirements:
- There are no minimum or maximum requirements; anything goes!
- There are no content restrictions or rules on tagging beyond what AO3 requires of you. If you post to tumblr and your fill is Mature or Explicit, and/or falls under one of AO3’s major warnings, please provide tagging on your post, though!
- That said, please refrain from using genAI.
- This fest operates firmly under the premises of ‘don’t like; don’t read,’ ‘ship and let ship’ and ‘your kink is not my kink but that’s okay’ (if you’re unfamiliar with these concepts, see this post). We will not tolerate any shaming, harassment, or attempts to police content.
The mod runs on CET, but folks can post content or interact with the blog at their convenient time.
All prompts are non-obligatory—feel free to interpret as loosely or closely, to cross-match, or to ignore altogether!
Day 1: It Was But a Dream
- Characters: Turgon, Anairë, Idril
- Silmarillion Phrase: “poured forth their joy in music and song”
- Inspirational art:
Amber Fort, Jaipur #1 Photograph by Inger Hogstrom
Day 2: Breath of Darkness
- Characters: Elenwë, Argon
- Silmarillion Phrase: “there was now no returning”
- Inspirational art:
The Night Is Stirring (Anger) by Zao Wou-Ki
Day 3: Light Splinters the Sky
- Characters: Eöl, Eärendil, Gil-galad
- Silmarillion Phrase: “as a naked flame”
- Inspirational art:
Day 4: Embraced in the Mist
- Characters: Fingon, Aredhel
- Silmarillion Phrase: “green things even among the pits and broken rocks”
- Inspirational art:
Shan-Shui style painting by Yang Tianyou
Day 5: Flames Arising in Might
- Characters: Fingolfin, Maeglin
- Silmarillion Phrase: “shadows of madness and despair”
- Inspirational art:
Burning the Slums of Nairobi by Kiure Francis Msangi
Day 6: The Sea’s Embrace
- Characters: Elros, Elwing, Tuor
- Silmarillion Phrase: “still hope may seem bright”
- Inspirational art:
Moon Trace Art Installation by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Day 7: New Beginnings; Old Longings
- Characters: Elrond, Celebrían, Peredhil Descendants
- Silmarillion Phrase: “love would lead me”
- Inspirational art:
14th International Tolkien Mailing Competition
The Hungarian Tolkien Society invites you to join the international “Quendi” category of the Tolkien Mailing Competition: five rounds of quizzes, riddles and creative tasks. This category is organised in English, open to any individual participant, and also to teams of 2–5 people. The five rounds of the competition will last from November to April. Application deadline: 5 November, 2026.
The Tolkien Mailing Competition ("TLV" abbreviated from its Hungarian equivalent "Tolkien Levelező Verseny") takes place for the 21st time this year—and it is international for the 14th time. In the first years it was organised only in Hungarian, and only for groups of Hungarian students aged 10–18-years. As many people above this age group became interested in the competition, we launched a separate category for individuals in Hungarian, and at the same time we decided to go international. The outcome was definitely encouraging. In the past few years the international Quendi category had many participants (and for a while even an organiser) from various foreign countries: you can see here the final results of the previous competition.
(Click here for the Hungarian article about all categories.)
In the international Quendi category both the challenges and the communication will be entirely in English—but you don't have to be perfectly fluent in English for taking part in the competition. You only have to be able to understand the texts by Tolkien, and maybe to write a story or an essay—it does not have to be of academic level. The competition was originally devised for middle and high school students, and we did not make big changes in the style, but it is open to anybody who feels young enough for it. You can always choose to count your years by Elvish standards!
Participation in the Quendi category requires a thorough knowledge of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Other works by Tolkien may be needed occasionally, as some questions (riddles, quizzes, etc.) can refer to those, but you will have about four weeks for each round, that is, plenty of time to look up in the books everything you might need.
Besides the quizzes, there will be creative challenges. For example, you may be asked to describe a situation, write a short poem, make a drawing or take a photograph, etc. We would like to be proud of our participants, so we ask you to share the rights of your creative productions royalty-free (and you accept this condition by your registration for the competition). Your works—with due credit to authors/artists—might be published by the Hungarian Tolkien Society, e.g. on our website, www.tolkien.hu, or in our journal, the Lassi Laurië. (You can read about Lassi Laurië in English here.) Please do not publish these works yourself without consulting us first, and especially not before the end of the competition. (Artwork submitted by teams is credited as teamwork by default, but you can add the name of the actual author/artist for each piece.)
You can participate in the Quendi category alone as an individual competitor, or you can participate as a member of a team of 2–5 people. The individual competitors and the teams will receive the same set of tasks, but the winner will be announced separately for individuals and teams.
As an individual competitor, you can make the decision to solve only the quizzes or only the creative tasks in each round: besides the absolute winners of the individual and team subcategories, the separate winners of the lexical and the creative parts will also be announced. This choice is only available for individual competitors, teams are expected to do the full version!
We will go on with the team competition only if we receive at least 5 applications from teams. If we have to cancel the team competition, team members will have the opportunity to compete on their own or to withdraw their application. There is also a maximum limit of 60 competitors (individuals and teams counted together) in the Quendi category (and we got quite close to this limit last year).
The contest starts in November and continues until April. Every month you will receive the questions of the next round (five rounds overall), and you will have to submit your solutions until the indicated deadline (you will have about four weeks for each round). Communication is done via e-mail. Our e-mail address is tlv[at]tolkien.hu: questions and comments are always welcome there. We are happy to answer all your questions about the competition—except disclosing the solutions of the actual tasks.
Not submitting your solutions for two consecutive rounds means quitting the competition.
There will be no prizes in the international category, only the public announcement of your achievement and a certificate sent by e-mail. There is no registration fee, either.
If you want to participate, please fill in this online registration form.
Registration as an individual competitor: choose the “I am competing alone.” option on the form.
Registration as a team: each team member should fill in a registration form separately, choose the “I am a member of a team of 2-5 people.” option, and provide the same team name. We also need a contact person for each team. Please agree on a unique team name and choose a contact person from the team before starting the registration.
You should see an automatic confirmation message after the successful registration, but if you are in doubt about the success of your registration, ask the organisers via e-mail whether they have received your registration or not! You should receive the first round of tasks during the week after the application deadline. If you do not receive it, write to us!
The application deadline is:
5 November, 2026
Tolkien Food Week 2026
Tolkien food week 2026 themes
2nd of November- Dùnedain travel food
3rd Nov- plant-based
4th Nov- hobbit hole recipes
5th Nov - Elven feasts
6th Nov - at the Prancing pony
7th Nov- Dwarven banquets
8th Nov - at the Valar's table 🦅
Fics, recipes, ficlets, art, photos, polls, crack... have fun
These are mere suggestions ofc, you absolutely can post when you want on theme or not 😉
(Headers/banners here if you want)
The White Oliphaunt 2026
Sign ups will open on November 1st, 2026. See the blog linked in this announcement for more details.
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Femslash February Salad Bar 2024
The way it works is you select two or more prompt tables. One prompt from each table will make up your final prompts for a fill. So the more tables you select, the more prompts each fill will need to use. For example, if you pick double tomatoes and bacon, each of your fills would use two kink prompts and one trope prompt (ex. bondage, fisting & bodyswap). There are two modes, regular mode where you select which prompts you want to match up together. There's also a hard mode, in the comments of this post you let me know which prompt tables you want to use and I will randomize a final table for you.
There is a Create Your Own table. You can theme those however you want. You could take a preexisting table, like Relationship Style, and say you don't want to do 'Infidelity' remove that and replace it with 'Childhood Friends'. A few ideas: characters, ships, fandoms, episodes/chapters, color palettes, songs, sounds, quotes, mediums. The pre-made tables can be found here.
A few basic rules:
- Femslash ships from any fandom, including RPF and original works are welcome. Note for RPF, characters must be over 18 and famous in their own right. (Rule 63 characters are not eligible.)
- Fills can be done in any medium or mix.
- Fills need to be newly created, they can also be used in other events as long as it's revealed/linkable by 2/29.
- There is no minimum or maximum for fills, however they need to be complete.
- Table claiming is open now until the end of February, fills open February 1st. Weekly posts will be made for active table claims, progress check-ins and chatting. There will be a round up post after the event's end, February 29th.
- There are optional badges to earn, based on total fills (1/4/10) and difficulty mode. There is also an optional table if you're aiming for multiple fills, and if mentioned, it'll be linked in the badge post at the event's end.
Sapphic Tolkien: Femslash February 2024
Sapphic Tolkien runs Femslash February every year. Responses can be any form of media; the only rule is to make it femslash (term is loose, whatever sapphic/GL/yuri content you want, throw 'em in the ring) and you can do as much or as little as you please. There are no series restrictions but please tag warnings appropriately.
Prompts
- if only
- please be gentle
- your life is mine
- doomed by the narrative
- hands for holding
- it still bleeds
- come back soon
- living dead
- in the shadows
- love is devotion
- alternate timeline
- karma
- goddess
- before you go
- haunting
- hourglass
- weapons
- once upon a time
- partners-in-crime
- chose violence
- fantasy
- anything for you
- copycat
- plagued by the horrors
- your voice
- apocalypse
- diamond
- made you smile
- and then I found you
Fandom Trumps Hate 2024
We blinked, and it's 2024, and our EIGHTH year of running this auction. 2024 has all the same problems as last year but more — but we also have a lot to be hopeful about, and a lot of good projects worth supporting and fighting for.
You can look at this page (also linked in our header) for the list of this year's supported nonprofit organizations. We'll be posting more detailed profiles of each of them in the coming weeks. Below is the full calendar for this year's auction.
February 5th: creator signups open
February 19th: creator signups close
February 29th: browsing period begins
March 5th: bidding opens
March 9th: bidding closes
March 16th: proof of high bid donations due
March 21st: proof of 2nd chance donations due
Back in 2021, as we were pulling together the fifth FTH auction, we joked together behind the scenes about how great it felt that the name of our auction was no longer quite as on-the-nose as it had been in our first few years. But it's 2024, and in all likelihood 45 will be back on the ballot: just one of the many sobering and scary things we're facing down this year.
But for the past seven years, we've had the privilege of watching thousands of fans -- yes, literally thousands -- dedicate their time and money and energy to the twin projects of sending support to some amazing organizations while building and strengthening community ties within fandom. Now, more than ever, that kind of community-building is essential.
We hope you'll join us, and join one another, in sending much-needed financial support to these amazing organizations and in putting more joy and beauty out into the world in the form of fanworks. These are dark times, but when we join together we can make them a little brighter.
Signum University Summer 2024 Courses
The Summer 2024 semester begins April 29, and registration opens February 5. Students who register early help the course management team set the preceptor schedules, so mark your calendars for registration day! We are offering the following courses:
- Tolkien & Tradition: recorded lectures by Dr. Verlyn Flieger; preceptors Dr. Sara Brown & Erin Aust
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Worldbuilder: recorded lectures by Kris Swank; preceptors Kris Swank and Dr. Sara Brown
- Chaucer II: The Canterbury Tales: recorded Lectures by Dr. Corey Olsen; preceptors Dr. Liam Daley & Dr. Nelson Goering
- Introduction to Old English: recorded Lectures by Dr. Michael Drout & Dr. Nelson Goering; preceptors Dr. Paul Peterson & Dr. Nelson Goering
Read more about these courses here, or learn more about enrolling in the Language and Literature program — or how to audit courses — here.
Sapphic Tolkien: Femslash February Podfic Edition 2024
Welcome to the first (hopefully annual) Femslash February podFic Edition 2024! This is a femslash focused podficcing event running all throughout February! (aka an event to convince people to make more femslash podfic)
Frequently asked Questions:
What is this event? A shameless plug to get me, MelancholyMorningstar, more femslash podfic
How do I participate? Make a podfic, not!fic, or filk featuring two (or more) women in a romantic and/or sexual relationship and post it to this collection!
Do genderswapped/trans characters count? Absolutely! Regardless of what canon says any character can be femslashed if you try hard enough
Can I post NSFW/darkfic content? Go for it! As long as you tag appropriately this collection will accept all works featuring f/f (or f/f/f, or f/f/f/f/+) pairings
If you feel like tagging is a fundamentally flawed system of posting fanworks, feel free to create femslash anyway and just not include it in this collection
When does this event run? All of February! This collection will remain unrevealed until the beginning of February (if you somehow manage podfic before then) and then remain open from that point onwards Inspired by @polypodweek this collection won't have a hard deadline, but if it is getting close to February next year you should probably wait for the next collection
Does this event have themes/prompts? Nope For this first year it's going to remain very vague and open, and we'll see how it goes for next year
But I really want a prompt list? Check out the ao3 tag cloud for inspiration! Additional Tag Cloud
I'm not going to have time/energy/motivation to make femslash podfic during February, how can I participate? No stress this is a very low key event, but if you'd like to participate you can: A) make a different medium of femslash work and post it to tumblr under the hashtag #femslashfebruary or the ao3 collection Femslash February (no affiliation) or, B) Find a femslash author and ask them to put up a Blanket Permission statement about their podficcing permissions Femslash fandoms tend to be very light on permission statements about whether people can make podfic without asking first You can even direct them to the Permission Statement Builder by flamingwell @flamingwell to make it super easy
Femslash February Bingo 2024
Three different bingo cards—light prompts, darker prompts, a combined one with all prompts—to celebrate Femslash February with fanworks. All fandoms welcome! This is a Tumblr event.
Rules
- When: all of February
- What: focus of your work should be a wlw / femslash / f/f ship, i.e. a ship with two or more female presenting characters, gender bending welcome
- any fandoms, any characters, any ships, any content (please tag appropriately)
- any fanworks—fics (no minimum or maximum wordcount!), art, poetry, moodboards... go wild! Tag #femslash feb bingo when posting it here on Tumblr so we can reblog
- AI-generated works are NOT allowed
- How: it’s totally chill, just do a single prompt or aim for bingo(s), whatever you want! You can get your bingos with one fic, with multiple fics, whatever you like! Choose one of the bingo cards and mark what prompts you're using.
- Crossposting with other events allowed
- most of all: have fun!
Prompts
Light prompts:
- Miscommunication
- Bells
- Reincarnation
- Snowed in
- Heaven
- Princess / Queen
- “I’m not going anywhere"
- Anniversary
- “Just trust me”
- Sickfic
- Secret identity
- Break up
- Post-Canon
- Good intentions
- Dream
- “Hit me with your best shot”
Dark prompts:
- Blood
- Power imbalance
- Enemies to lovers
- “I don’t need you anymore”
- Knives
- Damaged
- “I’d burn down the world for you”
- Came back wrong
- Betrayal
- “I didn’t know who else to go to”
- Hell
- Thief
- Nightmare
- Unrequited
- Obsession
- Dying words
Find graphic versions of the bingo cards on Femslash February's tumblr.
Oxford 50th Commemoration Seminar Podcasts
Recordings from the Tolkien 50th Commemoration seminar series at Oxford University now available as podcasts! From the Fantasy Literature podcast page, which includes the seminar recordings:
Fantasy Literature has emerged as one of the most important genres over the past few decades and now enjoys extraordinary levels of popularity. The impact of Tolkien’s Middle-earth works and the serialisation of George Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ books has moved these and their contemporaries into mainstream culture. As the popularity grows so does interest in the roots of fantasy, the main writers and themes, and how to approach these texts.
Oxford is a natural home to fantasy literature with those who worked or studied here having written so many famous and influential texts (e.g. Lewis Carroll (C. L. Dodgson), C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman to name but a few) – leading to the notion of an ‘Oxford School of Fantasy’. These lectures, short talks, and interviews seek to take listeners into these works and these writers and beyond.
Thanks to Himring for the find!
Femslash February 2024
Fem!slash February is the perfect opportunity to bring to life your fave F/F pairing from the Tolkien fandom.
Yes, this includes OCs and even Fem versions of pairings (for example, Fem! Bagginshield)! Additionally, this is a trans-inclusive space. If you want to write a transfemme character, we welcome it. This can include nonbinary or gender non-conforming characters in sapphic pairings! If you feel that a character is female or femme based on your definition, it counts.
How to participate:
We have selected six femslash pairs that some mentioned as their favorite femslash ship! We also included a free space for any other wonderful femslash ships you like. If you only want to do free space fics for this event, no problem!
Just remember to:
- Tag @tolkienpinupcalendar
- Use the tag #tpcfemslashfeb
- And send the link to our smut-mission page
If you want, you can also add (fic or art) your creation to our AO3 Collection!
Also, note that this is not only writing prompts. If you want to draw, moodboard, playlist etc. for the prompts, feel free to!!
We are so looking forward to reading all the queerness.
Prompts
- Arwen/Éowyn
- Galadriel/Melian
- Sigrid/Tauriel
- Fem!Ecthelion/Dís
- Lúthien/Thuri
- Nerdanel/Indis
- Free Space
International Fanworks Day 2024
Time flies! We’re already celebrating the tenth anniversary of International Fanworks Day (IFD) here at the Organization for Transformative Works.
Every February 15th, on the day when, ten years ago, AO3 celebrated its millionth published fanwork, fandom gathers to celebrate IFD and fanworks in all their forms—fics, art, vids, zines, meta, and more—and their importance in and across fannish communities all over the world.
We would love to hear about your experience in fandom—as a fan, as a creator, as a member of the community. The running theme for this IFD is 10: give us your ten things that mean the most to you about fandom, share with us a highlight about the past ten years you’ve spent in fandom, or, if you’re feeling nostalgic, tell us about ten funny, exciting or noteworthy moments that happened in your fandoms.
We are going to keep an eye out for the stories shared by fans, so tag your posts with #IFD2024 and we’ll signal boost those stories on the OTW News social media accounts.
In a few weeks we’ll be announcing what the OTW is doing to celebrate IFD 2024. But we also want to know what you and your fandom communities will be doing to celebrate the 10th year of this event! Back in December we asked you what your community was planning for this IFD: we’ll collect information and links to those events until January 28. We’ll then promote those events to our readership on both our website and socials along with our own event schedule, so make sure to share your celebrations!
We are really happy to share this milestone with you, and can’t wait to know what you’re doing to celebrate. We look forward to reading about what fandom and fanworks have meant to you!
Barduil Fic Rec February 2024
This February, we're going to celebrate by sharing the love for all the wonderful fics in the Barduil community! Use the Google form below to recommend as many of your favorite fics as you'd like, and we'll share them throughout the month of February -- and generate masterlists of recommended fics to share throughout the year!
If you have any questions, please send us an ask or message one of the mods.
