Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Week of Kiliel
Welcome to Week of Kiliel!
This event will be held May 17-23! The goal of this week is to celebrate and be creatively inspired by the relationship between Tauriel and Kili Durin! We want to encourage The Hobbit community to make Kiliel art, fanfiction, edits, crafts, and more!
Rules:
• There are prompts for every day to inspire your creativity! You can pick one or multiple from each day, and they can be followed as loosely or as closely as you would like!
• Please use the tag “#week of kiliel” so we can reblog your entries! You can also tag @weekofkiliel! We are so excited to see and support all of your work!
• Late entries are fine, though we ask that you do not post earlier!
• If you have an existing work that fits one of these prompts that you would like to submit, that is fine, but please repost about it with the hashtag on the day it corresponds to! While we accept already existing works, we really want to encourage new Kiliel content as that is one of the goals of Kiliel week!
• NSFW is allowed! While none of the prompts are explicitly NSFW, NSFW is permitted as long as it is properly tagged!
• While the main ship and characters should be Kiliel, background ships and characters are welcome! However, for this event we do not accept Durincest or other incest ships.
NO AI WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THIS EVENT, ANY AI ENTRIES WILL BE UNOFFICIAL AND WILL NOT BE REBLOGGED OR ENDORSED
Prompts
Day 1 - Modern AU, First Kiss, Dating, Fluff
Day 2 - Courting, Erebor Never Fell AU, Wingman, Khuzdul
Day 3 - Sickfic, Poison, Angst, Healing
Day 4 - Mirkwood, Culture Shock, Meetcute, Sindarin
Day 5 - Height Difference, Cuddling, College AU, Bed Sharing
Day 6 - Crossover AU, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Confession
Day 7 - Afterlife, Everybody Lives, Scene Rewrite, Alt First Meeting
Aspec Arda Week 2026
Aspec Arda Week: May 10th-16th, 2026
This event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien's Legendarium.
Any creations about the aromantic and asexual spectrums are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! All versions of canon/fanon and characters are included, be it from the books, movies, TV, OCs, etc. Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so that your work can be easily found. If you are posting your submission to AO3, we will have an event collection! This is not an event for generative AI works.
The prompts below are a guideline for the week’s events, though you are not obligated to stick to them when participating. They’re completely optional, and more of a source of inspiration than a mandatory guideline. Feel free to explore them however you’d like; an explanation for each is given, but you can interpret them differently if you want to.
Day 1 / May 10th: Asexuality || Hope
Day 2 / May 11th: Aromanticism || Community
Day 3 / May 12th: Across the A-Spectrum || Loneliness
Day 4 / May 13th: Worldbuilding || Dragons
Day 5 / May 14th: Relationships || Linguistics
Day 6 / May 15th: Intersectionality || Found Family
Day 7 / May 16th: Freeform
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Detailed Prompts
DAY ONE: Asexuality
What characters do you see as asexual? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Hope
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
What characters do you see as aromantic? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Community
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
“Asexual” and “aromantic” are umbrella terms encapsulating a wide spectrum of identities. From grayromantic to demisexual, and aroace to lithromantic —there are many other labels on the a-spectrum. This is a day for exploring those identities and the characters you associate them with.
Alternative prompt: Loneliness
DAY FOUR: World Building
How does acceptance and prevalence of aspec identity vary over both cultures and species?
Are all elves really baseline demisexual? What’s up with one third of dwarven populations focusing on their craft instead of taking a spouse? How do soul bonds work between elven couples who don’t want to have sex? Did Númenor get aphobic when they started distancing themselves from the Elves? Do aspec hobbits feel pressure to settle down and have large families?
Alternative prompt: Dragons
DAY FIVE: Relationships
Aspec people can have many different kinds of relationships, including romantic and sexual ones— but some kinds of relationships are more unique and common to the aspec communities, such as queerplatonic ones. Today is a day for exploring all these different kinds of relationships!
There are several relationships in Tolkien's works that could easily be read as queerplatonic, including Frodo & Sam, and Legolas & Gimli. There is also an interesting footnote in The Nature of Middle Earth which describes something like a queerplatonic relationship and provides some Quenya words for it.
Alternative prompt: Linguistics - Many of the terms for aspec identity come from root words of Latin, can you postulate translations for aspec terminology in any of Tolkien's languages?
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
There is more to a person’s life than just their orientation. Outside of fantasy species, how does being aspec interact with a character’s other identities and experiences, such as race or disability or religion? What’s the impact of a character’s aspec identity on their gender or other orientation labels? Today is a day for exploring the intersections of the aspec experience with other aspects of identity.
Alternative Prompt: Found Family
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
Post about something aspec related not yet covered in the topics this week, or return to a prompt you have more thoughts about! Alternatively, we have some additional prompts for inspiration that did not quite fit into the other days.
- Recommend a fic, meta post, etc. that includes aspec identity.
- How would a particular character respond to allonormativity / amatanormativity? What kind of amatanormativity / allonormativity have they faced?
- What is a particular character’s relationship with their aspec identity Is it a big part of their life?
- Post about an aspec character’s family, either found family, or blood relations. Does their family support them? Does their family (or society) have expectations of marriage and children of them?
- Post about aspec community (symbols, cultural practices, mentorship and friendship with other aspec characters) within the context a culture within Tolkien's Legendarium, or take a character and post about what parts an aspec community they would resonate with in a modern Earth AU.
Angbang Week 2026
This is the official blog of Angbang (or Melron) week.
We follow the tags "#AngbangWeek" and "#Angbang Week" as well as the current year variations of those tags. We have our ask box and DMs open if you have any questions!
List of prompts for Angbang Week 2026:
- Day 1: First meeting/Reunion
- Day 2: Dating/Intimacy
- Day 3: Competitions/Rivalry
- Day 4: Eyes/Gaze
- Day 5: Letters/Long distance communication
- Day 6: Last day together/Separation
- Day 7: Canon divergence
As always, there are two prompts a day to choose between. You may create any original work you feel relates to the prompt, and if you did not connect with a prompt, feel free to skip it. All previously unposted creations made by you are accepted (fic, art, moodboards, playlists, etc). For any adult content, please keep it below a read more and tag it accordingly.
When posting your works, please post them on the day the prompt appears on or on a later day and tag this blog directly by using @, or add one of the following tags (#angbangweek2026, #angbang week 2026) to your post's tag list so we know the post is for the event. Please note that the event rules have been updated to clarify that we do NOT accept any creations made using Generative AI of any sort, and as such we will not be featuring any such content on this blog. For any questions or further clarifications, feel free to reach out in the asks or DMs. Happy creating and we'll see you in May!
April/May Teitho Challenge
Our prompt for April/May is Heartbreak. There are so many possibilities with this one!
Will you go back to the very beginning with the heartbreak of Melkor’s discord during the creation?
Or will you take us to the time of Miriel and Finwë? Fëanor’s heartbreak at the loss of his mother?And later his father’s death? Or the loss of the Silmarils themselves, that led to so much heartbreak for so many?
The kinslaying. The ship burning. The Helcaraxë. Battle after battle. Betrayal. The heartbreak of The Oath itself.
The death of Fingolfin. Fingon. Finrod. The sons of Fëanor, one after another. The heartbreak of those left behind: Maglor, Galadriel, Elrond.
The tragedy of the House of Hurin.
Or will you come to the time of Celebrimbor—the glory of Eregion and Khazad-Dûm and the devastation that followed? The Last Alliance?
The travails of Frodo. The lonely travels of Aragorn. The heavy weight of duty straining the hearts of both Boromir and Faramir. Eowyn’s heartbreak in Edoras.
The doomed love stories that are woven into Tolkien’s books—Turin, Finduilas, Gwindor, to name a few.
Heartbreak can be so many things—with love, with loss, with changes that shift our entire world. But heartbreak can also be in the small moments—for a child, a parent, a friend, a comrade. It can be momentary or span years. Or even lifetimes.
Will you break our hearts with your stories and art this time? Or will you find a way to heal the heartbreak and find the hope that can endure and persist?
We can’t wait to see what you do with this prompt!
Submissions are due May 31, 2026. Please send them to teitho.contest@gmail.com
Your teitho mods
Sian22, Lotrfan, and Cassie.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
Schedule
-
March
1: 2025 Gallery Opens
The Gallery for 2025 is live! Enjoy the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!
22: Suggestion Form Opens
This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
-
April
12: Sign-ups Open
We post links to our sign-up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Sign-ups’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.
-
May
3: Artist Sign-up Deadline
9: Art Draft Due
Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.10: Discord Server Opens
Come hang out with your fellow participants!
15: Art Previews Open
Our online gallery of art prompts will be visible to signed-up participants only. Signed-up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!
16-17: Discord Art Talks
These are live chats on Discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists. It has been great fun in past years!
20: Author Signups Deadline
23 (Saturday) 17:00 UTC: CLAIMS
Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first-come, first-served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.
TBA – Additional Claims
If any artworks are left unclaimed, we will hold one or more additional claiming rounds as needed. Generally, there will be 24 hours between rounds, but the timing is at the mods’ discretion. The additional round(s) will be announced to signed-up participants by email and on the TRSB Discord.
31: Post-Claims Check-in
The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!
-
June
14: Free Rein Art Due
We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible, and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to share the final art with their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved.
-
July
12: Check-in #2
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.
-
August
9: Final Art Due
Artists must share the final art with their authors – but don’t post it yet!
Don’t email it to the mods.16: Final Check-in (#3)
Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date. This year we ask both collaborators to contact the mods at the final check-in.
The mods will email all participants beforehand to ensure everything is still on track. We will ask you to confirm:
- Whether the art is complete (Artists: did you share it with your author? Authors: have you seen the final art?)
- Whether you have discussed posting logistics (ie, have you talked about how the art will be posted (embedded and/or posted separately to the collection), who will handle promo posting, any specific posting needs)
26: Art Can Be Posted
Artworks can be posted to your preferred platform on or after this date (but before they are due in the collection). Hype your collab wherever you like and get the excitement going! Artists should ensure that their author has received a link to the art for embedding or linking in the finished fic as agreed upon before August 30th (deadline for posting the fic to the collection).
30: Fic Due In Collection
Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. See the “Posting fic” section of our FAQ.
-
September
5: COLLECTION REVEALS
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Aspec Arda Week 2023
This is a week-long Tumblr event to celebrate the interaction of the asexual and aromantic-spectrums and Tolkien’s Legendarium of Arda. Though these experiences are not explicit within Tolkien’s work, many fans across the a-spectrum see themselves in Arda, and we are here to appreciate any and all interpretation of characters, relationships, and events through an aspec lens.
Any content about the a-spectrum in Arda is welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! This event will run from May 22-28, 2023! Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider.
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to an explanation for each prompt. The first prompt is the “main” prompt, but we are also providing more open-ended secondary prompts.
DAY ONE: Asexuality || Discovery, Confusion, Education
DAY TWO: Aromanticism || Acceptance, Loneliness, Pride
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum || Hope, Complexity, Diversity
DAY FOUR: Worldbuilding || Community, Change, Family
DAY FIVE: Relationships || Companionship, Intimacy, Queerplatonic
DAY SIX: Intersectionality || Connection, Relief, Friendship
DAY SEVEN: Freeform || Love, Vulnerability, Identity
This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message the Aspec Arda Week blog or my main.
For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Gondolin Week 2023
What the Book of Lost Tales tells us about Tarnin Austa is that a feast - so named the "Gates of Summer" took place on the eve of the first of Lairë. Following which a ceremony began at midnight, during with the Gondothlim spoke not a word until the rise of the Anor at daybreak.
At dawn, the people would burst into song, with choirs leading them from the eastern wall, as the sun shone brightly upon lamps and lights of colour which were hung on new-leaved trees.
Our intention with this year's Gondolin Week is to honour those roots. As such, our themes this year will consist of these and other festival activities.
Therefore, as always, each day of our event will include a list of prompts including: the ceremony/activity taking place, as well as a suggested location and character(s).
Theme List:
- Feast
- Ceremony
- Songs
- Dance
- Theatre
- Parade
- Undetermined
Gondolin Week will run 14-20 May 2023 on Tumblr, with an AO3 collection.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: 2023 Schedule
The complete schedule with explanations of each schedule item can be found here.
May 8 – Artist Sign-up Deadline
May 12 – Discord Server Opens
May 14 – Art Draft Due
May 19 – Art Preview Opens
May 20-21 Discord Art Talks
May 21 – Author Signups Deadline
May 27 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC
June 2 – Post-Claims Check-in
June 11 – Free Rein Art Due
June 23 – Check-in #2
July 28 – Check-in #3
August 6 – Final Art Due
August 13 – Final Check-in (#4)
August 25 – Art Can Be Posted
TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event
September 1 – Final Fic Due In Collection
September 8 – REVEALS
September 11 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs
September 20 – Gallery Submissions Open
September 30 – Discord Server Closes
May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks (Dreamwidth)
The May Challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth has been posted.
The thematic challenge is: taxes, tolls, or similar charges.
The formal challenge is to include an extract from an account book of some sort (or even make the whole piece an extract from an account book).
If you don't want to deal with questions of currency in your setting, remember that payment can historically also be made in weight of precious metals, in kind (for example, specified amounts of grain, fish, meat, eggs, etc.), or in specified services (for example, one day's ploughing).
But we know coins were used in Gondor, in the Shire, and elsewhere, by the Third Age at the latest.
The Gondorian denominations were Castar (Sindarin mirian, plural miriain) and Tharni (Sindarin canath, plural cenaith), for a coin worth a quarter of a Castar.
More details on the tolkienshortfanworks monthly challenges at the linked post.
New participants are always welcome.
"Tolkien and Diversity" Tolkien Society Seminar Proceedings Available for Preorder
Welcoming over seven hundred delegates across the two-day event, the 2021 Tolkien Society summer seminar was the highest attended event in the Society's history. It invited scholars to consider the role that diversity plays in Middle-earth's linguistic and literary make-up: how does he explore race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, religion and faith, and age? How do different fandoms receive his works? How can varying perspectives enrich our understanding of Arda? Tolkien and Diversity was the second of three seminars that the Tolkien Society hosted online in 2021, reaching over 1,600 global delegates.
Published under the auspices of the Society's Peter Roe Memorial Fund, this proceedings features a collection of papers delivered at the Tolkien Society 2021 summer seminar. The volume will be available on May 16 but can be preordered on the Luna Press website.
Angbang Week 2023
Angbang Week 2023 will run May 1st - May 7th on Tumblr.
Similarly to last year, we will be accepting any and all original creations for the upcoming event - visual, written or auditory, which is including but not limited to fanfiction, poetry, art both traditional and digital, playlists, moodboards, etc. So long as they’re on topic, new, and created by you, we want to see, appreciate and feature them.
Every day has a couple of prompts to choose from, for which you could create a piece of content you see fit to associate with the prompt you chose. You can pick one, do both separately or simultaneously, or even skip both altogether if you don’t feel like those particular day’s prompts are for you. This year's prompts are as follows:
Day 1 - May 1st: Ainulindalë | The timeless Halls
Day 2 - May 2nd: The spring of Arda | The marring of Arda
Day 3 - May 3rd: Ice | Snow
Day 4 - May 4th: The Void | The flame imperishable
Day 5 - May 5th: Dagor Bragollach | Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Day 6 - May 6th: Temples | Sacrifice
Day 7 - May 7th: Alternative Universe(s)
When posting your works, feel free to post them on the day the prompt is from or later, but refrain from posting earlier if possible. (For example, please avoid posting Day 7 content on Day 1.) There’s no time limit, so don’t stress out if you’re posting something a few days “too late”. We will be reblogging and featuring your content even after the 7th of May, so there is no need to worry.
When posting, please mention the day number and the prompt you chose for more convenient tagging. Tag any posts intended for the event with either #Angbangweek2023, #Angbang Week 2023, or tag us directly and we will feature as many works created for the event as we can find on Tumblr.
If you have any questions regarding the prompts, the event, or the tagging, don’t be afraid to ask us for clarification anytime! And finally, feel free to start planning and making your content early, if you feel like it.
Digital Tolkien Project Discord
The Digital Tolkien Project, in their own words, is "A scholarly project focused on Tolkien from both a corpus linguistic and digital humanities perspective." In other words, if you like using tech and spreadsheets and the like to gather information on Tolkien, this is probably a place you'd like to be.
The DTP has set up a Discord server for working on their various projects and issued an open invite. Click the link above to join.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang: 2023 Sign-Ups Open
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (or TRSB!) is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event celebrating the talent of our fanwork creators. At its core, the event is about bringing together the artistic side of our fandom with the literary talents it possesses, creating bridges between the separate areas of fandom experience for the enjoyment of all. During the late spring, signed up artists submit fan art pieces in progress or finished, which is then posted anonymously in our Gallery. The Gallery is open to the pool of writers who have signed up for the event only. Each writer is then invited to claim a piece of art to write for; the minimum word count is 5000.
Sign-ups for the 2023 TRSB are now open!
Schedule
May 8: Artist sign-up deadline
May 14: Art draft due
May 19: Art preview gallery available to signed-up authors
May 27 (17:00 UTC): Claims (find this in your timezone)
Important Sign-Up Information
Artists, sign up with the handle you use on your primary platform (e.g. DeviantArt, Instagram, Tumblr etc.).
Authors must have an AO3 account to participate and should sign up with their AO3 username. This is to make it easier for us to track who has and hasn’t put their finished fic in the collection. (If you don’t have an account as at signups, don’t panic – just make sure you join their waiting list in plenty of time.)
NB – in the past we have had difficulty getting hold of people because they’ve signed up with an alias that bears no resemblance to any of their fandom handles, and/or an email that they barely use. Don’t do this, please; make sure you are actually contactable. If for some reason you can’t sign up with your username for one of the above platforms, get in touch with the mods in the first instance to discuss options.
Please add the event email (tolkienrsb@gmail.com) to your safe senders list to ensure that you get all the information you need from us – we promise not to spam you! This is also how you will receive your preview gallery access. Gallery access will be provided to all participants, but only signed up authors may claim. You will not get access to the preview gallery unless you sign up for the event.
Before signing up, make sure you read the TRSB FAQ!
Links
TRSB Website
Artist Sign-Ups
Author Sign-Ups
Pinch Hitter Sign-Ups
Beta Sign-Ups
Treat Sign-Ups
F3: Focus on Friendship and Family
F3 is an event to celebrate the friendships and families of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Second Age!
This includes all the movies (yes, all of them), The Rings of Power, LOTRO and other video games, board/card/tabletop and book games, and so on and so forth.
The event includes three phases: making prompt chains, creating based on prompt chains, and creating derivations. The event rules can be found at the links below.
Your creations must be set in the Second or Third Age and they must be rated for General Audiences.
Schedule
April 29: prompt creation closes
May 4: creator sign-ups close
June 15: creations due
June 30: derivations due
Links
Maple Moot: Northern Spirit (May 20)
Signum University and the Mythgard Institute invite you to join us on Saturday, May 20, 2023, for Maple Moot 2023: Northern Spirit. This hybrid event will take place at Hart House, at the University of Toronto, hosted by Signum and the U of T Tolkien Club.
Northern Spirit is an ancient virtue of some mythologies to which the father of modern fantasy J.R.R. Tolkien owes much of his creative inspiration. Join us for Signum’s first journey into the North (of the border that is), where we will explore the meaning of Northern Spirit, its thematic influence in Tolkien’s legendarium, and its origins in fantasy and literature.
Please submit your proposal for an academic paper, creative presentation, workshop, or discussion panel for Maple Moot ’23. The theme is “Northern Spirit”, and both on-site and online attendees are welcome to participate in presentation. The call for proposals will close on May 6th. If your presentation is chosen, we will reach out to let you know prior to publishing the event schedule.
We would be delighted to receive proposals including stories and scholarship by First Nations people, about the relationship between land and language, and how our identity shapes and is shaped by legends. We welcome creative and artistic proposals alongside academic ones, please reach out if you have any questions about what is possible at this event!
Proposal Submission Form (open through May 6)
Register for the Event
