Around the World and Web

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:

First sunrise by Kimura Buzan 

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:

Yesterdays Gone by Thomas Hjelm

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.

January challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

The prompts of the January challenge have been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. The thematic prompt is "lantern or lamp" and the formal challenge is Lanterne (a poem of five lines with a syllable count of 1-2-3-4-1).  

The two prompts can be filled independently and the prompts can be freely combined with other challenges.

More details at the linked post.

New participants welcome!

2023 Fandom Snowflake Challenge

What is Fandom Snowflake Challenge? Well, I’ll tell you what it is not. It is not to do with winter, or snowflakes really. The snowflake in the title is a metaphor, an image of unique and beautiful, of swirling and bone-deep. A single snowflake is all of us individually; unique and beautiful. But as a group, a snowflake can blanket, can blind against the dark and ugly, can still the world of the mundane.

That’s what we’re going to do in January. We’re going to start the new year reflecting on what makes us rare and beautiful and what makes us as a community mighty and life-altering.

And that’s it for the metaphor. Now on to what is going to happen. On the odd days of January, we will be dropping challenges, some new, some old, some about creating, some about consuming, some about being a great big geek and others about being alive in the 21st century. You can do what you want, and don’t do what you don’t. There are no points, no keeping score, no way of doing this wrong. There is just you, doing this momentous thing, and us cheering you on.

Not doing fandom on LJ/DW anymore? That’s okay, we’re here too: Twitter | Tumblr

Thorin's Spring Forge: Sign-Ups Close February 2nd

Welcome all Thorin fans to the inaugural edition of Thorin’s Spring Forge. Here we share our love of the great and honourable Thorin Oakenshield. This minibang event seeks to unite writers and artists in creating fanworks centered around our favourite dwarf—Thorin Oakenshield!

You can read more about Thorin’s Spring Forge (TSF) on our profile and consult our FAQ and event schedule if you have any questions. 

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 February 2nd midnight EST. 

Please be sure to familiarise yourself with our code of conduct and schedule before signing up!

Event Schedule

January 12th: Sign-ups open
February 2nd: Sign-ups close
February 9th: Summaries due
See FAQ for more information.
February 12th: Claims
February 15th: If there are still fics unclaimed, second claims will open on this date.
February 27th: Check-in #1
March 17th: Check-in #2
April 3rd: Check-in #3
April 18th: Completed fics and art due
April 25th: Reveals

December challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

The December challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth is a prompt amnesty: fill any previous prompt or finish and post previous prompt fills. New participants always welcome. More details at the linked posts.

Here Be Dragons Exchange 2023

Hello, and welcome to the Here Be Dragons Multifandom Exchange! We're here to celebrate dragons through art and fic (1000 words or a finished piece of art, of any rating). All sorts of dragons are welcome, including dragons from various cultural traditions, original dragons, and dragons from any fandom.

As this is a dragon exchange, all stories must include a dragon! We've elaborated on eligible dragons below, but if you have any questions about the eligibility of a specific dragon please feel free to ask. Comments are unscreened.

Nominations are currently open at the tag set!

Quick Links: 2023 Collection | Tag Set | Evidence Post

Schedule:

November 29–December 4: Nominations
December 4–5: Nominations Cleanup
December 6–December 18: Signups
December 20: Assignments Out By This Date
January 22: Assignments Due
February 3: Work Reveals
February 12: Creator Reveals

*all due dates/reveals are at 11:59 PM EST unless otherwise noted

See the Here Be Dragons 2023 Rules & Info for full exchange guidelines!

Khazad Week 2022

Khazad Week is a Tumblr event all about celebrating Tolkien’s dwarves through your transformative work! Art, fic, edits, playlists, headcanons, moodboards and anything else you can think of are all welcome. To spark your imagination we’ve put together the following prompts, which you can choose to combine or use how you like. They are not mandatory—it’s all for fun! Since there are so few dwarves mentioned in canon, OCs are very welcome for every day. Still, at least one prompt each day fits our canon dwarves. Any content is welcome!

5th December: First age // Family // Longbeards

6th December: Second age // Diplomacy // Firebeards

7th December: Petty-dwarves // Courtship // Broadbeams

8th December: Khazad-dûm // Dwarrowdams // Ironfists

9th December: Erebor // Environment // Stiffbeards

10th December: Music // Religion and Spirituality // Blacklocks

11th December: Folklore and Myths // Diversity // Stonefoots

Further explanation of the Khazad Week prompts can be found here.

We will be tracking the tag #khazadweek throughout the week and beyond, though Tumblr’s tagging system being what it is, you may also want to @ this blog in your post to ensure that we see it!

Fandomtrees 2022 Sign-Ups Open

Fandomtrees is a mulitfandom gifting fest. Participants sign up with information about the fandoms, prompts, etc, they want, as well as any DNWs. Other people will then leave gifts under the trees, and the mod(s) will reveal those on the reveal date.

Schedule: (Updated schedule for 2022)
Sign-ups: November 17 - December 7
Gifting: November 19 - January 4
Reveals: January 5

Important Links:
Rules/FAQ
Sign-Up Post
AO3 Collection

Tolkien Latin America Week 2022

Tolkien Latin America Week will be a week dedicated to celebrate Latin American cultures, peoples and traditions through Tolkien’s Legendarium. I started my series of Tolkien, but make it latino a while ago and it inspired me to create this event. The event will be held on Tumblr.

It will start on November 21st (Monday) at 00:00 Brasilia time (what time is it in my country?). The week will end on November 27th, but feel free to post after the week is over. I’ll still check tags, mentions and submissions for a while.

Everyone is free to participate, you don’t have to be latino nor have deep knowledge about Latin America to celebrate this event. This is also a great opportunity for you to learn more about this region.

All creations are welcome - arts, graphics, gifs, fanfics, etc. - as long as they represent a Latin American element(s). It can be languages, cultures, traditions, anything from Latin America. Creations should be Safe for Work, no explicit content will be accepted to make this week accessible to everyone.

Please tag your contributions with #tolkienlatamweek and mention me @tolkienlatamweek.

Here are the prompts! They are not mandatory, but they can inspire you. Feel free to create outside these themes.

  • Day 1 (November 21st): Valar | Festivals | Clothes | Traditions
  • Day 2 (November 22nd): Maiar | Places | Nature
  • Day 3 (November 23rd): Elves | Dances | Songs
  • Day 4 (November 24th): Dwarves | Religious diversity | Languages | Foods
  • Day 5 (November 25th): Men | Immigration | Migration | Cultural Diversity
  • Day 6 (November 26th): Hobbits | Folklore | Stories | Tales | Superstitions
  • Day 7 (November 27th): Freeform | OCs | Diversity (can be sexual orientation, gender, disability, neurodiversity or race)

German Tolkien Society: Pocast Interview with Brian Sibley

Brian Sibley is the editor of the new volume "The Fall of Númenor" and granted an interview about his work on the book to the German Tolkien Society as part of their Tolkien Podcast. The interview includes how this book came to be, what’s in it (and what’s not), how Brian Sibley became a detective in the Second Age and what Alan Lee had to do with all that.

Tolkien Secret Santa 2022 sign-ups open

The Tolkien Secret Santa 2022 sign-ups are now open on Tumblr.

Sign-ups will be open from November 7 through November 21.

Mods Fern, RC, Fea, Anna, and UE write in the announcement:

This event is an exchange of small digital gifts: you sign up and mention what you’d like to create and to receive, and we’ll match you with fellow Tolkien fans who’d like those kinds of gifts! You can read more about Tolkien Secret Santa at our event guide here, and there’s a mobile-friendly list of links here.



Also as in recent years, we have both the main gift exchange and two concurrent Advent Calendars. The Advent Calendars are when participants sign up to make bite-sized gifts, two of which will be posted each day for the first part of December. Read more about this optional part of the event here!

It is very exciting for us to be returning for a sixth year of Tolkien Secret Santa, and we are delighted to welcome both new and returning participants! We hope this event will bring you much joy, creativity, and community in a holiday spirit.