Around the World and Web

Fantastic Worlds Exhibit

Travel to Middle-earth, Narnia, and beyond!

In 1981, Karen Wynn Fonstad authored The Atlas of Middle-earth, the official geographic guide to the world of author J.R.R. Tolkien. This summer, for the first time, Wynn Fonstad’s original hand-drawn maps will be exhibited to the public.

From July 21–August 1, stop by the Robinson Map Library in historic Science Hall to get a glimpse at how this groundbreaking cartographer shaped our collective understanding of fantasy geography. Curated by her son, UW–Madison alum and current Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Oregon Mark Fonstad, the Fantastic Worlds exhibition will combine Wynn Fonstad’s original, hand-drawn maps with examples of her finalized published works, explanations of her techniques, and stories of her experience turning written, fictional geographic information into visual representations.

The exhibition will also include examples of fantasy maps created by UW–Madison Geography students over the years, so you’ll be able to appreciate first-hand the impact Wynn Fonstad’s work has had on cartographers-in-training.

Join one (or both) public talks to hear directly from Mark Fonstad—see event details below.

EVENT DETAILS

Fantastic Worlds: A Cartographic Exploration of the Works of Fantasy Mapmaker Karen Wynn Fonstad
July 21 – August 1
Open weekdays, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Robinson Map Library; 3rd Floor of Science Hall, 550 N Park St, Madison WI
Free & open to the public

Map Chat with Mark Fonstad

Wednesday, July 30
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Cartography Lab; 2nd Floor of Science Hall, 550 N Park St, Madison WI
OR via Zoom

Join UW–Madison alum and geographer Mark Fonstad as he talks in-depth about how his mother, fantasy mapmaker Karen Wynn Fonstad, crafted her hand-drawn maps of Middle-earth. Free & open to the public.

Silvergifting Week 2025

Silvergifting Week is a Tumblr event dedicated to Celebrimbor/Mairon | Annatar | Sauron pairing, aka Silvergifting. This year, it will run from August 4-10.

Nargothrond Week 2025

This week will be dedicated to celebrating the realm of Nargothrond, her kings, rulers and people from various eras, from the starting point and blooming bud of the idea in Felagund's mind, to her devastating destruction by the dragon Glaurung. Nargothrond Week will run from August 1-6, 2025 on Tumblr.

Rules

• Please be kind to each participant and how they have decided to express their ideas. Bullying will not be tolerated.
• There is no limit in how you have decided to participate in this week! Drawings, writings, Headcanon posts, moodboards, cosplays, etc… are all part of this challenge. Let your heart and mind lead you!
• Based on my own personal beliefs, I will not be reblogging works and posts containing sibling and/or parent incest. Thank you all in advance for respecting my boundaries and don't forget, anyone is free to participate!
• Mind the tagging! Use the #nargothrond week tag or #nargothrond week 2025 tags or even better, mention the blog or my own personal account in your posts! I will check them all! (I personally prefer to find you through the mentions, but use them all if you want!) And don't forget about trigger warnings or other needed tags.
• The week is a mere formality. Don't worry about finding this post too late and think you won't have time to participate. I'll be keeping up with the mentions and tags long after the deadline and reblog whatever I can find!
• Prompts and Themes (which will be further added and posted) are only there as guides. You do not have to follow them. They're merely there to water the tiny plants of ideas which are already inside your creative, beautiful minds!
• And most importantly, have fun!

Prompts

Innumerable Stars 2025

Innumerable Stars is a Tolkien fandom gift exchange for all works by Tolkien or associated with Middle-earth.

People Who Participate in Innumerable Stars are:

★ Interested in and excited about multiple Tolkien-based canons.

☆ Interested in their fellow fans’ creativity in fanfiction and fanart, and excited to explore their own.

★ Open to creating and receiving any one of a number of different prompts or ideas.

☆ Happy to read and comment on the fanwork(s) they receive with thanks first of all, but also to read and comment on other fanworks in the exchange.

People Who Participate in Innumerable Stars will:

★ Generally read and create for a variety of slash, gen, het, adventures, fluff, dark, erotica, worldbuilding, etc.

☆ Create their fanwork following their recipient’s prompts in good faith, and receive the fanwork(s) that have been given to them in good faith also.

★ Also write or draw “treats” for others in the exchange, if their own time and inspiration permits after they have completed their assignment,. These are not required but they add to the fun and excitement of the exchange!

☆ Create their fanwork without the use of AI, be it in writing or art.

What Innumerable Stars is NOT:

You do not have to be open to or interested in every type of fanwork to participate.  However, Innumerable Stars is not for anyone interested in just one character, pairing, or scenario. Nor is it for people who find stories or art containing material they are not interested in offensive because it exists. If either of these apply, we wish you well, but this is not the exchange for you.

Schedule

• Nominations Open: Sunday, 03 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Nominations Close: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Sign-ups Open: Sunday, 17 August 2025, 11:59 PM UTC 
• Sign-ups Close: Sunday, 31 August 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Assignments Out: Monday, 01 September 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Assignments Due: Sunday, 05 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Works Revealed: Sunday, 12 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC 
• Authors Revealed: Sunday, 19 October 2025, 8:00 PM UTC

Links

• Innumerable Stars on Dreamwidth
• Innumerable Stars on Tumblr
• AO3 Collection

Esoteric Tolkien Week 2025

Teitho July/August Challenge: Heat

Find more information about Teitho here.

July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks (Dreamwidth)

The tolkienshortfanworks prompts for July have been posted to the Dreamwidth community.

The thematic challenge for this month is: flowing water.
Here is a choice of three quotation prompts, all taken from LOTR:

1)
They could hear few words, but it seemed plain to them that the song was a rain-song, as sweet as showers on dry hills, that told the tale of a river from the spring in the highlands to the Sea far below.

2)
For a moment Frodo stood near the brink and let the water flow over his tired feet. It was cold but its touch was clean, and as he went on and it mounted to his knees, he felt that the stain of travel and all weariness was washed from his limbs.

3)
The lights died down, and the glow of the trees faded; but outside under the arch they could see old Treebeard standing, motionless, with his arms raised above his head. The bright stars peered out of the sky, and lit the falling water as it spilled on to his fingers and head, and dripped, dripped, in hundreds of silver drops on to his feet.


The formal challenge this time is:
Write a concrete poem or shape poem that is in the shape of a drop of water or drops.
The simplest way to do that is to make your line lengths fill in the outline of the shape.

More details on the challenges at the linked entry 

Sunshine Revival 2025

Come one, come all! Step right up to the very first Sunshine Revival challenge!

Is that popcorn and funnel cakes that I smell? And if you listen carefully you can hear the cheerful notes of the Calliope in the distance. You may have noticed we've got some summer carnival sounds and aromas in the air. Which is fitting, since that is our theme this year! Prompts will be inspired by elements of our summer carnival, but don't worry: the prompts themselves are very open-ended and you can write about whatever strikes your fancy.

The format of the Challenge posts will be a little new. Each challenge post will have two prompts: one will be for general journaling (for example, reflecting on personal experiences or sharing thoughts about a topic) and another will be asking you to create something (such as a written or visual work) based on a theme. You're welcome to choose one or both prompts and they are very flexible so if the prompt says "write a story" you can of course write a poem, share a plot bunny, make a mixtape, draw a picture, or do anything else you want; it's up to you how you want to participate!

Tyelkormo and Maitimo Week 2025

• Please be kind to each participant. Bullying ain't cool kiddos and will not be tolerated.
• Writings, drawings, headcanons, moodboards and any other way you amazingly creative people can find to show your brilliant minds are part of this challenge. Go nuts!
• Due to both @sadtimo and my own values, we will not be reblogging works containing sibling incest. Anyone is welcome to participate, and we both are thankful of you for respecting us as well.
• Please be mindful of the tagging, tw needed, and don't forget to mention us in your posts.(The blog username, but we try to keep up with personal mentions too). And just to make sure it will show up, you can use the tag #tm week. We'll be checking whatever comes up on the feed.
• The week is just a formality, so don't worry about submitting works after the deadline. We will be keeping up with them after the event is finished, and we will be giving shout-outs!
• Prompts and themes are just there to give you ideas. You don't need to follow them if you don't want to. I personally never do because forcing myself to write/draw a certain topic can never come out like my own moments of inspirations.
• Most importantly, just have fun!

Samfro Summer 2025

• county fair, carnival, summer festival, backyard parties, cultural celebrations, weddings, party time, meeting family

• solstice, freckles, sunburn, tanned skin, sweat, blinding lights, searching for shade, sunrise/sunset, glowing, ethereal, wind/breeze

• camping trip, hiking, bonfire, wildflowers, stargazing, shapes in the clouds, grass beneath your feet, mountains, wildlife, storms

• finding yourself, family, change of seasons, trying something new/trying again, refreshing love, planting the seeds

• lemonade stand, ice cream, picnic, barbeque, cooking together, picking berries, come over for a meal, farmers market

• reading a book, lazy mornings, going for a walk, hammock, summer routines, boredom, domesticity, loving in secret

• beach day, swimming, tanning, in the sand, cooling off, lakes/rivers, cool bath, waterfalls, a quick dip, skipping stones

• board/card games, art, writing, muse, sports, sculpt, gifts, scrapbook, paint, teaching the rules, having fun, crafting, sewing

• yard work, gardening, building something, rekindling, getting out of your comfort zone, chores/housework, making up

• it’s a wildcard!! create something for a summer prompt we haven’t covered OR go back and do a prompt you couldn’t get to / had more than one idea for :)

Rules

• From the daily themes, either pick one of the “example/prompts” (or combine a few) or choose your own related to the daily theme and create a work of writing/art/some other creative endeavour to share!
• Tag your works each day with #samfrosummer.
• Support each other! reblog and share one another’s works/pieces!
• Tag nsfw/mature/triggering content properly. We want everyone to be included and we don’t want anyone to see things they are uncomfortable with.
• Use the same hashtag if you post your works on other sites so that we can keep them all together
• Take creative liberties! Make works in canon universe, in different AU’s or timelines, gender-swapped, anything you want! All we ask is that you stick with the daily summer-related theme.
• Send an ask with questions.
• Let us know if you will be participating!

• Spread hate or ship discourse. Don’t like? Don't participate! Easy.