Spanning thousands of years as it does, the legendarium contains characters whose deeds echo across the ages, and it contains characters who root a family tree that grows heroes like leaves. Marach is one such character. Mentioned just seven times in the published Silmarillion, Marach might be obscure but, without him, the legendarium would unfold much differently.

This month, for our Character of the Month columm, NelyafinweFeanorion details the life and times of Marach. While his deeds in the book are few, his notable scions are many. "These familial relationships," NelyafinweFeanorion writes, "tie Marach into the larger history of Men in the First Age," going on to list Marach's famed descendants. Furthermore, while we lack details about battle heroics from Marach, he forged critical alliances in the First Age.

Marach, then, is a character in the legendarium who works toward the defeat of Morgoth through subtle notes in the Music: a family line renowned for its honor and allegiances that held strong in the fight against Morgoth.

You can read NelyafinweFeanorion's biography of Marach here.

Remember too that we instadrabble today, Saturday, September 5, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)! You can learn more about instadrabbling here and join our Discord server to create and enjoy fanworks with your fellow SWG members!

Just about twenty-one years ago, the SWG posted its first challenge, Strong Women. Back in 2005, we were just bumbling through the first months of starting a new Tolkien fanfiction group—one among many—and certainly didn't intend our first challenge to be A Statement, although it certainly did reflect the leanings of the SWG's small membership at the time toward a more inclusive reading of the texts. More than two decades later, the Strong Women challenge has been held up as the first example of many where the SWG used challenges, events, and our platform as a whole to broaden who was included in Middle-earth.

Recently, I found a proto-challenge that existed before Strong Women. Enthusiastically titled The "Ask A Character" Challenge!, it is a proto-challenge because it was in fact a reposting a LiveJournal meme and not an original challenge created for the group:

Chose one question you want to ask a character from The Silmarillion.

Post the name of the character in the subject line and the question as the content of the email and submit it to the group.

All writers are challenged to write a response, taking on the character in question and answering it from their point-of-view.

The challenge is to write a character that you may not always chose by your own accord and to bring them to life through the answer they are giving.

What I found interesting is that almost the exact same meme/challenge/exercise still circulates, now on platforms like Tumblr. Finarfin Appreciation Month similarly anticipates the appreciation weeks/months that fill the fandom calendar today. It leads one to wonder if, somewhere in a trove of fanzines collecting dust on a shelf somewhere, similar activities brought fan communities together in the fandom eras before the internet. There is nothing new under the Lamps.

What also comes forth in the proto-challenge was the intention that challenges be member-created. Ford_of_bruinen recommended this one, and digdigil would create the Strong Women challenge a month later. Believe it or not, we are quickly approaching the point where the challenge moderators will begin drafting the 2027 challenge schedule, so if you have an idea for one of our monthly challenges, hit REPLY and let us know!

Finally, a week from today, Anna (IdleLeaves) will host the next instadrabbling session on our Discord server on September 5, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone). Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom where a group gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind) then shares their creations in the chat. It is a low-pressure, casual activity, and all Tolkien-based fanworks are welcome. If you're not a member of our Discord server, you can join here. We hope you can come make fanworks with us!

P.S.—Instadrabbling has also existed since at least the time of the Lamps.

According to Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data, about one in three authors uses a beta reader at least some of the time. If you think about all of the Tolkien-based stories posted across not just our archive but sites like AO3 and FanFiction.net, that's a lot of hours of reading, providing feedback, discussing, and editing. For many writers in the fandom, betas are the reason they feel empowered to post in a non-native language or about a new area of the canon or to try a new literary technique.

Because beta readers are so important to so many of us, we like to shout out to our beta readers each year and remind our members that our site has a Beta Reader Directory! Any SWG member can be listed in the directory, where you will state your preferences as a beta so that authors can find a beta who meets their needs.

If you are already listed in the directory, we appreciate if you take a moment to make sure that your profile is up-to-date. Use the Beta Reader Directory link and click on your name. If you need to update your profile or if you'd like to sign up as a beta, go to My Account, click Edit, and choose the Beta tab.

Listing yourself in the Beta Reader Directory doesn't obligate you to be available from now until the end of time. If you'd like to go on hiatus and remove your name from the list temporarily, follow the steps above to edit your profile and uncheck the "Activate this profile" box at the top, then save your profile. When you're ready to reappear on the list, just check the box and save, and you're back on!

Authors, if you're looking for a beta, you can search for a person who focuses on what you need, both in terms of where you most need feedback as a writer and canon expertise.

Finally, a huge thank you to the betas who volunteer their time helping to bring us more stories to read!

These tales are ‘new’, they are not directly derived from other myths and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of ancient wide-spread motives or elements. After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of ‘truth’, and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear. 
~ Letter 131 to Milton Waldman

Tolkien's legendarium weaves back through the stories and myths of the past, and our fanworks carry forward that weft and warp into the present day. This month's challenge draws on the interconnectedness of millennia of history, art, and story that call back to history and arts that mark profound moments in the human experience.

The Allusive challenge presents more than fifty prompts that are inspired by allusions to art, history, literature, and myth. While the inspiration for this challenge is deep (literally and figuratively!), this challenge provides an excellent opportunity to reiterate that we mean it when we say that you can use challenge prompts however you see fit. Challenges have been a part of the SWG for twenty-one years now, and never once in that twenty-one years have the moderators checked a fanwork for "compliance" or questioned a creator about whether a fanwork fits the challenge it was created for.

So your approaches to this challenge as as limitless as your imagination! You can certainly dive deep and, if you recognize the allusion in the prompt, craft a fanwork that draws on the historical event or creative work alluded to. But it's also okay to simply take the prompt at face value and create something using it that does not reference the allusion that inspired it. You can use prompts literally, symbolically, thematically, or even just include a word or phrase from the prompt in your work. You can use the prompts in ways the mods never imagined when they devised this challenge. And of course if you're feeling extra adventurous, you can combine prompts as well.

You will choose your own prompt this month and can find the Allusive challenge prompts here.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2026. Today being the August 15, we are in the one day overlap where the new challenge is open but we are still accepting responses to last month's Building Middle-earth challenge. (Yes, you can combine the two challenges into one fanwork and collect both stamps!) If you're new to our challenges, complete challenge guidelines can be found on the Challenges page on our website, and if you have questions, hit REPLY here and ask away!

The midpoint of the year always brings multiple big events and challenges in the Tolkien fandom, and it can feel like a juggling act to get everything done that you want to do! As we prepare to announce our new challenge in this newsletter in exactly a week, it seems a good time to remind our creators who may be mid-juggling-act how our challenges work alongside other fandom events.

First and most importantly, our challenges can always be incorporated into fanworks created for other events. The purpose of the challenges is not to produce only fanworks created exclusively for the challenge. The purpose is not to "scoop" fanworks by being the first (much less only!) place they are posted. The purpose is to encourage the creation of Tolkien-inspired fanworks and to encourage archiving those works with us. That's really it!

That means that you can post your challenge fanworks somewhere else first. (You do need to eventually post with us if you want the stamp; the challenge guidelines spell everything out.) You can add to a work-in-progress using a challenge prompt or weave a challenge prompt into a fanwork you're creating for another fandom event. You can include prompts from multiple challenges into a single fanwork. (On the 15th of the month, the outgoing and new challenges are both active for that one day, and of course you can use past challenge prompts whenever you want; you just won't receive the stamp.)

What if you're creating for an event that has a reveal date past the challenge due date? Just let us know! (You can reply to one of these newsletters to quickly get the mods!) We always appreciate a heads-up ahead of time, but if you forget this part and let us know after the fact, we'll still make sure you get your stamp.

In general, we are glad to work with creators who have extenuating circumstances and miss the deadline to ensure they get their stamp. We need to keep a deadline on challenges because 1) the deadline is part of what makes it challenging and 2) stamps are awarded by people, not computer programs (thanks, Grundy!), so we need to keep that task manageable. But withholding stamps from people who met the challenge but were waylaid by illnesses, emergencies, sudden loss of power or internet, and other unforeseen crises is not the point of a deadline.

About half of the fanworks posted to our archive are challenge responses, so we appreciate our challenge participants' ongoing efforts to keep our archive alive and wish fruitful muses for everyone experiencing event juggling season!

When I first came into possession of the data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, one of the questions I was most curious about concerned the impact of the Rings of Power television show. After all, I am a film-first fan myself, so I know firsthand the power of a good media adaptation, and as a historian and researcher into the Tolkien fanfiction fandom, I know the impact of the film adaptations through that lens as well.

Cultus Dispatches is the SWG's monthly column on fandom history and fan studies. This month, I use data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey to get a first look at the impact of The Rings of Power.

And so far ... it isn't much.

But that "so far" carries a lot of weight in that sentence. The 2025 survey was the third iteration of the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, meaning that we have longitudinal data now across a decade of the fandom's history. Looking at data around the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, the distance afforded by ten-plus years shows that enduring influxes of new authors occur mostly in the years immediately following the trilogies' ends. With three seasons left to go, The Rings of Power is nowhere near the point where previous data would predict an influx in fans.

At the same time, though, the films impacted the Tolkien fandom before they ended, and The Rings of Power isn't showing that same influence. Using Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data. So far.

If you're interested in reading more about the impact of the TV series so far, check out the article "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far).

I'm also pondering the next direction to head for future research using the survey data. If you use Tumblr, check out the poll here to choose your favorite topic for my next deep dive into the data!

As I write this, the SWG is in the process of turning twenty-one years old—"process" because the SWG was formed on March 15, 2005 but didn't receive members until the end of July. Across a span of several days in the final week of July, ford_of_bruinen and I encouraged our fandom friends to join, and the SWG officially began.

I sometimes like to look back at the original documents and posts I made in the first months of the group's existence. Many of them were written when the SWG was an idea but not yet a group with members. (I.e., I had no idea what I was actually doing.) They're a little cringey, but I try to look at them with a fandom historian's eye as primary sources documenting an earlier era of online Tolkien-based fanfiction. As so many fanfic archives have gone offline, those sources are increasingly rare, or at least difficult to find.

While having a nostalgic walk down memory lane to when the SWG was still in its infancy, I stumbled across the SWG's original mission, which is still up on our Dreamwidth (and LiveJournal) communities. Our current mission was written in May 2008; this is truly the foundational document of the group in its current form, and the SWG's moderators always begin with this mission when writing policies and making other decisions. The original mission established my penchant for the listicle format for a mission and expresses some of the same values that are part of our current mission: "thoughtful discussion" that leaves room for multiple interpretations, creation of resources aimed at fanworks creators, and a community that offers support and feedback for creators. Interesting, "the primary goal of the group ... [to] center on workshopping members' stories and essays" was never realized, as we turned our attention to building an archive instead.

Twenty-one years from now, in 2047 (not a real year, I'm sure!), perhaps we'll look back at our current mission and again at our original mission and marvel at what has changed and what has remained the same.

A final note: remember that next Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC is our monthly instadrabbling session on our Discord (find this in my timezone). All are welcome to join to create fanworks or simply hang out and enjoy what is being posted!

Throughout place and time, people have responded to the challenge of sheltering themselves by using the materials in the environment around them and devising architectural styles that not only fit their environment and its challenges but express the aesthetics and philosophies of their culture. One of the joys of traveling to a new place is experiencing what is familiar about life in a setting utterly unfamiliar, with windows and walls unlike those that enclose our familiar lives at home. Traveling imaginatively to Middle-earth is no different, and many of us likely remember our first visit to Rivendell or Nargothrond or Númenor.

Our next challenge is in this spirit, using architecture as inspiration for fanworks. If you want to participate, you will receive a an architectural style, a location on Arda, or both as your prompt. You can use your prompt or prompts however you want! You don't have to set your fanwork in the location selected or discuss setting or architecture at all. We always welcome creative and off-beat interpretations of challenge prompts.

If you'd like to participate, you can reply to this email and let us know if you'd like an architectural style, location, or both. If you prefer, you can request a prompt by emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on our Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord. If the prompt you are assigned isn't working for you, just let the challenge moderators know, and we will draw again.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 August 2026. Thank you to Sallysavestheday for the beautiful original hand-cut collage artwork used to make this month's stamps! For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website and remember that you can always reply to this newsletter to get in touch with our moderators with questions.

The SWG started almost twenty-one years ago on early versions of social network sites, namely Yahoo! Groups and LiveJournal. Our website and archive wouldn't come for another two years, and while that has since become the center of our organization in many ways, it is not the center of community life on the SWG, and we maintain presences on several social media as a way to reach out beyond our website and foster community among our members.

Because we have new members joining us all the time, we like to periodically use the newsletter to share information that, to those of us who have been around a while, can be easy to forget that everyone doesn't know.

So if you are new or just want to get more involved on the SWG, how can you do it?

If you want to read, view, and post your own fanworks, the SWG site and archive is the place to begin. The SWG, like Archive of Our Own and many other fanworks archives, structures its site much like Rebecca Smallwood's highly influential eFiction script, so using it should be familiar if you've wandered around a fanworks archive before. Start at the Fanworks menu and explore from there. If you want to do stuff with your own account, start at the My Account menu. Our FAQs have detailed instructions on how to post and do things on the site, or you can reply here and get our mod team and ask for help—that's what we're here for!

The social center of our site is our Discord. For fandom olds who don't use Discord, it functions like the instant messaging platforms back in the day, letting you talk with other SWG members in real time. The #read-me-first channel will get you start, then each channel has a description of what it's used for. You can join our Discord here—and again, if it's a new platform for you and you need help, just reply here and ask!

The SWG maintains a presence as well on Tumblr and Dreamwidth. All announcements are posted here but both are also open to contributions from our members. (No one has ever submitted anything to our tumblr! You could be the first!) We accept Silmarillion-based fanworks, links to work you've posted elsewhere, essays and meta, and announcements for fandom events and projects.

Yahoo! Groups closed in 2019. In 2022, we stopped using LiveJournal as one of our official social media platforms, meaning that we stopped posting official SWG announcements there. The community remains open, however, and is also available for SWG members who want to use it to share their work, including event announcements.

If you look around yourself in Tolkien fandom, who do you see? Who is reading stories? Who is writing them?

Every five years, Maria K. Alberto and I run the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey. We are now on our third iteration of the survey, spanning ten years, and over the coming months, I will be sharing our findings each month in the Cultus Dispatches column, beginning this month with the demographic data from the survey.

I always have mixed feelings about working with the demographic data. On the one hand, it rarely feels revelatory, especially compared to some of the survey items still to analyze. It usually seems to describe what we all already know. (Because it involves a lot of free-response items, it's also a lot of work!)

On the other hand, as the survey traces ten years of Tolkien fanfiction history, the demographic data offers insights into how the fandom has changed in that decade. Who participates—and who doesn't—often indicates broader patterns in the Tolkien fandom, fanfiction fandom, and the world beyond.

Ten years is not a long time given the longevity of Tolkien fanfiction, which has been written for at least sixty-six years, yet that decade has seen demographic changes that quite likely parallel what we are writing about and how we engage with Tolkien's works. In other instances, the changes the survey has documented upend the "canon" of fanfiction studies.

If you want to learn more about the demographics of Tolkien fanfiction fandom, according to the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, check out Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey.

Finally, don't forget that today is our monthly instadrabbling session on Discord, led by Anna (IdleLeaves)! If you're not a member of our Discord, you can join here. The session begins on Saturday at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in your timezone).