It can be difficult to perceive that we are in history in the present moment and shaped by the context in which we presently exist, perhaps even more difficult that gaining clarity on the past. Tolkien studies have of course been influenced by the context in which some of the foundational writings (as well as current scholarship) were produced, but in a field where new tidbits of Tolkien's works are still being steadily released to the public and shaping our understanding of the legendarium, there's not been much consideration of how Tolkien studies and Tolkien scholars fit into the picture.

In his ongoing series in our column A Sense of History, Simon J. Cook has been exploring the analogy of the tower in Tolkien's lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Last month and this month, he has turned to scholarship on the lecture and the "sense of history" around it. "I am myself a product of the English academic world," Simon writes, and "have dedicated a few decades to studying its history." Simon brings this perspective to bear, not just on Tolkien but on the founding scholars of Tolkien studies.

Jane Chance was one of those founding scholars. In this month's column, he looks at her analysis of the tower analogy and how it is situated within the academic context of its time—and where that context sending her reading astray. In Chance's reading, the critics become the monsters, and the pursuit of learning—and specifically historical learning—is denigrated.

You can read Simon's "First Brick in the Wall" here.

When you consider what it takes to be considered a cookie-cutter villain, Celegorm checks all the boxes. Attacks relatively unarmed civilians: check. Plots the murder of a beloved king: check. Kidnaps a princess: check. Hangs out with the kinds of people who think abandoning children to starve is a valid political tactic: check.

Hell, even his dog rejects him.

But while writing the first part of Celegorm's biography for this month's Character of the Month column, I made some surprising discoveries. It's always interesting to see how Tolkien's characters emerge from the welter of early stories and myths that he wrote about the world he'd eventually call Middle-earth. Most of the character biographies I've written have been about Ainur, and they change relatively little across the texts. Celegorm was the exact opposite.

It's hard to know exactly how Tolkien first came to think of Celegorm—as a son of Fëanor? an ignoble kinslayer? or just a name he wanted to use for someone?—but his early and busy years working on the "Silmarillion" leave a lot of tantalizing clues and strange digressions. (Did you know, for instance, that Celegorm was very briefly placed in Thingol's role?)

Ultimately, I found so much about him—a character mentioned only fifty-two times in the published book—that his biography will appear in two parts, this month and next. What emerged from my research was the sense that, even as Tolkien ultimately decided Celegorm should be a villain—and not just any villain but one who checks all the boxes—but also never fully relinquished his sense of Celegorm's one-time benevolence, which shaped his character in interesting and complex ways.

You can read Part 1 of Celegorm's biography here.

Among the many ways humans mark time, artists and writers likely include creative productions: the number of pages, drawings, completed works, and so on. In this month's Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea interviewed the Ukranian artist Ruslan Shapolov.

Several points (aside from Ruslan's astonishing artwork) jumped out at me from this interview. First: Ruslan measured a year in illustrating The Silmarillion ... as in the entire Silmarillion. More than fifty illustrations, plus initial capitals and decorated pages, is ambitious for a life's work. Ruslan did it in just one year.

Ruslan also began as a film fan and struggled with The Silmarillion when first attempting to read it, both experiences that are common among Tolkien fans. Yet these facts tend to be overlooked, and newcomers can feel like everyone discussing The Silmarillion was quoting from Fëanor's speech in Tirion before losing their last baby teeth. Ruslan is a perfect illustration (pun intended!) that The Silmarillion is a challenging book, but it is worth the struggle for many for the creative inspiration it fosters, and Tolkien fans don't just come from a childhood love of the books but as fans of Tolkien-based films, games, other media, and even fanworks.

There are many ways to measure a year: illustrating an entire book for the most ambitious among us or just seeking to understand one. All those who try are equally honored guests in Middle-earth!

You can read Anérea's interview with Ruslan Shapolov.

Last week's newsletter went deep into Tolkien studies, so this one reverses course back to fanworks, fanworks, fanworks!

In terms of thinking about fanworks, we first have the next installment of Cultus Dispatches: an interview with the creator of the Silmarillion Headcanon Survey, Scedasticity. This recent sub-series of articles on fanon and other fan-generated theories really started when I was startled by data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey about the authority fanfiction writers give to other fans' ideas. We often think of fanons and headcanons as being rife with conflict (and sometimes they are!), but what survey data showed was the fans put a lot of stock in each other's ideas and wisdom—more than they do scholars, filmmakers, and even Christopher Tolkien—nudging me to look deeper at fanon and other fan-generated theories and how we the fanworks creators interact with those.

Scedasticity's survey—actually surveys, plural—do exactly that. She asks which of popular headcanons fans ascribe to. Over the years, she's amassed quite a list of surveys with varying levels of intensity, but the results are intriguing, and she was kind enough to talk to me about her experiences running the survey, the results that did (and didn't) surprise her, and where she sees the surveys going in the future. You can read my interview with Scedasticity here (and can view Silmarillion Headcanon Survey results and take the open surveys here).

In terms of making fanworks, we have a new challenge this month: Experimental. The title is not very experimental and the challenge really is what its title says: the opportunity to experiment with a new approach to making fanworks. The challenge moderators have compiled a list of fiction and art prompts ranging from mild (different medium) to wild (asemic writing, a term I did not even know until working on this challenge), or you can make your own prompt of something you've wanted to try in your work but haven't had the chance. Challenge prompts are good forever, but if you want the lovely stamps made by Independence1776 this month, your entry should be posted to the SWG archive no later than 15 November 2023. If you're new to our challenges, come join us! The full challenge guidelines are here.

When Angelica started the column A Sense of History in 2009, she envisioned it as a space for exploring, briefly, how history influenced Tolkien. While the purpose of the column has drifted over the ensuring fourteen years (!!), this month's column truly does reorient it back to its title: the importance of a sense of history to areas of Tolkien studies.

When we look at our own creative work, we are often conscious of the historical context that produced it. Fanworks explored sexuality, gender, race, and disability in Tolkien's legendarium are often linked to events and discussions happening in our particular historical moment. But this same sense is sometimes lost in Tolkien. In this month's "A Sense of History" column, Simon J. Cook continues his series on Tolkien's extended metaphor of the tower in his lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" by looking at the characters who populate that metaphor.

Tolkien scholars have often taken these characters as neutral components of the metaphor. Simon makes the case that they were real people, and viewing them as scholars who were part of Tolkien's orbit, driving the debates that informed his academic work, transforms how the metaphor is read. The loss of this historical context, Simon argues, impacts how the metaphor is read within the larger trajectory of Tolkien's work and leads to some ... strange ... conclusions from popular Tolkien scholars.

You can read Simon's article "Fawlty Towers" here.

This is a rare newsletter where I have neither a new article nor a new challenge to announce, so it seems a good opportunity to do my semi-regular State of the SWG, which really amounts to an update on areas where we currently need volunteer help.

Open Volunteer Roles. I've posted two new volunteer roles this morning, in addition to the "evergreen" roles that always accept new people. We are looking for both a social media manager and an Around the World and Web editor.

The social media manager will work with the moderator team to ensure that announcements posted to the site make it onto our social media accounts on Discord, Tumblr, and Dreamwidth.

The Around the World and Web editor ensures that that section of the site is updated at least weekly. Both roles require about 30 minutes to an hour of time commitment per week. SWG moderators and volunteers always work together to ensure that we cover time off for each other when needed.

We also have "evergreen" volunteer roles that are always open to join: Around the World and Web scouts, inclusivity committee members, and newsletter contributors and committee members. The volunteer page has more information on all of these roles, including more detailed job descriptions for the two new postings. If you are interested or have questions, just hit REPLY on this email and let me know!

Character of the Month. Oshun responded to a call much like this in 2007, asking for someone who would be willing to write up a paragraph or two each month about our featured Character of the Month. Over the fifteen years that she was our lead biographer, she evolved from "one or two paragraphs" to ... quite a bit more. Our character biographies are one of the favorite parts of our site, and it was Oshun who consistently raised the bar to create this wonderful resource for all of us to use.

In those fifteen years, we have covered almost all of the major Silmarillion characters and quite a few minor characters as well. We are beginning to sunset the project, which means that we want to first ensure that all major characters have biographies on the site, at which point the column will drop from monthly to periodical, when there is interest in writing about minor characters.

Major characters we are looking to have written are Elendil, Gothmog, Yavanna, Eönwë, Manwë, Hador, Nienor, Melkor, Curufin, Marach, and Olwë. You do not need to have experience with research writing; we are glad to support newcomers, so if you want to give it a try, hit REPLY and let me know the character you want.

Fandom Voices. We have a new Fandom Voices question up, asking about your experiences with fanon. Fandom Voices is a sub-project of our monthly Cultus Dispatches column on Tolkien fan studies, and it seeks fan input on topics related to the Tolkien fandom. This month, if you read, view, or create fanworks, we want to know all about your thoughts, perspectives, and experiences with fanon! You can learn more or send your thoughts on fanon here. 

Thank you. Finally, this is a good opportunity to recognize that many people already help keep the SWG not only running behind the scenes but a vibrant Tolkien fan community. Thank you to all of our volunteers, past and current, who have given their time to making our community what it is today!

Identity theft is seemingly a modern-day fear, where someone uses another's identity to act in ways they would not under their own name. Terms like "data breach" and "deep fake" have a very 21st-century feel to them.

Yet this month's character of the month might be one of the legendarium's most clear-cut examples of identity theft: Amlach. Initially a dissenting voice against Marach's embrace of the Elven mission against Melkor in Beleriand, Amlach would find himself one of Melkor's victims in a bizarre episode that Himring, the author of this month's biography, rightly classifies as a First Age example of identity theft. Amlach stands up and speaks against attacking Morgoth ... but the speaker isn't actually Amlach.

In fandom, the Edain rarely achieve the same popularity as the Elves, except those (like Haleth and Andreth) whose lives intersect with the history of the Elves. Amlach, however, is evidence that the relationship between those two peoples—and between the various groups of Edain—was far from simple, and the role of the Edain involved more than simply acting the supporting role in the Eldarin drama of the First Age. Amlach's story raises interesting questions about the allegiances and politics that must have simmered beneath the story we read in the published Silmarillion.

You can read Himring's biography of Amlach here.

When I was a kid, the only thing better than a new book was a new book with a map inside. Even to this day, if I receive a new book, and it has a map inside? I will usually spend five or ten minutes looking at the map before even thinking about reading even a word of the text, and I will return to the map nearly every time I open the book, curious what mysteries it holds that have been further revealed by reading the text it precedes.

Maps occupy a magical space between story and art. Traditionally, they are visual representations of information, yet they contain questions and, yes, stories within their lines and labels. They are visual but are often anchored and oriented with the addition of text. Not surprisingly, many Tolkien fans love maps. In this, they take after Tolkien himself, who put great care into his maps and into the geography of Arda more generally. Many Tolkien books contain maps, and many of us remember poring over them—or, better yet, getting our hands on one of those special copies with an enlarged, fold-out copy of the map. Some Tolkien fans go even further, making their own copies of maps, either to clarify geography for their own fanworks or to build on Tolkien's work with their own fan art.

With this love of cartography in mind, our art editor Anérea has embarked on a four-part series as part of her Tolkien Fanartics column, looking at fan-made maps across the ages of Arda. In the first article, she goes back to the beginnings of the universe, looking at artists who have crafted maps about the shaping of the world and Aman. These are often blanks among the maps Tolkien left us, calling on fan artists to extrapolate from what details he did leave, fill in the missing pieces from their own imaginations, and then overlay it all with their own style and artistry. Just like all maps do, their work invites contemplation and questions and ultimately opens new ways  of seeing Tolkien's world.

You can read Anérea's "Mapping Arda, Part I: Terraforming" here.

Music is central to the legendarium. At its foundation is a creation myth where the world is sung into being. Throughout, we have songs and poems, duels of song, and musicians who are elevated to the same status as great warriors.

Probably not surprisingly, given this, the SWG moderator team (who are nerdy enough about Tolkien to make working for this website a volunteer part-time job) love challenges with music prompts. We generally offer several challenges each year with music as some or all of the prompts. If you asked us why, we would likely have a good answer about how music prompts offer a rich array of options—you can use the whole song, a single line (or word!), the title, the band name, the music video, the music itself, the mood it creates, its theme ... anything!—with a high level of accessibility. Part of it too is that these prompts are really fun to make and the fanworks they inspire really fun to read and view.

In this spirit, this month's challenge is Turgon's Rock Opera. The prompts are rock songs, and you can request one by clicking Reply on this message. If you want to see the full challenge or challenge guidelines, you can find those here.

Keep on rocking, Tolkien fans!

Fandom is a dialogue. What we do, as fans, around our beloved source texts is largely centered on conversing with other fans. Through discussions and, of course, fanworks, we share and respond to each others' ideas. If you create fanworks, you are doubtlessly familiar with the experience of making a creative choice to cosign a particular fanon, theory, or idea that you like, or making a choice that pushes back against those that you don't.

Tolkien looms so large in our popular imagination that it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that he, too, was a fan, and much of his work was fannish in nature. As one of the preeminent scholars of Anglo-Saxon philology, his interest in the landmark Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" was more than professional; it was fannish too. He loved "Beowulf," and his scholarly work advocated for it to be taken seriously as art and for others to appreciate what he saw, and loved, about the poem.

And just like, as fans, we respond to each other through our fanworks, Tolkien too used writing to respond to other scholars of "Beowulf." In this month's "A Sense of History" column, Simon J. Cook continues his investigation of Tolkien's lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" by making the case that the famous tower analogy in the essay should very much be seen as a response to actual people whom Tolkien knew and interacted with, both professionally and socially. By using an early draft of the lecture, which features a simplified version of the analogy, Simon shows how the various figures in the tower analogy match up to the other "Beowulf" scholars who were writing in Tolkien's day. Without this context, Simon makes the case that understanding the tower analogy often goes astray. Instead, we must understand the tower analogy as responding to specific people and their specific claims about the poem ... indeed, much as fans often direct their fanworks very directly at specific fans, fanworks, and theories.

You can read Simon's essay "The Rock Garden" here: https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/7014

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Our newsletter continues to look a mucky plain-text mess because we continue to have issues with our email. We are working with escalated support from our webhost at this point to resolve the issue, but it is a lot of slow back-and-forth with all the challenges that customer service in the modern era bring. Currently, our moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org address is not receiving email. Fortunately, notifications from the site appear to all be sending. We are hoping an end is in sight for this issue. In the meantime, current site issues are documented here: https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/site-issues