Gates of Summer

Summer is a season of flourishing, when life is at its peak. It is a time of plenty, when the light lingers long and celebrations dot the calendar. As we prepare for our big Mereth Aderthad celebration in just a month's time—an event that celebrates the vibrant life of our group and all of the creators and members who have shaped its history—we turn to the topic of summer. Like summer, we hope the SWG and the creativity and fellowship between its members will be a light that endures for many years to come!

This month, challenge participants will select their own prompts from a collection of prompts related to summer. The collection includes quotes from the texts, canon events, events in Tolkien's life, and quotes from Tolkien's letters. As always, you can mix and match prompts if you want, and we encourage creative interpretations of prompts.

In honor of Pride Month, there is a special stamp available for fanworks that focus on LGBTQIA+ characters.

Thank you to Anérea for this month's banner and stamps!

This challenge opened in June 2025 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts

Celebrations and Annual Events

• Tarnin Austa/Gates of Summer
• Erulaitalë
• Loëndë
• Midsummer
• The Lithe
• The Free Fair
• Hobbit weddings
• Midsummer feast at Nogrod
• Eärendil appears in the west in the evening
• Summerfilth

Canon Events

• Finrod and Turgon are visited by Ulmo in their dreams
• Beren, wandering in Doriath, first sees Lúthien
• the first love of Beren and Lúthien
• Nirnaeth Arnoediad
• wedding of Túrin and Nienor
• Tuor dwells in Nevrast alone
• Bilbo and the Dwarves depart from Rivendell
• Aragorn and Arwen plight their troth
• Gandalf convinces the White Council to attack Dol Guldur
• Frodo delays his journey "to savour as much as he could of his last summer in the Shire" (The Fellowship of the Ring, "Three Is Company")
• Gollum is taken from Greenwood the Great
• Gwaihir the Windlord rescues Gandalf from Orthanc
• Gandalf warns the Rohirrim of war with Isengard
• Aragorn and Arwen marry
• Coronation of Aragorn
•  

Biographical Events

• JRRT’s trip to Switzerland (summer 1911)
• Tolkien’s battalion ships to France (June 1916)
• Battle of the Somme (summer 1916)
• Tolkien's friend Rob Gilson killed in action (July 1, 1916)
• Tolkien applies for and receives the Professor of Anglo-Saxon position at Oxford (1925)
• Birth of Priscilla Tolkien (June 1929)
• Tolkien reads Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale at Oxford's Summer Diversions … and takes issue with Chaucer being depicted as the beginning of English poetry (summer 1938)
• Tolkien describes two women evacuees billetted in his house as: "They had been away from their husbands for the first time in their married lives, and found they would prefer to be blown to bits." (Letter 39 to Michael Tolkien, September, 1940)
• Christopher Tolkien is called up to the Royal Air Force (July 1938)
• Tolkien refuses to attest to Aryan origin to a German publisher (July 1938)
• The Hobbit experiences a resurgence in popularity (June 1944)
• JRRT completes LotR (summer 1948)
• Tolkien fell downstairs and spent time in the hospital after injuring his leg (1968)
• Tolkien spent summers each year grading exam papers

Canon Quotes

• "They were clad in green in spring and summer, and the sound of their singing could be heard even across the waters of Gelion; wherefore the Noldor named that country Lindon, the land of music …." 
  ~ The Silmarillion, "Of Beleriand and Its Realms"
• "'Not the man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!'" 
  ~ The Hobbit, "An Unexpected Party"
• "... as kind as summer …." 
  ~ The Hobbit, "A Short Rest"
• "'Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them.... These must have been written on a midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago.'" 
  ~ The Hobbit, "A Short Rest"
• "Smoke was in Bilbo's eyes, he could feel the heat of the flames; and through the reek he could see the goblins dancing round and round in a circle like people round a midsummer bonfire." 
  ~ The Hobbit, "Out of the Frying-Pan, into the Fire"
• "Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a waking dream. But he remembered that there was bread, surpassing the savour of a fair white loaf to one who is starving; and fruits sweet as wildberries and richer than the tended fruits of gardens; he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon." 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Three Is Company"
• "'O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water! 
  O reed by the living pool! Fair River-daughter! 
  O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after! 
  O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves' laughter!'" 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "In the House of Tom Bombadil"
• "'I had an errand there: gathering water-lilies, 
  green leaves and lilies white to please my pretty lady, 
  the last ere the year's end to keep them from the winter, 
  to flower by her pretty feet tilt the snows are melted. 
  Each year at summer's end I go to find them for her, 
  in a wide pool, deep and clear, far down Withywindle; 
  there they open first in spring and there they linger latest.'" 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "In the House of Tom Bombadil"
• "The sound of running and falling water was loud, and the evening was filled with a faint scent of trees and flowers, as if summer still lingered in Elrond's gardens." 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Many Meetings"
• "... the fire was upon his face like the summer-light upon the trees." 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Many Meetings"
• "So it was that when summer waned, there came a night of moon …." 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Many Meetings"
• "'I sit beside the fire and think 
  of all that I have seen, 
  of meadow-flowers and butterflies 
  in summers that have been ....'" 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Ring Goes South"
• "In winter here no heart could mourn for summer or for spring." 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Lothlórien"
• "'For our Spring and our Summer are gone by, and they will never be seen on earth again save in memory.'" 
  ~ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Lothlórien"
• "'I wandered in Summer in the elm-woods of Ossiriand. 
  Ah! the light and the music in the Summer by the Seven Rivers of Ossir! 
  And I thought that was best.'" 
  ~ The Two Towers, "Treebeard"
• "'But the Entwives gave their minds to the lesser trees, and to the meads in the sunshine beyond the feet of the forests; and they saw the sloe in the thicket, and the wild apple and the cherry blossoming in spring, and the green herbs in the waterlands in summer, and the seeding grasses in the autumn fields. They did not desire to speak with these things; but they wished them to hear and obey what was said to them.'" 
  ~ The Two Towers, "Treebeard"
• "Ent. 
  When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold 
  Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; 
  When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, 
  Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best! 
  Entwife. 
  When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown; 
  When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town; 
  When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West, 
  I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best! 
  ~ The Two Towers, "Treebeard"
• "Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed up in the mists like ragged shadows of long-forgotten summers." 
  ~ The Two Towers, "The Passage of the Marshes"
• "'It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.'" 
  ~ The Return of the King, "The Last Debate"

Biographical Quotes

• "All the hot days of summer we doubled about at full speed and perspiration …." 
  ~ Letter 3 to Edith Bratt (1915)
• "The greatness which Rob has found is in no way smaller – for the greatness I meant and tremblingly hoped for as ours is valueless unless steeped with the same holiness of courage suffering and sacrifice – but is of a different kind. His greatness is in other words now a personal matter with us – of a kind to make us keep July 1st as a special day for all the years God may grant to any of us …." 
  ~ Letter 5 to GB Smith (1916)
• "The bright summer day turned to rain again by night and we have had a lot more, though not without breaks." 
  ~ Letter 75 to Christopher Tolkien (1944)
• "His arrangements would, for instance, land us in a snowstorm while summer was still in." 
  ~ Letter 210 to Forrest J. Ackerman (1958)
• "The summer of that year had melted away much snow, and stones and boulders were exposed that (I suppose) were normally covered. The heat of the day continued the melting and we were alarmed to see many of them starting to roll down the slope at gathering speed: anything from the size of oranges to large footballs, and a few much larger. They were whizzing across our path and plunging into the ravine. ‘Hard pounding,’ ladies and gentlemen." 
  ~ Letter 306 to Michael Tolkien
• "Though I feel much older than before June, and long for quiet. My work has slowed up, and days slip." 
  ~ Letter 307a to Michael Tolkien (1968)
• "... cast up exhausted on the shoals of August." 
  ~ Letter 133 to Rayner Unwin (1952)