Scavenger Hunt

As a kid, were you ever given a list of clues to solve to find the location of small prizes? Or did you play the types of games where you need to talk to people to track down the objects you need? This month's challenge combines a scavenger hunt with a Matryoshka challenge. Tie on your sneakers, grab your map and canteen, and get ready to search!

During a Matryoshka challenge, creators make a fanwork using multiple prompts that are revealed one by one (like nesting dolls!) The Scavenger Hunt challenge puts a bit of a twist on the traditional Matryoshka format.

You will still create a fanwork using multiple prompts. However, instead of receiving those prompts one by one from the moderators, you will seek and find those prompts from other participants or by following clues to locate them on the SWG website.

To start, check the list of prompts below. The interactive path includes clues, pointing a creator on the archive who will provide your prompt for you.

Find the creator and comment on one of the creator's fanworks. Note that this should be a real comment that responds to the fanwork, not just asking for the prompt (though it is helpful if you are clear that you do need a prompt!) The creator will reply to your comment with a prompt.

If you aren't up for interacting with another creator, check out the historical path. Prompts here point to a piece of SWG history located on the site. Find the page and you will find the prompt.

You can mix prompts collected from the interactive and history paths.

You can start your fanwork as soon as you get your first prompt and collect more prompts later, or you can collect all the prompts you want first and go from there. The number of prompts you collect depends on how difficult you would like the challenge to be:

• Beginner = 2 prompts
• Easy = 3 prompts
• Medium = 5 prompts
• Difficult = 7 prompts

For Fanworks That Aren't Writing

If you want to create a fanwork other than fiction for a Matryoshka challenge, you can use any of the following approaches to your prompt set:

• You can, of course, use the Matryoshka rules for fiction. For example, if you are making a fan vid, you could open each prompt one at a time to guide the storyline and selection of video clips.
• You can use each prompt individually to create a series of flash fanworks using either the prompt title or the full prompt (or a mixture of both). For example, if you request a Medium prompt set and want to make fan art, you could do a series of five sketches that fit each of the five prompts.
• You can open all of the prompts at once and make a fanwork that incorporates them all in some way, using either the prompt title or the full prompt (or a mixture of both).

Other Details

There are a number of special stamps available for this challenge. If you need one of the special stamps, you will need to let the moderators know.

• Completing the Difficult (7-prompt) challenge.
• Completing a challenge using all prompts from the interactive path.
• Completing a challenge using all prompts from the history path.
• And if you use both prompt types (interactive and history prompts), there is a special stamp for you too!

What if the creator never replies with a prompt? Please allow creators at least twenty-four hours to reply. If you do not receive a prompt by that time, let the moderators know the fanwork you commented on, and we will send you a prompt.

Moderators will be monitoring comments during this challenge to ensure that participants receive a prompt in a timely fashion. If the fanwork creator later responds too and gives you a prompt, you can use them both if you want.

This is a collaborative challenge. If you take "collaborative" to mean solving the clues with others, that is allowed! If you post to our Discord, please use the #monthly-challenges channel and spoiler any clues you solve so that those who are trying it on their own aren't spoiled.

And finally, here are some links that may help with solving the clues:

• List of all SWG creators
• Browse fanworks by character, genre, or relationship
• Find a Fanwork
• History of the SWG on Fanlore

This challenge opened in May 2026 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts

Interactive Path

Use the clues below to find the SWG member and comment on one of their fanworks, then request a prompt at the end of your comment. The creator will reply with your prompt.

• Like a magpie, Bilbo collected Elven texts and crowed his achievements in the Red Book. He worked in this location, which is also this creator's pen name.
• This creator's name, in the ancient world, is sometimes read as similar to the Quenya curu and sometimes read as fitting with Gandalf's reminder that "Not all those who wander are lost."
• Writer, artist, and one of our first Discord moderators (now retired), this creator is the only person so far on the archive to write a romance about Aragorn's parents.
• This creator's pen name becomes an island after the War of Wrath.
• The home office of the SWG is located in a country that celebrates its 250th birthday this year. The pen name of this creator references the birth year of that country.
• One of our most prolific and talented poets, this creator's name is constructed of two words that the following characters all have in common: Rose, Marigold, Meril.
• Annatar gave many gifts and has many names. This creator uses a pen name that is one of these names, used in the Second Age.
• One of our finest and most dedicated artists, this creator is also the SWG's art editor and the mastermind behind the Tolkien Fanartics column in the newsletter.
• One of our Discord moderators, this creator often writes fanworks that incorporate science into the legendarium.
• In addition to being a talented writer and poet, this creator is also a skilled musician and was our lone musical performer at Mereth Aderthad 2025, where she sang a Dwarvish hymn.
• This moderator still hasn't finished her Taboo challenge response years later, but is better known for enthusiastically handing out stamps.
• This creator's pen name is an English translation of the name Elros.
• This creator is a moderator on our Discord and takes her pen name from a character in one of fanfiction's OG fandoms, the fandom that gave slash its name.
• This creator is possibly a distant relative of a Noldorin prince known for his cave-hewing skills and bringing too much crap with him from Valinor.

History Path

Follow the clue to find the piece of SWG history located on our website. The clue will direct you where to find the prompt on the page itself.

• In Memory: This SWG moderator loved Maglor and Celegorm (and never wavered from a dark-haired Celegorm!) In addition to her work on the SWG, she offered her tech expertise on many fandom projects: the Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards, Many Paths to Tread, Quills & Ink, and Naice a Nilme, among others. Use the title of one of her fanworks as your prompt.
• When the world locked down, we came together to support each other through frightening and lonely times. As lockdowns rippled across the globe, the SWG moderators made a last-minute change to the month's challenge, naming it after a community gathering popular in the urban US and offering collaboration and gatherings throughout the month on our Discord. Use a prompt from this challenge for your fanwork.
• This event was named after a First Age Eldarin gathering. The years of the Sun that had passed before the First Age gathering were the age of the SWG when the event happened. Find the page for this event and use one of the session titles as the prompt for your fanwork.
• When the original SWG archive was beta-tested in 2007, Dawn's husband and dad were among the beta testers. Dawn's husband posted a poem that has nothing to do with The Silmarillion (or anything at all) but is still up on the site because Dawn can't bring herself to delete it. His pseudonym was named after a fictional shrimp company from the 1994 winner of the Oscar for Best Picture. Use any word or phrase from the poem in your fanwork.
• In Memory: This creator wrote about more than one hundred Silmarillion characters as our lead biographer and was the author of funny, romantic works of fiction. Cast one of the characters she wrote about in her biographies in a walk-on role in your fanwork.
• As far as we can tell, JunoMagic and Aranel Took started the tradition of meeting on instant messenger and writing small fanworks together. The tradition continues to this day, now hosted monthly by Anna (IdleLeaves). Find the server on our Discord where we gather and check the channel description for your prompt.
• The SWG helped to popularize Back to Middle-earth Month (B2MeM). This was the first SWG B2MeM event that featured fanworks. The resulting compilation was published on its own webpage using an HTML image map that took visitors to thirteen different themed pages. Use one of those themes as your prompt.
• After years of dwindling challenge participation, the SWG moderators reworked the monthly challenges and gave it one last try—including introducing stamps as an award for challenge completion. This was the first challenge under the new system; its name derives from a Polynesian word. Use the first paragraph of the challenge description as your prompt.
• The SWG's first newsletter included a challenge created by one of the first SWG moderators, digdigil. Find the newsletter, find the challenge, and use it to shape your fanwork.
• In Memory: This author was one of the SWG's original members in the first membership push on Yahoo! Groups in July 2005. She was one of the co-moderators of the beloved fic exchange My Slashy Valentine and has archived more than fifty fanworks on the SWG. Use the title of one of her fanworks as your prompt.
• In the early years of the SWG, Second Age fanworks were relatively rare. We held this event, ongoing to this day as an annual challenge, to illuminate these works by featuring one work per day inspired by a quote from the Akallabêth. Find the webpage that hosts this project and use one of the featured quotes as your prompt.
• We gave this to our group for our 10th birthday as a way to never run out of prompts for Silmarillion fanworks. Find it, roll it (as many times as you want), and there's your prompt.