New Challenge: Title Track
Tolkien's titles range from epic to lyrical to metaphorical. This month's challenge selected 125 of them as prompts for fanworks.

Lúthien, a woman who has spent her entire existence being acted upon — desired, directed, possessed, mourned, celebrated, but never truly seen — reaches the end of her borrowed life and discovers that death is not an ending but the first free choice she has ever been permitted to make.

Galadriel returns to Aman at the end of the Third Age and finds it much changed, just as she herself has changed since she left. There, she reunites with many figures from her past, including a former mentor, seeks answers to loose threads, and ponders the fate of those left behind in Middle-earth. Drawing on a rich array of characters and references, this story considers, among other questions, what became of Galadriel, Frodo, and others after they sailed into the West, why Melian abandoned Doriath, and Galadriel's perspective on the long-term implications of Arwen's choice.

“What if,” said Manwë, regarding Maedhros with star-bright eyes, blue as sapphires and piercing as blades, “you were sent from these Halls for a purpose, son of Fëanáro?”
“I suppose, my lord,” Maedhros said slowly, “that would depend upon the purpose.”
Maedhros is sent back to Middle-earth, in the company of the Maia Olórin.

A collection of drabbles primarily featuring male characters from the Legendarium

Maedhros finds that regret and pain do not end with death. But it does at last bring release from the oath and he can at last embark upon the long, hard road toward redemption.

Grief awaits you outside these halls, Fëanáro, Nienna told him, her voice like the gentlest fall of rain upon spring leaves.
Grief haunts me inside them, Fëanor replied.

“Dior, son of Luthien,” Námo intones, “you do not belong in these halls. I will show you the way to where your path is meant to lead.”
Celegorm looks to Dior and tilts his head in curiosity at the defiant look being directed at Námo. “No,” Dior says, voice hard. “I feel no call to follow the path of men. I will stay in the halls with my kin.”
“I was not presenting it as a choice,” Námo says severely and Celegorm frowns. Sees Curufin across the room shaking his head and gesturing for Celegorm to join him. He thinks to but then looks at Dior again and gets distracted by the look on his face.
An animal backed into a corner, his mind supplies, glancing down at the way Dior’s fingers are beginning to press into Celegorm’s fëa from how hard he is gripping Celegorm’s wrist.
Dior bares his teeth. “I was not either."

But Fëanor was not held guiltless, for he it was that had broken the peace of Valinor and drawn his sword upon his kinsman; and Mandos said to him: “Thou speakest of thraldom. If thraldom it be, thou canst not escape it; for Manwë is King of Arda, and not of Aman only. And this deed was unlawful, whether in Aman or not in Aman. Therefore this doom is now made: for twelve years thou shalt leave Tirion where this threat was uttered. In that time take counsel with thyself, and remember who and what thou art. But after that time this matter shall be set in peace and held redressed, if others will release thee.”
“Well that’s rather stupid,” Fingolfin says.

A selection of brief writings (mostly conforming to drabbles but some veer into dribble territory) from the SWG events on January 18-19, 2025.

Just a few of my favourite podfics that I've found soothing for bedtime (or middle of the night, or any time really) listening.

On ongoing project to analyze who speaks in The Silmarillion and who is silent.

The third kinslaying, as a musical.
Please do not take this too seriously. The writer certainly doesn't.

Three triple drabbles written for the It comes in Threes challenge, featuring various Ainur.

“Oh,” Elwing said faintly. She felt the need to sit down, but locked her knees against it. “Then—have they been released from Mandos, my lord? I had not heard that you came in person to deliver such news.”
“They have not, not yet,” said Námo, and to Elwing’s surprise his mouth softened into a small smile, there and gone again in the blink of an eye. “Your brothers are still very young; Mandos is not a place for children to grow. They are ready to return to the world, but unlike most others who pass through my halls they cannot make the journey across Valinor alone. Come to the gates of my halls with all swiftness, and you will find your brothers there.” He inclined his head, and was gone.

Love. He must love enough, and Maedhros will be granted to him. Fingon can do that easily enough, he thinks to himself. He had returned Maedhros from the dead before, had he not?
-
The world is aging, and Fingon entreats for Maedhros in the Halls of Mandos. It is simpler than he believed, but somehow it makes nothing easier.

The unexpected and mysterious return of Glorfindel, hero of Gondolin, to Middle-earth opens old wounds for Erestor. Can he overcome guilt and forge a new relationship with his old friend?
Written for 2023 My Slashy Valentine fic swap

In which Maedhros dies and has some explaining to do to his family.

Instadrabbles from the sessions on the SWG Discord server, 20-21 August 2022

Earendil comes home to Elwing's Tower in Aewellond (the Bird-haven) to rest from his labors, and finds her just beginning hers. She's been...nesting in his absence.
He hadn't counted on Elwing's bird-skinchanging affecting her like this...

Duology consisting of “Every Wish” and “Falling Stars.” The former is rated General and the latter Adult. Mestië and Alagos attempt to circumvent Ar-Gimilzôr’s laws.

Vanimórë, son of Sauron, was born in the shadows of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. A plaything, a slave, a warrior, he was bound to his father\'s mind, and tempered as a weapon of the Dark over thousands of years.
They forged better than they knew.
Trained in the pits of Angband, Vanimórë could command armies, kill without conscience, and he could hate those he served. But he would not break for them. The blood of the Eldar ran strong in him. His path was inextricably linked to some of the most famed and tragic of the Elves, and lead to a destiny he could never have imagined.
The Darkness –
– has its own Light.

The RAFA \'verse is a series set around \"Rise Again From Ashes,\" a tale in which Maglor returns to Valinor in the Seventh Age. The series is complete and listed in suggested reading order, though the other stories chronologically take place before RAFA. Not all are in the main Maglor-and-Elrond-centric storyline.
Please pay attention to the warnings and ratings; they vary by story.

All of my stories about the Valar and the Maiar. Most of them derived from Chasing Mirages.
Ratings and warning for individual stories vary, please check.

Fëanáro looked at the Vala whose silver hair had a slight lavender hue in the light of Telperion. He was wearing a necklace of silver birds – nightingales. Fëanáro smiled, he’d made that for him. The fire of his anger at the decision the Valar had made in regard to his mother and father still simmered in his breast, but he’d learned a lot of smithcraft from Mahtan Aulendil and even Aulë himself, and Irmo had always been a friend to him.
A story of Feanor's and Irmo's relationship before and after his death. Also a story of how even the Valar have to rethink their rulings sometimes.

Manwe and Mandos watch the Nirnaeth. They break the fourth wall.