New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.

REWORKED.‘I had a normal life once...’
At the beginning of the First Age the Elves of Beleriand rejoiced; Kin long sundered returned home. Yet all was not as it seemed. The real reasons for the return of the Noldor were kept hidden among themselves.
The Enemy, known among the returning elves as Morgoth stirred in the iron hell of Angband. Wars were fought and lost. Many Kingdoms were founded; some rose to glory, though in the end all fell in blood and fire.
Thrown into the chaos of Arda Marred, Evelyn must adapt to a world not her own. Arda is a dangerous place in which to be vulnerable.
Canon Based AU

In Mandos, Namo wrestles with the temptation to cast Maedhros into the Outer Darkness.
With a vignette of Finrod and Celegorm and a couple of thoughts on Luthien.
Warning: High levels of angst.
Very generously nominated for the MEFAs 2011 by Elleth; it won Third Place in the category: "Cross-Cultural: Elder Days".

Life after rebirth: Once around the sun, Glorfindel's first year in Imladris.
MEFA 2011: First Place: Character study, General
my thanks to Elfscribe

The city of Gondolin is at peace, and yet several of its citizens harbour resentments, ambitions, and unnatural desires: Maeglin longs to assume his rightful position as Turgon's heir and Idril's spouse; Salgant hopes to avenge himself for past humiliations; and Ecthelion and Glorfindel indulge in deception even as they devote their lives to duty. Many secrets will be revealed, but only slowly and with much confusion, in this comedy of misunderstandings.

Maedhros is rescued from Thangorodrim, Maglor tries to talk him back to sanity

For the B2MeM 2011 Challenge: Day Thirty-One: Valinor
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
Friedrich Schiller
Write a story or poem or create artwork that illustrates this quotation.
Could the downfall of Númenor have been prevented had the Valar acted differently?

MEFA 2011 Third Place in Romance, Smaug's Treasure Award
Rivendell, Day 19, write a story or create a piece of artwork centered on meetings or reunions. (This one is a very soft R-rated piece.) I always wondered what Lúthien saw in that grubby unwashed Beren. Shallow person that I am, I figured he had to have been hot and had a sense of humor at very least.

A place to store short stories, ficlets and challenge responses that don't really warrant being archived on their own.
Newly Added: "The Good and the Bad". Young Aragorn discusses Noldorin history with Erestor.

2011 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards - First Place, Elves General, and Smaug's Treasure award.
This is a story of tragic heroes of the First Age, while they were young elves in love in Valinor, inexperienced and foolish. Ecthelion, a half-Telerin nerdy musician who fancies himself to be rather worldly and fashionable, sets himself the task of seducing his best friend Glorfindel, a charming math prodigy. The story provides a glimpse at contrasts between Telerin, Noldorin, and Vanyarin cultures, which turns wildly AU in relation to the inclusion of the festival of the Gates of Summer. It’s but a little romp of a love story about growing up spoiled and privileged in Aman during the Years of the Trees.

Oropher, a healer and son of the Lord of Nivrim, assists Finrod Felagund in a hunt for a saboteur who has prevented spring from coming to Doriath. In the process, Oropher finds himself increasingly attracted to his clever friend.
A Sherlock Holmes style mystery with a twist.
MEFA 2011 winner First Place in Mystery: General and also a winner of a Smaug's Treasure award.

Finrod Felagund gets stranded in a storm, a mysterious elf comes to his rescue. His life will be forever changed.

The outbreak of war in Eregion and the hiding of the rings of power as experienced by a musician, a lord with an agenda set beyond the sea, an exiled Noldorin princess and an elf with an uneasy conscience.
Cameos by Durin the Deathless, Ereinion Gil-galad, Celebrimbor, and Annatar the Giver of not always welcome Gifts..
MEFA 2011: First Place: Adventure, General
my thanks to Elfscribe

A short scene from the dungeons of Angband.
No actual gore, but Angband is Angband...
Now added: 'Orc' - an orc escapes from the Fall of Angband.

At the Havens, as Tuor and Idril prepare to sail into the West, Sador Labadal's niece muses on her fascination with Idril and the fate of the servants of the house of Hurin.
Originally my project for the International Day of Femslash, which means it's only about two months late. Never mind: as femslash, it isn't PWP, it's NVMHAA (Nothing Very Much Happens At All)--some readers might consider it doesn't even count.
The story also sort of features Fingon as King Arthur--but very much sort of. For reasons that will be obvious to the reader, Fingon doesn't appear in the list of Characters.
Some of this story is a bit grim, but none of the description is graphic.
Generously nominated for the MEFAs 2011 by Elleth; surprisingly, it won Second Place in the category "Men: General"!

During a masquerade Legolas tells Haldir the tragic tale of the Gondolinian elf named Legolas.

Sauron has become Ar-Pharazôn's most trusted advisor, but it is not an easy job even for a cunning Maia. An unknown intruder in the palace gardens, however, enables him to set some of his more ambitious plans in motion...

Indis can't help but fall in love with Finwë-- and his wife Míriel. When the couple brings her into their relationship, everything changes.
Finwë/Míriel/Indis, with an emphasis on Míriel/Indis.

An elusive presence haunts Celegorm on a solitary hunting trip and lures him from his path into a mystery-ridden chase where it is unclear if the son of Fëanor is hunter or prey…
Silmarillion-verse, set many years before the Dagor Bragollach.
Rating not necessarily for all chapters but for some explicit parts.

Setting: A fortified manor in the south of Hithlum. Time: Before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
Maedhros arrives from Dorthonion to find out how Fingon's negotiations with Orodreth are progressing. Proceedings that evening are only slightly disrupted by the machinations of a pair of cats and a lot of weather. However, when Orodreth's final answer eventually arrives, his refusal to join the alliance represents a more serious challenge.
(Maedhros/Fingon)

The story of Eönwë, Maia of Manwë, and Mairon Aulendil after the War of Wrath. A tale of darkness, light, love and betrayal over the Ages of Eä.
Tolkien simply told us that [Sauron] fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong. But this line is unsatisfactory on so many levels that it became a challenge to create a plausible background story for Sauron's fall, from the time Eönwë returns to Aman to face the Valar over his decision to free one of Morgoth's most dreaded minions to Sauron's final fate, long after the destruction of the Ring.

B2MeM 2011 and 2012 participant
MEFA 2011 1st Place - Incomplete: Drama & Smaug's Treasure (but complete since then!)

The king and the archivist. Respect, friendship, misunderstanding, making up - all the good things that build a forever kind of love.

The story of Maedhros' captivity in Angband, his rescue and his recovery is in the Silmarillion treated in a few paragraphs. This is a fleshed-out account of the events that may have befallen between Maedhros' imprisonment and his return to his old life... as far as that is possible.
Occasionally drifting into AU territory, depending on how closely you follow the source (WHICH source? :P).
The usual warnings apply - particularly to chapters marked with an asterisk.
Part One completed.
Part Two completed.
Part Three, Chapter 10 added: In which the reconciled Noldor make plans for the future. End of the trilogy.

I: Fingon is unable to articulate his wishes unambiguously, so Maedhros finds seduction a terrifying and lonely business.
II: This time, Fingon states his feelings very clearly, in the face of Maedhros’s doubts.
Originally designed as a companion piece to Counting the Hours largely from Maedhros’ point of view, as the other story is largely from Fingon’s. (The original middle section has since been moved elsewhere in the series.)
Re warnings: "Graphic" really only applies to the beginning of Section I, I think.

An exploration of the relationship between Maedhros and Maglor, told in the aftermath of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Warning for consentual (but not graphic) incest between brothers.

The captivity of Maedhros on Thangorodrim, and his subsequent rescue by Fingon. This is actually part of my modern AU - the elves are living in the modern world and the events in Middle Earth are told as a flashback.
Warnings for rape/non-con, torture.