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SWG News
New Challenge: Tengwar
Each day for thirty-six days, we feature a randomly chosen letter from the Tengwar as a prompt.
A Sense of History: Crossroads
In the ongoing series on towers in Tolkien's work, a thread runs through "The Lord of the Rings," revealing the divine assistance of Varda in the travails of the Fellowship.
Cultus Dispatches: Canon Deviations, Multifandoms, and Original Content
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data gives some insight into what connections, if any, exist between fanfiction and original fiction.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Tengwar (working title) by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge. To be updated as new prompts are completed.
Current up through 'Anca'
[Writing] I Stood Aside by Flora-lass
Maedhros' horror at the burning of the ships. Inspired by a painting (see notes).
[Reference] Thálatta! Thálatta! by Simon J. Cook
While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
[Writing] Words of Wisdom by AdmirableMonster
One or more drabbles about Pengolodh and his babysitter Salgant.
[Writing] Les Mots de Sagesse by AdmirableMonster
Plusieurs petites histoires qui parle de Pengolodh et Salgant pendant des moments differents.
[Writing] "Tengwar" ficlets by chrissystriped
Fics written for the "Tengwar" challenge.
[Writing] Upon Cirith Thoronath by StarSpray
A horrid cacophony of cries erupts ahead of them, as orcs appear—up the cliff on hidden ledges, on the path, with bows and swords. And behind them rises a figure of darkness and flame. The heat rolls down the path over them, bringing the smell of burning flesh and bitter fear with it. Someone…
Current Challenge
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Plot Thickens
Create a fanwork that depicts characters in the act of plotting something. Read more ...
New in References
Thálatta! Thálatta! by Simon J. Cook
[]While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
[]
With Gildor Inglorion we finally climb the stairs of Elostirion and look on the view, and what we see appears to reveal a hidden thread in the story of Frodo Baggins. This post reads two annotated translations of two Elvish songs to step through a crossroads in the narrative to arrive at the tower on the margin of the story, wherein is a stone that is a window onto Valinor.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Waybread (The Waybredlik) by Himring
[]Lembas speaks out.
[Series] Apr 1st Stories by Uvatha the Horseman
[]Once a year on April 1st, a canon character from LOTR or the Silmarillion gets pranked.
[Writing] Crossing Forest River by Dawn Felagund
[]Bilbo recounts, in verse, the attempt of Gandalf, Beorn, and him to cross the Forest River after the Battle of Five Armies. Written for the Hungarian Tolkien Society's 2024 Mailing Competition.
Around the World and Web
Monstrous May 2024
Monstrous May is a Tumblr event where, for each day of the month of May, there is a prompt involving and invoking the monstrous.
Fellowship of the Fics: Modern AU May
During May, Fellowship of the Fics offers modern AU prompt lists for setting, character occupation, and dialogue on Tumblr.
May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The May challenge has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic challenge: name; formal challenge: acrostic. As usual, these can be filled independently and freely combined with other prompts such as the SWG challenges. New participants welcome!
May 2024 Calls for Papers
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers in May 2024.
Angbang Week 2024
All new, unpublished fanworks about the Angbang (Melron) ship are welcome during this Tumblr event, running 6-12 May 2024.
Pride
June is Pride Month, a time to recognize and honor the contributions of LGBTQIA+ people, whose work and identity (or both) have often gone unrecognized in history. This month's challenge will involve a prompt by an LGBTQIA+ person. There are music, art, poetry, and quotation prompts.
Comment on Dreamwidth, send an ask on Tumblr, or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org to request your prompt. Please specify which type(s) of prompts (music, art, poem, or quote) you would like us to pick from--and it's fine also if you have no preference in this area and wish us to surprise you!
Please note that fanworks do not have to be about LGBTQIA+ characters or topics, although as always, there is a little something extra for those who take on that extra bit of challenge. (Please help out your stamp-delivering mods by specifying in the author's notes if you include LGBTQIA+ characters, if it is not obvious from the summary or notes on the fanwork.)
This challenge opened in .
Prompts
Choose your prompt from the collection below.
- View Prompts
-
Music
- t.A.T.u, "All The Things She Said," Video | Lyrics
- Conchita Wurst, "Rise like a Phoenix," Video | Lyrics
- Dana International, "Just The Way You Are," Video | Transcription
- George Michael, "Faith," Video | Lyrics
- Elton John, "I’m Still Standing," Video | Lyrics
- Tom Robinson, "Glad to be Gay," Video | Lyrics
- Village People, "Go West," Video | Lyrics
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "That’s All," Video | Lyrics
- Lady Gaga, "Born This Way," Video | Lyrics
Art
- Lea T as Boticelli’s Venus for ELLE Brazil by Mariana Maltoni
- Pride Knights Assemble! by Alicia Archer
- Pride by Ulla Thynell
- Also, lots of beautiful photos by Braden Summers—each of them would make a fine prompt
Poetry
- Awed by her Splendor by Sappho Cherepashka
- Sonnet by Federico Garcia Lorca
Quotes
- "Virginia Woolf said that writers must be androgynous. I'll go a step further. You must be bisexual." ~ Rita Mae Brown
- "Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes." ~ Oscar Wilde Kaylee
- "The long slumber of ignorance must pass away, and discussion will bring light, no doubt." ~ George Cecil Ives
- "Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth." ~ Ian McKellen
- "No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us." Marsha P. Johnson
Fanworks Tagged with Pride
Artifacts in Archive by Lferion
In Valinor, Cîr Imladris built, Elrond takes the opportunity to properly catalogue, categorize, and annotate one of the slowly diminishing collection of uncatalogued, uncategorized "miscellaneous objects with words attached" that had been part of the library and archive at Imladris from the beginning.
Steppe Ghost Story by Lferion
Love endures, and nothing is truly forgotten if even one person remembers it. A triple drabble.
Fire Like Ice by Lferion
Fingon would not have anticipated that he would ever find himself thinking of heat the same way he thought of extreme cold, and yet, here he was.
Takes place in a version of Arda with Beleriand Risen on the Aman side of the Straight Road, as in Bunn's Return to Aman and Undying Lands.
The City Over the Mountains by Narya
A midwinter dalliance grows into something neither Elemmakil nor Voronwë expect. Duty, family and the ghosts of their past lie between them, and beyond the Hidden City, the shadows lengthen and grow deep...
The Space Between by Grundy
Ecthelion's reaction to the Fall of Sauron, a double drabble.
By the Sea by Lferion
Fingon and Maedhros share a moment by the sea.
Summer Storm by oshun
Written for the 2019 Pride challenge,
My prompt: “The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.” ~ E.M. Forster
Not gonna explain how this ficlet fits the prompt. But it does. You have to trust me.
Dancers by Independence1776
Celebrían and Mithrandir have a brief talk.
Lovelier than Love by StarSpray
Not long come from Mandos, Minyelmë is visiting Tirion with her sister, and meets Lalwen for the first time.
Will you remember who kissed you by Himring
Yavien, great-granddaughter of Elros, is summoned to her long-time lover's deathbed, in the fisher village of Nindamos.
(Now with extra drabble on footwear)
Deep Roots are Not Reached by Frost... or Shadow by Raiyana
A burial beneath the branches of the Great Greenwood at some point in the First Age.
Joined by hennethgalad
Glorfindel and Aistalar dine with Olórin
Beech Ridge by hennethgalad
Glorfindel and Aistalar move to Beech Ridge.
