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In order to achieve consistency in source citation and usage across the references shared on our site, we are making available the guidelines our editors will follow in preparing a manuscript for publication. This is a living document that will be updated as needed. Please note that Reference Library authors are not expected to memorize or master the information here. It is provided for your information only and to make public our editorial guidelines. We understand that most of our authors are not academics, and we are happy to help prepare manuscripts for publication. We will never reject an essay for not following the document here but will work with the author to bring it into shape for our site.
The SWG is an international organization. We are proud to welcome members, guests, and staff from around the world.
As such, the SWG does not prefer the conventions of one English-speaking nation over another. Authors should write with the spelling, grammatical, and mechanical conventions with which they are most comfortable. We will not make such edits during copyediting; should we "correct" something that is actually part of your convention, simply let us know, and we will remove the suggestion.
We follow the conventions for capitalization and italics used by J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien in the primary source texts. When there are discrepancies between texts, priority is given to the usage found in The Silmarillion. If a usage is not found in The Silmarillion, the author may choose which convention they use as long as it is used consistently.
The Reference Library uses an endnote system to cite any sources used. A superscript numeral corresponds with an item in a numbered list found at the end of the essay (or chapter in the instance of multi-page references). We do not strictly adhere to any style system. We use an in-house style system for references to Tolkien's books and a modified version of the Chicago Manual of Style for all other references.
Superscript numerals should go outside of all punctuation (e.g., periods, commas, quotation marks) except for colons and semicolons.
Endnotes can also include additional commentary that is not required in the main body of the essay. This commentary can also follow a reference. The latter should be used sparingly, and readers should generally be trusted to be able to use the endnote to find and interpret the information cited.
Primary sources are texts authored by J.R.R. Tolkien, with or without editorial assistance.
To cite a primary source, authors should provide as much information about where in the book their reference comes from. Page numbers are not used because different readers may be using different versions, editions, or translations of the text (including e-books). Some texts include numbered sections (§); these section numbers should be provided when available. The guiding idea behind this format is that a reader with any copy of one of Tolkien's texts can narrow a reference down to the smallest labeled section possible within the text.
Title of Text, Title of Book or Major Subdivision within Text, "Title of Chapter or Minor Subdivision(s)," Section/footnote number if available.
Example:
History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, "The names of the Sons of Fëanor with the legend of the fate of Amrod."
The SWG Reference Library uses a modified form of the endnote citation style from The Chicago Manual of Style. Below is the formatting used for common source formats. Authors unfamiliar with or without access to The Chicago Manual of Style should follow the formatting below as best as they can, and the editors will fine-tune the references during the copyedit stage.
The first time a source is cited, the full citation should be used. Subsequent citations of that source should use the shortened form. (The full title should be used if four words or less.)
Shortened titles are not used with primary (Tolkien) sources.
Book (no editor)
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, Title of Book (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.
AuthorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.
Example:
Tom Shippey, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 145-46.
Shippey, Author of the Century, 58.
Book (edited volume)
EditorFirstName EditorLastName, ed., Title of Book (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.
EditorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.
Example:
Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan, eds., Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien (Altadena, CA: Mythopoeic Press, 2015), 147.
Croft and Donovan, Perilous and Fair, 2-3.
Book (with editor/translator)
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, Title of Book, ed./trans. EdTransFirstName EdTransLastName (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.
AuthorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.
Example:
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, trans. Nevill Coghill (London: Penguin, 1971), 55.
Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, 91-92.
Chapter in an Edited Book
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title" in Title of Book, ed. EdTransFirstName EdTransLastName (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.
Example:
Miguel Ángel Pérez-Gómez, "Walking Between Two Lands, or How Double Canon Works in The Lord of the Rings Fan Films" in Fan Phenomena: The Lord of the Rings, ed. Lorna Piatta-Farnell (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2015), 37.
Pérez-Gómez, "Walking Between Two Lands," 39.
Journal Article
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title," Journal Title Vol#, no. Issue# (PubYear): Pages.
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.
Example:
William Provost, "Language and Myth in the Fantasy Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien," Modern Age 33, no. 1 (1990): 44.
Provost, "Language and Myth," 50.
If a journal article is in a continuously paginated volume, you do not have to include the issue number since the page number will point to the correct issue. (A continuously paginated volume includes multiple issues where the page numbers of each issue do not restart at Page 1 but continue as though all issues were contained in a single volume. If you're not sure, include the issue number and a note to the copyeditor, and we will sort it out.)
Newspapers/Magazines
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title," PeriodicalTitle, IssueDate, Pages.
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.
Example
Alan Jacobs, "Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology," The Atlantic, July 27, 2012.
Jacobs, "Tolkien and Technology."
The Chicago Manual of Style does not require access dates for online sources (14.7). For the SWG Reference section, when using an online source like a personal website, archive, wiki, or blog that is easily edited by the author, include a date of access. A date of access is not required for sources that are unlikely to change (e.g., articles from major online periodicals, scholarly journals, etc).
The title will be converted to a hyperlink pointing to the page URL by our editors. Include the hyperlink at the end of the citation. (Please do not convert the text to a hyperlink, as this adds an extra step to formatting the article for HTML.)
When citing a pen name, continue using the full pen name in the shortened version of the citation.
AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Page Title," WebsiteTitle, PostingDate, accessed AccessDate.
Example:
Dawn Felagund, "Tolkien Fan Fiction Genre and Attitudes Toward Fan Fiction," The Heretic Loremaster, June 2016, accessed November 13, 2016.
Dawn Felagund, "Tolkien Fan Fiction Genre."
Tolkien frequently changed the names of characters, objects, and places as he was working on his drafts, and he sometimes used names inconsistently within a text. Christopher Tolkien has done the hard work for us in figuring out the latest and most accurate version of names and using that version consistently in The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion spelling of a name should be used unless discussing the character, object, or place as it existed in earlier texts. In these cases, a clear association between the earlier name and the Silmarillion name should be established. Authors should remember that the SWG welcomes members and guests with varying levels of experience with Tolkien's texts, and while we can assume familiarity with The Silmarillion, not all readers have read texts like the History of Middle-earth series. Using names from these texts instead of the more familiar Silmarillion names (e.g., Silmarilli instead of Silmarils) makes our Reference Library less accessible to newcomers to The Silmarillion.
Last updated 23 April 2018.