Around the World and Web

Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.

Silmarillion Epistolary Week 2025

Silmarillion Epistolary is a challenge dedicated to creating fanworks to tell the story of the Silmarillion in the style of an epistolary novel. It will run April 14th - 20th, 2025, on Tumblr and AO3.

An epistolary novel is where the story is told through letters, diary entries, or other types of documents. One of the most well-known epistolary novels is Dracula, another more modern example would be The Princess Diaries series. These books use different kinds of documents and communications between characters such as letters, telegrams, email, journals, instant messaging, or texting to tell a story in a nontraditional way.

The goal of Silmarillion Epistolary is to encourage fans to take the stories we know and tell them through different kinds of documents.

Rules

Be kind and courteous to others. Disrespect or harassment won't be tolerated.

Entries must be in epistolary format of some kind. There are a lot of possibilities, so be creative!

Prompts are suggestions to help generate ideas, but you're not required to use them.

Tag entries as #silmarillionepistolary or @silmarillionepistolary so that they can be reblogged! If you think your post may have been missed please reach out to let us know!

Please tag NSFW entries so that they can be reblogged here with the appropriate tag.

No AI generated works, we want to see what YOU can create!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!

Prompts

Day 1: Daily Life, Customs, Recipes

Day 2: Exploration, New Lands, Maps

Day 3: Family, Loyalty, Journals

Day 4: Friendship, Alliance, Bookkeeping

Day 5: Love, Creation, Letters

Day 6: Loss, Betrayal, Obituaries

Day 7: Remembrance, New Beginnings, AU

These are suggestions to help generate ideas, but not required. If you don't like the prompts for the day please feel free to create something else!

April Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. 

The thematic challenge for this month is: Wood.
This could be in the sense of "forest" or in the sense of the material.
It could also be "wood" as an element in compounds or names.

The formal challenge this time is: linnod.
This is the traditional verse form used by Gilraen in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen (LOTR Appendix A).
We only have that one canonical example with translation:
Ónen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim.
"I gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself."

The name of the form probably means "chant-seven".
Our Sindarin example seems to show two times seven syllables, although there may be other ways to interpret the form.
Imitate the Sindarin original or its English translation in any way you like.
Alternatively, your piece could include someone using a short response in verse in the way Gilraen does, without your imitating the form of the linnod itself.
 

These prompts can be filled separately and freely combined with other challenges and prompts that allow this. New participants welcome.

More detals on the challenges at the linked post and at the Dreamwidth community.

Celedriel Week 2025

Celedriel Week is a Tumblr events for fanworks about Galadriel and Celeborn. It will run April 6-12, 2025, with the following prompts:

April 6 - First Meetings, Impressions, The Heart Stirs. (A Gaze Caught. The Fire Ignites. "Eru save me, I've found my doom.")

April 7 - Dedication, Courtship, The Heart Blooms. (Flowers and Letters. Words of Love. "My heart, my love, my eternity. My soul soars for thee.")

April 8 - Marriage, Vows, The Heart Bound In Love. (An exchange of rings. Families bound. "In joy and suffering, in life persevering, in death enduring, I take thee and thee alone.")

April 9 - Kingdoms, Refuge, The Heart Endures. (Crowns of silver. Realms rise and fall. "Blessed are they who stand before the darkness and do not falter.")

April 10 - Separation, Conflict, The Heart Grieves. (War and loss leave wounds. Paths diverge and change. "I must follow this thread alone, but not forever.")

April 11 - Lothlorien, Children, The Heart Heals. (Wounds become scars. A silver realm. "Let our children bring joy amidst darkness.")

April 12 - The West, Undying Love, The Heart is Eternal. (A test endured and passed. A goodbye, but not a farewell. "In life and eternity, endless bliss under golden trees.")

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week 2025

Ekphrasis: the description or interpretation of a piece of art, usually visual, in a different artistic medium.

Material culture and art add vibrancy to our lives, and it seems that there are so many options in Middle Earth ripe for interpretation! A poem on Nerdanel's statues, a tapestry capturing Nessa's dance, a prose fic describing the impact of seeing Númenor's frescoes, a painting exploring the beautiful quotidian architecture of a Hobbit hole…

This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event dedicated to the art of ekphrasis in Tolkien's worlds. Its goal is to illuminate the artistic surroundings of the places, people, and stories we love, in as many media as possible. As such, fanworks are welcome to take almost any form: see the FAQ for the full list!

The prompts are multi-part. The first part of the prompt is mandatory, describing the kind of art to be interpreted. The subsequent parts are optional thematic, formal, or visual add-ons that people may choose to incorporate or not.

In short, the timeline is:

  1. Read prompts starting March 17.
  2. Create!
  3. Post tagged work to AO3 before June 9 deadline.
  4. Enjoy daily reveals between June 10 and June 16.
  5. Amnesty day June 17 for late posters.

Inclusion

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week is open to all characters, genres, and ratings, and all Tolkien canons. This includes books, movies both live-action and animated, fan-made films like Born of Hope, TV shows, and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online. It also includes Tolkien's non-Arda fictional works, such as Roverandom. Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are welcome.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week wants to be as inclusive as possible. As such:

  • All canons and versions of canon are equally welcome and encouraged to participate.
  • Fan creators of all levels of experience should feel more than welcome to join in the fun.
  • All languages are welcomed, and works in languages other than English are actively encouraged.
  • All styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. Apart from following the Art Form content prompt for each day, there are no restrictions on genre, style, rating, or ship. There are two exceptions: first, no character bashing; second, no AI-generated writing or art.

Above all, this event is supposed to get us thinking and feeling about art, which is for everyone. With this in mind, TEW asks participants to be respectful and inclusive at all times. In particular, TEW values its queer and trans participants and participants of color and will moderate as necessary to ensure that this event remains a welcoming space.

Please see the FAQ for all rules and full instructions on how to post and tag.

Calendar

June 9, 2025: Submit all works to the AO3 Collection by this date

June 10-16, 2025: Reveals

March 17, 2026: 2025 AO3 Collection and DW community close to posting.

Housekeeping

The DW site is the primary home of Tolkien Ekphrasis Week: that is where to check first for dates, news, FAQs, links, and prompts!

Prompts will also be posted here on Tumblr. The Tumblr blog will be used for event promotion ahead of the event, answering questions via the ask function, and reblogging your creations, if they are posted and tagged on Tumblr.

This event does not and will not exist on any other form of social media other than Tumblr and DW, though I encourage you to spread the word in your other online communities.

If you have any questions, you can get in touch with the mod, @chestnut_pod, via Tumblr ask or comments on the Dreamwidth community's equivalent post.

Links

Teitho March/April Challenge: Mothers

Exploring the idea of mothers in Tolkien lets us go behind the scenes. We have quite a few mothers directly in the narrative, primarily in the Silmarillion—where we see Miriel, Nerdanel, Morwen, Idril, Aredhel, Luthien, Elwing, and even have mentions of Anaire and Earwen.

In The Lord of the Rings we read of Galadriel being Celebrian’s mother and Arwen’s grandmother. Aragorn’s mother Gilraen, Faramir and Boromir’s mother Finduilas, and Rosie Cotton—Sam’s wife—are all mentioned in the narrative. The Hobbit gives us a memory of Belladonna Took, Bilbo’s mother, and mentions of Thorin’s sister Dis—the mother of Fili and Kili. The stories of any of these characters would make for fascinating fic! Or art!

There are many who remain unmentioned and unnamed—Legolas’s mother, Gimli’s, the mothers of generations of Dunedain, of Gondorians, of the Rohirrim, of the Shire. And consider Ungoliant, mother of Shelob! And mothers among the ranks of orcs.

We are excited to see where this prompt takes you and which character gives you inspiration! Please submit your fic or art by April 30 to teitho.contest@gmail.com

Find more information about Teitho here.

Around the World and Web Archive

Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.

Screw Yule 2024

You are cordially invited to participate in this year's Screw Yule, a celebration of Elves, smut, and a New Year's Resolution to toss Laws and Customs right out the window (or, at least, ignore whatever is necessary to appease your muses.)

Screw Yule is a way to kick off the new year with Elf smut, and lots of it. There are a variety of challenge options, and infinite combinations between these different options. You can even completely disregard the challenges and just submit whatever Elf smuttiness you like, as long as it hasn't been written previously for something else and there's an Elf in it somewhere. The only rules are to have fun, and be dirty [We used to only allow ratings of R or NC- 17/ adult-oriented fics, but if you want to only put one foot in the gutter and not jump in completely, go for it. We just really encourage being totally in the gutter!] This event was previously held in the magical place that was Little Balrog, but following the shutdown of Yahoo Groups in the form that allowed for that, stories will now be shared on AO3. The AO3 collection can be found here.

Just Leave a Comment Fest 2024

Just Leave a Comment fest will run from December 26-30. Each day will have a theme, but the idea is to leave comments, whether you follow the theme or not!

Full guidelines and FAQ are here!

Prompts

December 26 - First Fandom: Go back to your firt fandom! See what's changed, see what's good, read some fics, and leave them comments.

December 27 - Bookmark Day: You kept bookmarking those fics all year, saying you would leave comments. Today is the day to make good on those promises.

December 28 - Old Favorites: You've been reading that same fic twice a month for years, but you only commented back in 2015. It's time to let the author know how much the fic means to you!! Comment on all those old favorites!!!

December 29 - Fandom Curiosity: You've been seeing a bunch of mutuals post fics, fanart, and gifsets of something you've never heard of, never experienced for yourself. Find out if their new obsession could also be yours through reading those fics and leaving some comments.

December 30 - Rec a Fic! Pay it forward and help and friend find something new! Comment on any fic of your choosing and rec that fic to a friend or a mutual! Comment on all the fics you are recommended and keep the chain going!

On the 31st, post comment totals from the rest of the fest!

Nonreligious Tolkien Fans Needed for a Research Study

Tolkien scholar Tom Emanuel is looking for participants in a study about the reception of Tolkien's work among nonreligious fans. Here is his call for participants:

Are you a fan of The Lord of the Rings? Do you identify as nonreligious? Would you be interested in talking to me (Tom Emanuel) for 1-2 hours about why you love Tolkien?
If you answered "yes" I would love it if you filled out this questionnaire for my PhD research at the University of Glasgow!
Once I've collected enough responses, I'll reach out to a representative sample of 20 respondents for Zoom interviews in Spring 2024. If you know someone who might be a good fit for this project, please share! You can contact me with any questions at thomas.emanuel@glasgow.ac.uk.

Gen-Uary Fic Rec Fest

Send some love to your favorite gen fics!

Submit your rec directly to us or write your own and tag this blog, we'll be posting and reblogging all your faves throughout January!!

Any fandom, any focus, any format!

Teitho December/January Contest: Snow

We are very excited to be back with a new Teitho challenge for December/January!

Our challenge this time is SNOW.

Where will you take us with this prompt? Mountain peaks or cruel Caradhras? The frozen terrain of the Helcaraxë?

Or perhaps the snowy fields of Rohan. A blizzard in the Shire. Winter at the Havens.

Bundled up inside or braving the elements? A gentle fall of snow or a winter storm? Or perhaps snowed in?

It’s all up to you and we can’t wait see what you have for us this time!

Please submit your stories before January 31, 2024, to teitheo.contest@gmail.com.

Find out more about Teitho Contest on their tumblr.

My Slashy Valentine 2024 Sign-Ups Open

From the Years of the Trees to the Fourth Age, from sultry tales of the Silmarillion to romances in the Ring Wars … sound familiar? That’s right, Slashy Swaps are back and it’s once again time to make your Tolkien fanfic dreams come true.

My Slashy Valentine is a hand-matched slash fiction exchange focused on the people of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Sign ups are now OPEN so spread the word, recruit your friends and fellow authors, and get ready for MSV 2024.

Sign-up Period: December 7th to December 21st
Assignments distributed: by December 28th
Deadline for first time participants: January 31st, 2024
Deadline for veteran participants: February 7th, 2024
Archive opens: February 14th, 2024

Take a look through our rules and faq – or on AO3 if you’re on the mobile app, because Tumblr – and then come along to our SIGN UP PAGE and share the adventure.

Silmarillion Daily Newsletter

Silmarillion Daily (2024) is set up and ready for subscriptions! if people are interested in seeing The Silmarillion in chronological order over the course of a year.

Every day from January 20th to December 31st will cover three years of in-book time, running from the Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen (Years of the Trees and Years of the Sun will be treated the same). January 1st to 19th will be a prologue covering material prior to the Awakening of the Elves.

You can subscribe to Silmarillion Daily here.

LotR20

LOTR20 (11–17th December 2023) is a week-long event celebrating the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The event will run from Monday to Sunday, with three prompts for each day. You can choose one or more of these prompts, and you can decide how you'd like to interpret them.

Tag your original works with #lotrweek (not #lotr20) and they will be reblogged here!

Any questions? FAQ list

LOTR20 prompts:

Day 1 (11th Dec): memory | history | home

Day 2 (12th Dec): language | culture | beauty

Day 3 (13th Dec): fear | courage | adventure

Day 4 (14th Dec): friendship | family | loyalty

Day 5 (15th Dec): loss | sacrifice | despair

Day 6 (16th Dec): triumph | healing | hope

Day 7 (17th Dec): free day – 20th anniversary of The Return of the King

Thorin's Spring Forge 2024

Calling all Thorin fans! We are happy to announce that sign ups for Thorin’s Spring Forge (TSF) 2024 are now open! 

What is TSF? TSF is a minibang style event where writers and artists come together to create fanworks centred on Thorin Oakenshield. Fanworks can be based on the book or the movie version of the character. Any pairing or gen are welcome and we look forward to seeing what you create!

You can participate in this event as a:

  • Writer;
  •  Artist;
  •  Beta reader;
  •  Pinch hitter (writer);
  • Pinch hitter (artist).

Explanations of what each of these roles is can be found in our FAQ. You may sign up for more than one role, but there is a maximum of two fanworks per participant (i.e. you may write two fics, or create two artworks, or do one of each). 

Participating authors create a short summary/synopsis of a fic, which is posted anonymously for artists to view and claim. Artists will then create art based on the fic they chose, and authors will write a complete fic (minimum 2,500 words). 

Sign up as a writer

Sign up as an artist

Sign up as a beta reader or pinch hitter

Sign ups for authors and artists will be open until January 5th 11:59 pm EST.

Sign ups for beta readers and pinch hitters will remain open for the duration of the event!

Please be sure to familiarise yourself with our rules and schedule before signing up! 

Questions? Visit our FAQ or contact us via thorinsspringforge@gmail.com, send us ask or DM on Tumblr. 

We have also opened up a form to submit prompts!

If you are unsure of what you want to write: Check out the submissions.

If you have an idea you want to share: Add something to the form.

Prompt amnesty at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth

As previously, the December challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth is a prompt amnesty.

Although our challenges don't expire and prompt fills can be posted at any time, this is a special invitation for you to write any idea a prompt may have given you and that you didn't get around to writing, or complete a prompt fill you had started working on, or cross-post something that you wrote for another challenge with one of our prompts in mind and never got around to posting to the community.

Also, you can just pick any previous prompt or challenge that tickles your fancy and recombine prompt elements, too, if you like. 

Check out the linked post for a full prompt list and more details on these challenges.