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
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:
- Read prompts starting March 17.
- Create!
- Post tagged work to AO3 before June 9 deadline.
- Enjoy daily reveals between June 10 and June 16.
- 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
- June 10 - AO3 collection reveals begin with Day 1 Prompt (Dance)
- June 11 - Day 2 Prompt (Leathercraft)
- June 12 - Day 3 Prompt (Painting)
- June 13 - Day 4 Prompt (Tattooing, Piercing & Body Art)
- June 14 - Day 5 Prompt (Culinary Arts)
- June 15 - Day 6 Prompt (Textiles & Fashion)
- June 16 - Day 7 Prompt (Lapidary & Hardstone Carving)
- June 17 - Amnesty Day and Free-for-all posting
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
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Call for Proposals: German Tolkien Society Seminar
The 18th Tolkien Seminar of the German Tolkien Society (Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft) is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and takes place in a hybrid format (mainly in person but with online options) at the Department of English (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik) at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena from 28th to 30th October 2022.
If you would like to present a paper, please send a short abstract (no longer than one page) and a short biography, as well as the preferred way of participating (online or in person) by 30th May 2022.
As can be seen from many of the texts recently published in the volume The Nature of Middle-earth (2021; edited by Carl Hostetter), Tolkien extensively studied the different aspects of the space- and time-continuum. He did so often in order to give his subcreated world a cohesive and coherent temporal and spatial framework. Therefore, aspects belonging primarily to the field of ‘worldbuilding’ will be one aspect to be explored. However, we also want to encourage participants to investigate the narrative effects of space and time.
The seminar aims at bringing together researchers from various disciplines in order to explore the theoretical foundations and the literary mise-en-scène of the time-space continuum in Tolkien’s work.
See the full call for proposals for contact information and full details.
Bring Her Bleeding Heart to Me: Dark Femslash Commentfic Meme
For this annual multifandom event, participants can prompt dark femslash fanworks or create for the prompts that have been posted. All fanworks and femslash pairings are welcome. This is an 18+ event. The full rules can be found here.
Fandom Trumps Hate Sign-Ups Open
Fandom Trumps Hate is an online auction of fanworks, with the proceeds going to small, progressive nonprofits that are working to protect marginalized people. Fandom Trumps Hate has raised over $135,000 for a range of amazing organizations.
Sign-ups for this year's auction are now open and close on February 13. Bidding runs February 23-27.
See this post on Tumblr for more information on how to sign up as a creator (here is the sign-up post on Dreamwidth).
Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology XII
It’s time for the twelfth annual Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology! As always, we'll be collecting short lady-centric podfics by different readers in different fandoms to release as an anthology and as a collection of individual files.
The submission deadline for podfics is February 14th, and we will post the anthology on February 28th.
The theme for this year's anthology is exploration. It's optional—all podfics are welcome as long as they follow the rules laid out in the Submission Guidelines—but feel free to let it inspire you if you'd like.
If you are not familiar with this project, you can see the previous eleven anthologies here.
To Podficcers: Interested in participating? We'd love to have you. This should be a low-stress project, even for people who are new to podficcing, due to the word-count: 1500 words or less (with many being as short as 1-2 minutes). If you'd like to record something for this anthology, please fill out this quick google form and we'll send you the link to the spreadsheet where we'll be keeping track of all the podfics. If you would prefer to interface via email instead of using the form/spreadsheet, you can email klb at sekritproject@gmail.com, and she will reach out to get you set up.
Complete guidelines for the Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology can be found here.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2022 Schedule Posted
The 2022 schedule for the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is as follows:
- 1st April - suggestions spreadsheet opens
- 15th April - sign ups open
- 8th May - artist sign ups close
- 15th May - art drafts due
- 20th May - gallery open
- 22nd May - author sign ups close
- 29th May - claims
- (***TBA - additional claims***)
- 5th June - post claims check in
- 12th June - final art due from artists who chose the “free rein” collaboration option
- 26th June - check in #2
- 31st July - check in #3
- 7th August - final art due from all other artists
- 14th August - final check in / deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter
- 4th September - fics due in collection
- 9th September - reveals
- 12th September - staggered Tumblr reblogs begin
Note that this year's bang will only allow two submissions per artist in order to keep numbers manageable.
To keep up with the 2022 event, follow TRSB on Tumblr or @TolkienRSB on Twitter.
Squidge Restoration of Lost Podfics
The fandom archive Squidge has hosted the Jinjurly audio/podfic archive for a couple of years now, but have only recently taken control of the day-to-day stuff that needs to be done. Furthermore, a hack of the Jinjurly archive resulted in the loss of many, many podfics. Site moderators have recovered a number of files for the archive.
They are asking the podfic community who may have used Jinjurly if they have replacement files. They also need volunteers to help with the immense task they are undertaking to restore these fanworks.
For now, there is a Google Form for submitting replacement files or new podfics for the archive.
The Squidge Status Dreamwidth has much more information on the project and ways to get involved to help.
Second Age Week, January 17-23
Showing love and appreciation for the Second Age in all its facets. From proud Númenoreans to deep digging Dwarves, to the last High King of the Noldor, and the Dark Lord of Mordor - this week is dedicated to all of them and more!
A list of non-mandatory prompts below:
Day 1 Elves - Gil-galad, Oropher, Celebrían and many others - Lindon and Belfalas, Imladris and Eregion, Lórinand and Greenwood. What were the elves doing in the Second Age? This day is dedicated to them and their many endeavours.
Day 2 Men - What made Drúedain leave Númenor? What occurred in the East where the Blue Wizards journeyed? What was the situation on Númenor under Ar-Gimilzôr’s rule? On this day of Second Age Week, we explore the race of Men - from proud Númenoreans, through those who would come to be known as Dunlendings, to the Haradrim in the South.
Day 3 Dwarves - From Ered Luin through Khazad Dûm to the Eastern Realms, dwarves played an important role during the Second Age. On this day you can explore their history and culture, events they participated in, prominent characters such as Durin IV. or Narvi and more!
Day 4 Sauron and his minions - Annatar, Zigûr, Tar-Mairon, Gorthaur - in the Second Age, Sauron was at his strongest. With his lies and deceits, he weaved his way into the court of Númenor and the forge of Eregion and began a reign of terror from his fortress in Mordor. This day is dedicated to him and his many followers.
Day 5 Artefacts and Symbols - The Second Age was full of prominent artefacts and symbols - from the Rings of Power to the White Tree of Númenor, their history and fate - there’s plenty to explore!
Day 6 Impactful events - The rise and fall of kingdoms; councils and meetings, battles and wars - during the spam of 3441 of this Age, history books could easily be filled.
Day 7 Freeform - Did we forget about something or is there a prompt you want to revisit? Feel free to use this day for any Second Age related content!
The week will run on Tumblr during January 2022 - 17th to 23rd - and will be hosted by @iminye and @armenelols.
More details about tags, etc. in the linked post.
Worldbuilding Exchange (Final Year)
This will be the final year of the Worldbuilding Exchange. See their Dreamwidth page for more details on how to sign up, information about this being the last year for the exchange, and relevant links: https://worldbuildingex.dreamwidth.org/
Seasons of Drabbles: Winter Round 2022
Seasons of Drabbles is an exchange for the creation of drabbles and drabble variants. It will run once per season. The current round is for winter 2021-2022.
Schedule:
Nominations open: January 3 (will remain open through signups)
Signups open: January 9
Signups close: January 16 @ 11:59pm Eastern time (Countdown)
Assignments out by: January 19
Assignments due: January 29 @ 11:59pm Eastern time (Countdown)
Collection opens: February 06 @ noon Eastern time (Countdown)
Authors revealed: February 8 @ noon Eastern time
AO3 Collection | Tagset | Nomination guidelines | Mod email: seasonsofdrabbles@gmail.com
Tolkienshortfanworks challenge for January
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for January has been posted at the Dreamwidth community.
The thematic prompt is "beginnings or fresh start" and the formal challenge is alliterative verse.
In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien chiefly uses the form to render the poetry of the Rohirrim, but he also composed long narrative poems and shorter descriptive pieces in it.
Tolkien's most famous alliterative lines (based on an Old English model) are probably these:
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
New joiners to the community are always welcome. More details at the linked entry.
