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: Tolkien Society Autumn Seminar: "Translating and Illustrating Tolkien"
The Tolkien Society Seminar is a short conference of both researcher-led and non-academic presentations on a specific theme pertaining to Tolkien scholarship. The Society has so far held two seminars in 2021 (Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien and Tolkien and Diversity) and their online setting has seen increased interest with over 700 attendees from 52 countries at ‘Tolkien and Diversity’. We are delighted to be running 2021’s third and final seminar, which will be held online and will be free for all, on the theme of "Translating and Illustrating Tolkien." The date of the seminar is 6 November 2021.
Tolkien’s appeal has led to his fiction and non-fiction being translated into over fifty languages. The art of translation is immensely complex and when discussing the Dutch translation of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien himself saw the task as “formidable”, offering his own supportive intervention to achieve a satisfactory result. The author’s invented names and languages prompt the question of how the translator should approach Tolkien’s immense mythology. Recent scholarship has emphasised the need for a wider range of Tolkien’s work to be translated in order for readers to gain a fuller understanding of Arda and the author’s development. But with a wealth of translated texts existing already, this seminar hopes to spark new interpretations about old texts and for unacknowledged translations to be brought to light and examined.
An illustrator of his own work, Tolkien had a keen eye for the visual representation of a text. He admired the work of illustrators such as Pauline Baynes, Cor Blok and Ingahild Grathmer (the Queen of Denmark) and others who illustrated the original English and translated versions of his texts. The manner in which illustrators have engaged with Tolkien’s stories varies dramatically and can often be influenced by culturally specific ideas. This seminar hopes to re-examine renowned illustrations of Tolkien’s work while calling for new or overshadowed illustrations to be discussed.
Papers may consider, but are not limited to the following:
- Translations/illustrations of Tolkien’s fiction/non-fiction
- The role of the translator/illustrator
- Translations/illustrations and their context
- Translations’/illustrations’ reception
The Tolkien Society invites abstract submissions of no more than 300 words, for a 20-minute paper with 5 minutes of questions. The call for paper’s deadline is the end of the day Friday 3rd September.
See the full call for proposals for more information and submission information.
Tolkien Villains Week, August 16-22
Tolkien Villains Week is a new fandom event that runs from 16-22th of August, 2021 on Tumblr. It is designed to celebrate the darker side of Tolkien’s work, or its villainous characters. During Tolkien Villains Week, fans are prompted to write, draw or make content focusing on the antagonists of the Tolkien universe, along with looking into the darker deeds performed by those traditionally considered as good.
Tolkien Villains Week accepts all kinds of fancontent, ranging from art, fics, edits, crafts, cosplays, meta, memes… the key thing is that it fits the theme of the event! Participation happens either via the submission form (opens Aug. 16th) or through posting the work on your own blog and tagging it with #tolkienvillainsweek and mentioning this blog @tolkienvillainsweek.
Tolkien Villains Week Rules
Tolkien Villains Week FAQ
Tolkien Villains Week Prompts and Explanations
Darkest Night Exchange: Sign-Ups Open
The Darkest Night is an exchange fest celebrating dark themes in fanworks. You sign up with a list of characters/ships to create a fanwork (either fanart or fanfic) for another person, and someone else will do the same for you. This exchange is run on Archive of Our Own. It's time for Darkest Night 2021 to rise again! Note that the dates have shifted from past years. The Darkest Night schedule:
- Nominations open: August 6
- Nominations close: August 13 (8:00PM EDT)
- Sign-ups open: August 14
- Sign-ups close: August 22 (8:00 PM EDT)
- Works due: September 26 (8:00PM EDT)
- Works revealed: October 3 (8:00PM EDT)
- Creators revealed: October 10 (8:00 PM EDT)
Sign-ups open on August 14 and close on August 22 at 8:00 PM EDT. You can request 4-10 fandoms, with 1-20 characters or groups per fandom, as well as 2-40 free-form tags per fandom. You can also choose your medium per request: fanfiction, fanart, or both. Offers work the same way: 4-10 fandoms, 1-20 characters or groups per fandom, and 2-40 free-form tags per fandom. You can choose to offer either fanfiction, fanart, or both. We use OR matching, meaning that you will be matched with someone who requested at least one of the characters/ships, freeforms, and mediums, you offered, but probably won’t match on all. See the Darkest Night community for more on sign-ups.
Darkest Night Exchange: Nominations Open
The Darkest Night is an exchange fest celebrating dark themes in fanworks. You sign up with a list of characters/ships to create a fanwork (either fanart or fanfic) for another person, and someone else will do the same for you. This exchange is run on Archive of Our Own. It's time for Darkest Night 2021 to rise again! Note that the dates have shifted from past years. The Darkest Night schedule:
- Nominations open: August 6
- Nominations close: August 13 (8:00PM EDT)
- Sign-ups open: August 14
- Sign-ups close: August 22 (8:00 PM EDT)
- Works due: September 26 (8:00PM EDT)
- Works revealed: October 3 (8:00PM EDT)
- Creators revealed: October 10 (8:00 PM EDT)
Nominations open on August 6 and close at 8:00 PM EDT on August 13. You may nominate 6 fandoms, with 5 characters/groups in each, and 10 additional tags. There is no rarity requirement regarding which fandoms can be nominated from. RPF, Crossover Fandoms, and Original Works are all allowed. Non-traditional fandoms such as songs, poetry, anthropomorphism, etc. are also allowed. See the Darkest Night community for more on nominations.
Chromatic Characters Podfic Anthology II Accepting Submissions
The Chromatic Characters Podfic Anthology is collecting short podfics that center characters of color in different fandoms to release as an anthology and as a collection of individual files. 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.)
This year's submission deadline is September 12th, and we will post on September 30th.
Our theme for this year's anthology is community. 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’d like to get a sense of this project, you can see the previous CCPA anthology here.
Oxonmoot 2021: Programme Posted and Registration Open
Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2021 is being held over four days, from the afternoon of Thursday 2nd September until lunch time on Sunday 5th September. For the first time, this will be a hybrid event bringing together online delegates with those attending in person at St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Register to attend Oxonmoot online
Register to attend Oxonmoot in-person
Talks and papers programme
The deadline to submit a proposal for an activity has been extended to 1 August 2021. Find more about how to submit an activity here.
Tolkien OC Week: fandom event for original characters and underdeveloped characters
Tolkien OC Week is a fandom event focusing on original characters and underdeveloped characters in Tolkien's world which will be held on Tumblr during the week from 26th July - 1st August 2021 for the first time.
The event schedule for 2021:
Day 1 (26th July): Shipping - create a piece of fanwork about an OC that you ship with a canon character.
Day 2 (27th July): Family members - create a piece of fanwork about a character who fills a gap left in a family tree (e.g., Legolas’ mother, Maglor’s spouse, Aragorn and Arwen’s younger children).
Day 3 (28th July): Background characters - create a piece of fanwork about a character who is in the background of canon scenes and is either never mentioned or barely mentioned in the story (e.g., an extra from Laketown, a Teler defending their ships during the First Kinslaying, the Haradric man that Sam sees die) and show their view of the events.
Day 4 (29th July): Self insert/reader insert - create a piece of fanwork that includes yourself being in Middle Earth, or write a reader insert story.
Day 5 (30th July): Worldbuilding - create a piece of fanwork about a character who lives in a different place or time from the main canonical events (e.g., a character from Rhûn, a character who stays in Valinor after the Darkening, a character living in Gondor when the kings were still ruling etc.) and flesh out their world.
Day 6 (31th July): Forgotten characters - take a character who is neglected (e.g. Bob and Nob in Bree, Eärwen) or abandoned by Tolkien (e.g. Trotter the hobbit) and make them your own by creating a piece of fanwork about them. Or, completely redesign a canon character to make them yours (e.g., Gil-Galad becoming Fin-Galad).
Day 7 (1st August): Freeform - create a piece of fanwork about whatever resonates with you.
More details in the linked post.
Call for Papers: Tolkien Sessions at Leeds International Medieval Conference 2022
Paper abstracts are currently being sought for the following Tolkien sessions for the Leeds International Medieval Congress, to be held at the University of Leeds on 4-7 July 2022. These sessions are organised by Dr Andrew Higgins and sponsored by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, University of Glasgow. The special thematic strand of the conference will be “Borders” which is reflected in several of the suggested sessions.
Paper submissions are being sought for the following sessions (for descriptions, see the full call for papers):
- Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches
- Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard C. West
- Crossing Borders in Middle-earth
- Borders between Life and Death in Tolkien’s Legendarium
- Family Ties: The Limits of Kinship in Tolkien’s Middle-earth
- Orientation, Transgression, and Crossing Borders of Middle-earth
- Tolkien as a Gateway to Interdisciplinary Teaching: A Roundtable
Paper titles and abstracts are due by August 31, 2021 and should be 150 words maximum. Conference presentations will be 15-20 minutes long.
"The Nature of Middle-earth" Available 2 September 2021
On 2 September, a new compilation of Tolkien's unpublished writings will become available: The Nature of Middle-earth, edited by Carl F. Hostetter, a Tolkien linguist whose has worked previously on Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon. In an interview with Hostetter, Tolkienista's Cristina Casagrande describes Hostetter as playing "the role of a descendant of the forgotten Ælfwine, bringing back the seeds of the Tree."
"Though I wasn’t aware of it at the time," says Hostetter in the interview, "I started work on what would become The Nature of Middle-earth nearly 25 years ago, when I received a bundle of photocopies that Christopher Tolkien referred to as 'late philological essays'." According to the interview, NoMe will include Tolkien's writings, previously published in Vinyar Tengwar, “Ósanwe-kenta,” “Notes on Órë,” and “The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor,” as well as late writings on Elven reincarnation.
Athrabeth Podcast: Episode 36: Tolkien and Diversity Recap
Episode 36 of the Athrabeth podcast discusses the Tolkien Society Seminar, Tolkien and Diversity. Hosts Jude and Stef attended the Tolkien Society Seminar last weekend and are very proud to present their recap of the events. It was a tremendously enriching seminar and they're pleased to have the opportunity to highlight all of the seminar's contributors. Listen to Episode 36: Tolkien and Diversity Recap here.
