Around the World and Web

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

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.")

Neurodivergent Arda Week 2025

Neurodivergent Arda Week will run from March 30 to April 5, 2025 on Tumblr. This is an event to celebrate Neurodiversity in Tolkien's works. Although there are no characters who are explicitly Neurodivergent, many Neurodivergent folk have found themselves in Tolkien's world. All creations are welcome, such as art, writing, podfic, gifs, and more.

Neurodiversity is the realisation, celebration, and acceptance that there are many different ways for a brain to function. Diversity is a natural part of existence. All brains are valid and real, whether or not they may fit into categories. And the world needs every brain in order to function. There is no such thing as a “better” or a “worse” brain, they’re just different. And different is good. Diversity is a vital and natural part of our world.

Here are some prompts:

Day 1 - March 30 - Worldbuilding

Day 2 - March 31 - Characters

Day 3 - April 1 - Stimming

Day 4 - April 2 - Special Interests

Day 5 - April 3 - Assistive Technology

Day 6 - April 4 - Intersectionality

Day 7 - April 5 - Free Prompt

Submissions do not have to follow the prompts.

When submitting, please tag your post #neurodivergentardaweek and mention @neurodivergent-arda-week

Please include image descriptions on submissions.

Content or creators that endorse these prejudices are not allowed -

  • Homophobia
  • Transphobia
  • Racism
  • Ableism
  • Fatphobia and body shaming
  • Biphobia and panphobia
  • Polyphobia and sentiments against polyamorous folk
  • Radical feminism
  • Fascism and alt-right politics
  • Aphobia

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.

Aspec Arda Week

This is a week-long event to celebrate the interaction of the asexual and aromantic-spectrums and Tolkien’s Legendarium of Arda. Though these experiences are not explicit within Tolkien’s work, many fans across the a-spectrum see themselves in Arda, and we are here to appreciate any and all interpretation of characters, relationships, and events through an aspec lens.

Any content about the a-spectrum in Arda is welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! This event will run from May 3-9, 2021! Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so they can be easily found. If your submission turns into a long post, please put what you can beneath a “Keep reading” divider.

Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to an explanation for each one, and also includes a list of more open-ended creative prompts unconnected to the main themes of each day.

DAY ONE: Asexuality
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
DAY FOUR: Worldbuilding
DAY FIVE: Relationships
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
DAY SEVEN: Freeform

This event is being organized by @arofili. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or my main.

For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!

Mobile links are accessible here.

Alliance of Arda Facebook Group

Alliance of Arda is an inclusive fan community dedicated to sharing our experiences with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Unlike other Tolkien groups, we encourage conversations on topics including, but not limited to, race, sexuality, gender identity, and disability, and how they affect experiences with Tolkien, as well as questions/discussion regarding the Legendarium at large. Everyone is welcome to join the Alliance, whether you were introduced to Tolkien through his books or the Peter Jackson films. Our community is a place of sharing, learning, and solidarity.

Alliance of Arda has formed a Facebook group here.

Call for Proposals: Tolkien Society Summer Seminar - Tolkien & Diversity

This summer's Tolkien Society Seminar is online and will consider diversity and Tolkien. Papers may consider, but are not limited to:

  • Representation in Tolkien’s works (race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, religion, age etc)
  • Tolkien’s approach to colonialism and post-colonialism
  • Adaptations of Tolkien’s works
  • Diversity and representation in Tolkien academia and readership
  • Identity within Tolkien’s works
  • Alterity in Tolkien’s works

Proposals are due on 23rd April!

Tolkien Short Fanworks: April Challenge

Here is a thematic prompt and a formal challenge for April.
You can combine the thematic prompt and the formal challenge, but they can be filled entirely independently.

Thematic prompt: Duck or Egg.
You can fill the prompt any way you like!
But here is a bonus prompt for "duck": an image of a very special duck and an associated podcast (link goes to the Ashmolean Museum website).


The formal challenge is to write a quatrain or quatrains.


Usual reminder that although you can fill the thematic prompt any way you like, in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3, the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.

Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

The next challenge will be posted at the beginning of May, but the prompts don't expire and late fills are always welcome!

Tolkien South Asian Week

This will be a week dedicated to celebrating South Asian peoples, cultures and lives through Tolkien’s Legendarium. I started my Everyone in Middle-Earth is Brown series a year ago to re-interpret Tolkien characters as people like me. This event stemmed from that and aims to diversify and enrich high fantasy, Tolkien’s literary works and fandom.

Everyone’s free to participate. You don’t need to be South Asian or have an in-depth knowledge of South Asian cultures and peoples. This a great opportunity to educate yourself though!

All creation types are welcome – graphics, art, fanfiction, gifs etc as long as they represent a South Asian element(s). That can be a language, a culture, anything. I find the simplest and truest way to focus on South Asians is to use South Asian face casts. Creations should also be Safe for Work so no explicit content will be accepted. 

Please tag you contributions with #tolkiensaweek and mention me @arwenindomiel.

Here are the prompts — they are not mandatory but meant to inspire you. Feel free to create outside these themes.

Day 1: Ainur, Beorians, Doriath, Vingilot, Dragons, Origins.

Day 2: Elves, Númenóreans, Gondolin, Silmarils, Balrogs, Loss.

Day 3: Men, Durin’s Folk, Arnor, Aeglos, Great Eagles, Evolution.

Day 4: Dwarves, Silvan Elves, Halls of Mandos, Palantir, Mûmakil, Resilience.

Day 5: Nazgúl, the Noldor, Gondor, Rings of Power, Fellbeasts, Melancholy.

Day 6: Hobbits, The Fellowship, Moria, Arkenstone, Ents, Growth.

Day 7: Freeform, Unnamed women of Middle-Earth, The Shire, Mithril, Horses, Hope.