Around the World and Web

April 2024 Calls for Papers

Oxonmoot 2024

Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together over 500 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2024 will be our 51st, and will be held over four days, from the afternoon of Thursday 29th August until the afternoon of Sunday 1st September, and will be held at St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford and Online.

We are pleased to welcome contributions of all types to the programme for Oxonmoot 2024.

The Talks and Papers strand will run through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Papers may be presented in person in Oxford or online via Zoom.

The Call for Papers is now open! Presentations may be submitted here. Deadline to submit a talk or paper is midnight UK time on May 12th.

The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. The Call for Activities will open later in the year.

Participants with questions may contact the Activities Programme Co-Ordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Co-Ordinator.

See the Oxonmoot 2024 page for more information or to register!

Mythcon 53: Fantasies of the Middle Lands

The Mythopoeic Society’s annual conference, popularly called “Mythcon,” will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year, from 2-5 August 2024. The idea of “middle-ness” can suggest stability—the center of an object is less likely to break than its edges. It can also suggest the opposite: something in a state of change can be said to be “in the middle”—neither one thing nor another. Mythcon 53, located in the middle of the continental U.S., welcomes papers exploring the concept of “middle-ness” as it is worked out in fantasy, science fiction, and related genres. Paper topics can cover a wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to the following:

• Locations: This could mean the implications of a place name including the word “middle,” such as Middle-earth or Midgard; places in our world that either shape or appear in fantasy such as the English Midlands or Middle America as in Stranger Things or American Gods; or even liminal places that appear in fantasy such as train stations, purgatory, or The Wood Between the Worlds.
• Characters: the middle child in a family (Arya Stark, Edmund Pevensie); adolescents negotiating that in-between space (Luce in The Owl House; Ged in Earthsea); individuals or people groups who are a mix of others (Tolkien’s Númenóreans; Percy Jackson).
• Textual middle-ness: intertextuality, genre-crossing, multiple media, even the middle books/movies of a trilogy (The Empire Strikes Back, The Two Towers).
• Authors: considering the location of the con, Midwestern authors and scholars such as Tim O’Brian, Jack Zipes, Lois McMaster Bujold, or Philip Jose Farmer.

We also welcome papers on the work of either of our Guests of Honor, Brian Attebery and Eleanor Arnason. Because this conference is happening in conjunction with Diversicon, a multicultural, multimedia event dedicated to improving contacts among groups and individuals interested in speculative fiction, we are also interested in papers on their traditional Posthumous Guest, who this year is L. Frank Baum. And, as always, we welcome papers focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), and other fantasy authors and themes. Papers from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome.

Each paper will be given a one-hour slot to allow time for questions, but individual papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Panels are also welcome, and both papers and panels may be presented virtually or in person. Paper abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at papers@mythcon.org by May 15, 2024. Please include your A/V requirements and the projected time needed for your presentation. If your programming interests are more in line with Diversicon’s focus (see http://www.diversicon.org/), then please send your proposal to scottl2605@aol.com.

Additional Links:
Mythcon 53 Conference Page
Mythcon 53 Registration

German Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien and His Editors

Tolkien, in paratextual parts of his main work The Lord of the Rings, introduced himself as the editor and translator of the Red Book of Westmarch. A similar conjecture can be found in Farmer Giles of Ham, which comes with a scholarly preface and purports to be the translation of a medieval manuscript. These rather playful examples should be set alongside the real-world editors of Tolkien’s works. In his will, Tolkien made his youngest son Christopher (1924-2020) his ‘literary executor’ with “full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto” (official copy of Tolkien’s will, 23 July, 1973). Until his death (16 January 2020), Christopher actively fulfilled his role as ‘literary executor’ and edited and made available to a wide audience countless texts from Tolkien’s estate – and thus strongly influenced the perception and understanding of the works already published during Tolkien’s lifetime. Above all, The Silmarillion (1977), which he edited and, as was established in retrospect (Kane 2009), was heavily modified by him, had a major influence on Tolkien research.

In addition to the central figure of Christopher Tolkien, who could have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024, the roles of the editors Stanley and Rayner Unwin, the biographer Humphrey Carpenter (Biography; Letters), the student and later colleague Alan Bliss (Hengest and Finn), the daughter-in-law Baillie Tolkien (The Father Christmas Letters) or the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship should also be examined.

The aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers from different disciplines to explore the various questions and problems posed by the publication of Tolkien’s work.

Possible starting points for presentations would be:

• Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as ‘co-author’ of Tolkien’s work
• Censorship and restriction: the search for the ‘true’ Tolkien biography
• Tolkien’s posthumous academic work
• The publication of the works on the Elvish (and other) languages
• Access to and handling of Tolkien’s manuscripts and notes in the Bodleian and the Marquette

The 20th Seminar of the German Tolkien Society is supported by Walking Tree Publishers and will take place in a hybrid format at the RWTH Aachen from 11-13 October 2024. 

Interested applicants are requested to send a short synopsis (no longer than one page) and a short biography as well as their preference (attendance in person or online presentation) to Thomas Fornet-Ponse by 31 May 2024: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de

See the full call for papers here.

Signum University Regional Moots

These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.

Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!

Tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: bread; the formal challenge is: bredlik poem. Although this month the prompts have been clearly conceived as a pair,   they can be filled separately, as usual, and also combined with other challenges, such as SWG challenges.

New participants welcome.

More details about the challenge at the linked post.

Barduil Month 2024

Barduil Month 2023 celebrates the pairing Bard the Bowman/Thranduil Oropherion from The Hobbit. This year we're running four themed weeks in April on Tumblr and AO3, each with a set of five prompts, and we'll be posting the prompts in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please see our updated FAQs and get ready to flail about our lovely bi widower dads all over again!

Week 1, Monday 1 to Sunday 7 April: First Meetings
different first meeting | differences and similarities | Battle of the Five Armies | first impressions | uneasy allies

Week 2, Monday 8 to Sunday 14 April: Getting Together
overcoming differences | finding common ground | diplomatic incidents | first date | introducing the family

Week 3, Monday 15 to Sunday 21 April: Established Relationship
blended family | anniversaries | parties, festivals and holidays | downtime, time to relax, days off | family traditions

Week 4, Monday 22 to Sunday 28 April: Endings (happy or otherwise)
happily ever after | loss and grief | hope and despair | reunions and reincarnation | memories

As always, any kind of fan creation is welcomed and encouraged, whether that's fic, art, crafts, meta, or anything else. The AO3 collection is here if you want to post there too. We just ask that you stick to our rules of conduct, tag us in your posts and enjoy yourselves!

Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (TRSB) 2024

First conceived in 2018, the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (or TRSB!) is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event celebrating the talent of our fanwork creators. At its core, the event is about bringing together the artistic side of our fandom with the literary talents it possesses, creating bridges between the separate areas of fandom experience for the enjoyment of all. During the late spring, signed up artists submit fan art pieces in progress or finished, which is then posted anonymously in our Gallery. The Gallery is open to the pool of writers who have signed up for the event only. Each writer is then invited to claim a piece of art to write for; the minimum word count is 5000.

We are open to all characters, genres, ships and ratings, and all canons that fall under the Tolkien fandom umbrella. This includes movieverse (i.e. the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies), lesser known works by Tolkien (such as The Father Christmas Letters), and/or other works with a clear link to his life or creative output (for example, Tolkien’s translations and academic texts, the 2019 Tolkien biopic, fan-made films like Born of Hope, and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online). Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are permitted.

When we started this event, one thing we absolutely agreed on was our desire for maximum inclusivity. In practice this means that:

• We encourage participation from all sections of the Tolkien fandom, whether you prefer bookverse, movieverse, game canon, smaller canons, or Tolkien’s academic papers.
• Fan creators should ALL feel safe and able to join in, regardless of experience levels or perceived ability. This means that everybody is welcome, whether they’re a professional artist/writer or a complete beginner, whether they’ve been a fan for decades or fell in love with the films last weekend.
• As far as practically possible, all styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. We do not set restrictions on genre, style, rating or ship, although we do keep NSFW art submissions behind a lock, for the safety of our younger participants.

Above all, the event is supposed to be fun. Fandom should not be a place of difficulty, conflict and stress. With this in mind, we ask participants to be kind, inclusive, respectful and welcoming at all times.

Schedule

March 17 – 2023 Gallery Opens

The Gallery for 2023 is live at last! Enjoy all the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!

March 24 – Suggestion Form Opens

This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr blog and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!

April 14 – Sign-ups Open

We post links to our sign up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Signing Up’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.

May 5 – Artist Sign-up Deadline

May 10 – Discord Server Opens

May 13 – Art Draft Due

Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.

May 17 – Art Preview Opens

Our online gallery will be visible to signed up participants only.  Signed up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!

May 18-19 Discord Art Talks

Repeating the fun from last year, these will be live chats on discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists.

May 20 – Author Signups Deadline

May 25 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC

Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first come, first served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author in the first instance; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.

What time is that for me?

TBA – Additional Claims

If a number of artworks are left unclaimed, we may allow authors to claim second and third pieces of art to write for. However, we don’t know until after claims night whether this will be needed, so this is likely to be announced at short notice – keep an eye on the blog and on your emails to avoid missing out.

June 7 – Post-Claims Check-in

The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!

June 16 – Free Rein Art Due

We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to provide finished art to their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved. See ‘Completing the Artwork’ in the FAQs for more details on how this works.

June 28 – Check-in #2

The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.

June 26 – Check-in #3

The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQs.

August 9 – Final Art Due

Artists should share a copy of the final art to their authors – but don’t post it yet!

Don’t email it to the mods.

August 16 – Final Check-in (#4)

Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date.
As per other check ins, except the mods will be providing instructions about promotional posts (see ‘Promotional Posts’ FAQ for more information). We will also ask you:

• Whether you have discussed posting logistics with your artist (if you’re embedding art in your AO3 story, for example)
• Whether you have specific posting needs re publicizing date/time frame (e.g. not wanting us to reblog your art/fic on Shabbat as you will be unable to respond)

August 26 – Art Can Be Posted

August 30 – Final Fic Due In Collection

Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. (If you are writing a last minute pinch hit we can be a bit flexible with this deadline.)

TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event

September 6 – COLLECTION REVEALS

September 13 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs Begin

September 20 – Gallery Submission

October 6 – Discord Server Closes

Other Links

• Rules
• Sign-Ups
• Frequently Asked Questions
• TRSB on Tumblr | Twitter | Instagram | Dreamwidth

Tolkien Oxford 50 Presentations Available

The aim of the conference was to exhibit and reflect on the range of different approaches, methodologies, and backgrounds with which Tolkien has been studied in the past 50 years, which reflects the complexity of his personality, the richness of his creative work and the breadth of his reception. In an (academic) world ever more divided into different political and social bubbles, Tolkien had provided an exceptional meeting place, for very different people united by a common interest. Just as in the ancestral music of the Ainur, the conference aimed to be a polyphonic event, in which different scholarly endeavours can come together in a moment of shared reflection and celebration.

Recordings of most talks are available here.

Presenters included:

John Garth (Author and Journalist): “An Entirely Vain and False Approach”: Literary Biography and why Tolkien was Wrong about It

Michael Ward (University of Oxford): Tolkien’s Faith in Fact and Fiction

Hamish Williams (University of Groningen): Classical Ideas in Tolkien

Lukasz Neubauer (University of Koszalin): Beowulf, Maldon and All That: A Tangled Web of Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon Scholarship and Fiction

Grace Khuri (Oriel College, University of Oxford): Kipling’s Medievalism and Tolkien’s Book of Lost Tales: Historicizing Myth and Mythologizing History in the Early 20^th Century

Holly Ordway (Word on Fire Institute/Houston Christian University): Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Past Perspectives, Present Insights, Future Study

Yoko Hemmi (Keio University): Tolkien, “British” identity, and the Celtic studies

Michaël Devaux (Université de Caen Normandie): Tolkien's Textual Variants and the Authorial Status

Simon Horobin (Magdalen College, University of Oxford): ‘Never Trust a Philologist’: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Place of Philology in English Studies

Giuseppe Pezzini (Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford): ‘Not about Anything but Itself’: Tolkien’s Language Invention and Literary Theory

Fëanorian Week 2024

Fëanorian Week will run March 25th, 2024-March 31st, 2024. The prompts are as followed:

• Day 1- Maedhros - > Childhood, Kingship, Angband, Coping, The Union, Relations with Different Races
• Day 2- Maglor -> Childhood, Wife,  Music & Songs of Power, Elrond & Elros, Kingship, Maglor’s  Gap, Redemption
• Day 3- Celegorm - > Childhood, Hunting, Orome & Huan, Strength & Beauty, Luthien, Nargothrond
• Day 4- Caranthir - > Childhood, Wife, Betrayal, Lordship, Dwarves & Humans, Marriage, Appearance
• Day 5- Curufin - > Childhood, Wife Celebrimbor, Forge Work
• Day 6- Ambarussa - > Childhood, Lordship, Regrets, Twin, Hunting, Nandor
• Day 7- Nerdanel and Feanor-> Mahtan, Finwe & Indis, Marriage, Reunion, Traveling, Creation, Healing

Rules: You are allowed to post anything fanrelated on the days.  If the prompts are not to your liking, you can do your own thing.  The tracktag is #feanorianweek.  Tag your work accordingly!  Have fun and be nice to others. Disrespect towards others will not be tolerated.

Publication of Tolkien's Collected Poems announced

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have announced the forthcoming publication of an edition of Tolkien's collected poems that will include substantial amounts of hitherto unpublished poetry, as well as published poetry (some of the latter in extract). Publication is expected in September.

The blog post by the editors linked above describes the genesis and background of this plan and some of the principles of selection. Additional details can be found in the description of the preview on Amazon here.

C+C (Celegorm & Curufin) Week 2024

C+C Week is a week-long Tumblr event from March 18th to March 23rd, exploring the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin, as well as their relationships with the rest of Arda. Prompts will be every other day.

Rules

• Content posted MUST BE YOUR OWN. No ifs ands or buts, and if you use AI-generated art I will come for you. Don’t be that guy.
• If your entry is late, THAT’S OK! feel free to be as late as you want. Yes, I would love if you posted half a year after this event’s ended.
• Please, be kind and considerate. I know Celegorm and Curufin aren’t the most popular of characters, don’t be a jerk about it.
• If you do not have fun you are immediately disqualified. Have fun.

C+C Week FAQs can can be found here.

Prompts

MAR. 17th - 18th: VALINOR

• Childhood
• Apprenticeships
• Family & friendship
• Dark omens

MAR. 19th - 20th: OATHS

• Fëanorian Oath
• Promises made
• Loyalty & betrayal
• Oaths broken

MAR. 21st - 22nd: CONTRASTS

• Light/darkness
• Laurelin/Telperion
• Heroism/villainy
• Adored/unseen

MAR. 23rd: SECRECY

• Words unspoken
• Lies by omission
• Taboos
• Late night rendezvous

Of course, you don’t have to use these prompts. They’re just for inspiration! I only ask that you keep to the theme of each day(s) somewhat. Please use the tag #c+c week 2024 (with spaces) or tag @candcweek.

Manwë Week 2024

Hello and welcome to Manwë Week!

Manwë Week is a week-long fandom event on Tumblr dedicated to Manwë Súlimo from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion, planned for March 11th - 17th 2024. The month of March is known as Súlimë, so it seemed only fitting to create an event to celebrate the Lord of Winds!

All sorts of fanworks are welcome, including but not limited to art (digital or traditional), fanfiction, moodboards, headcanons or playlists.

Here is a brief overview of this year's prompts:

Day 1: Family | Breath & Air
Day 2: Friends & Love | Rain & Clouds
Day 3: The Children | Whispering Breeze
Day 4: Poetry & Birdsong | Taniquetil
Day 5: Free of Evil | Opposition
Day 6: Fallen | Storm
Day 7: Freeform

For more details, please have a look at the prompt list.

Any questions, suggestions or concerns? Check out the FAQ or send an ask!

Tolkienshortfanworks Challenge for March 2024

The tolkienshortfanworks challenge has been posted to the Dreamwidth community.

The thematic challenge is: glass.

This could be the beaker or the mirror or the substance.
Maybe even the Phial of Galadriel or the surface of Mirrormere...

The formal challenge is: triolet.

Here are some links for help with this form:
Definition and two modern examples linked at the Poetry Foundation.
Definition and discussion of an example by Hardy at the Academy of American Poets.
Wikipedia entry, containing another five examples from different periods in English and a French one.

These two challenge parts can be filled together or separately and be freely combined with other challenges like B2MeM or the SWG monthly challenges.

New participants welcome!

More details on the challenges at the linked entry.