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Angbang Week 2024

Welcome one and all to the third annual Angbang appreciation event! Angbang Week will run 6-12 May 2024 on Tumblr.

We will be accepting any and all original creations for the upcoming event - visual, written or auditory, which is including but not limited to fanfiction, poetry, art both traditional and digital, playlists or other musical creations, moodboards, and anything else you may come up with. So long as they're new, or as of yet unpublished, created by you and feature Angbang, we want to see them and feature them!

Prompts

• Day 1 - May 6th: Scars | Injuries*
• Day 2 - May 7th: Haste | Malice
• Day 3 - May 8th: Spying | Shapeshifting
• Day 4 - May 9th: Mountains | Iron
• Day 5 - May 10th: Fire | Lava
• Day 6 - May 11th: Order | Chaos
• Day 7 - May 12th: Prompt of choice from the previous weeks**

*We are aware of the nature of the first prompt. Due to this, we do ask that in addition to all relevant tags, you add the correct tag of either "scars" or "injuries" to your work on day 1 should you choose to post it, especially the latter, so that people could filter it out. We will likewise add relevant tags to works featuring these prompts so that anyone may filter it out if they so wish.

**As you've noticed, this year's final "free" prompt is a bit more restrictive, and would encourage using one of the prompts from previous years, found here and here. One of them is free space, but we do encourage using one of the non-day-7 ones if you can.

Like in the previous years, we encourage you to pick whichever prompt you like better of the two offered that day (you can also wait for another day if you don't like either prompt, or combine the two if you prefer, or even make content for both prompts if you're really looking for a challenge / prefer not sleeping during the month of May, whatever you like). Once you've picked a prompt and made content for it, use the current year's Angbang Week tag, which is either #AngbangWeek2024 or #Angbang Week 2024, or tag this blog directly when posting your prompt for us to reblog it. Try not to post it before the event starts (you can queue up specific posts for specific days to help with that), do not worry about being late, and most importantly, enjoy! No need to stress yourself out over silly ship stuff.

For any additional questions, requests, or additional clarification regarding anything event-related, feel free to send an ask or a DM at anytime!

Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien's Romantic Resonances

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 held three seminars in 2021 (Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien, Tolkien and Diversity, and Translating and Illustrating Tolkien) and their online setting has seen increased interest with over 700 attendees from 52 countries at ‘Tolkien and Diversity’. After the seminar, all paper recordings from the seminars are uploaded onto the Tolkien Society’s YouTube channel. We are delighted to run hybrid seminars where delegates can enjoy discussions on Tolkien in person and online.

The seminar on Tolkien's Romantic Resonances will be held Saturday, 6th July 2024 at the Hilton Leeds City and online. This is a free event!

As early as The Book of Lost Tales (1910s-1930s) Tolkien’s prose and poetry was infused with elements of the stylistics, aesthetics, and philosophies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Romantics. Although it has been shown that Tolkien learnt about and read a range of Romantic works, his dialogue with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “willing suspension of disbelief” in ‘On Fairy-stories’ has dominated the intersections between Romantic and Tolkien studies. This has overshadowed the role that Romantic influences played in the shaping of Middle-earth, as well as the Romantic legacies in Victorian literature and art that had a significant impact on Tolkien’s writing. While Tolkien clearly rejected certain forms of Romanticism, he worked within a literary tradition that was partially shaped by the Romantics.

Sign up to attend this years hybrid seminar here.

An informal innmoot—a visit to the local pub—will be held on Friday 5th July.

The program can be found on the event page here.

Tolkien Ekphrasis Week 2024

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.

For example: "Day N. Art form: Metalwork. Formal prompt (writing): Epistolary format. Formal prompt (visual art): Mixed media. Thematic prompt: Trade and cross-cultural connection."

If you miss the day, or are desperate to create work about some form of art not included in the prompts, don't worry! Posting amnesty/prompt free-for-all day will be June 17, and posting here and in the AO3 Collection will be open for a year from June 10, 2024.

How it works: Prompts are currently being posted! Participants will have slightly more than two months to create whatever sort of art they like inspired by one or more of those prompts. Then, no later than June 9 at 5 PM PST, they will post their works to the AO3 Collection (linked above), tagged with the appropriate day. The mod will do a quick check, and then the week of reveals will begin. During the week of June 10-June 16, pre-posted fanworks will be revealed daily according to theme (see calendar) in the AO3 Collection and reblogged on Tumblr. On June 17, anyone who missed the deadline will have an opportunity to post their late works and have them celebrated on Amnesty Day.

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 that have aired (so yes to Rings of Power, no to the yet-unreleased Rohan animated series), 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, 2024: Submit all works to the AO3 Collection by this date

June 10-16, 2024: Reveals

• June 10 - AO3 collection reveals begin with Day 1 Prompt (Ceramics and Glasswork)
• June 11 - Day 2 Prompt (Culinary Arts)
• June 12 - Day 3 Prompt (In-Universe Religious and Devotional Art)
• June 13 - Day 4 Prompt (Sculpture)
• June 14 - Day 5 Prompt (Textiles and Fashion)
• June 15 - Day 6 Prompt (Theater and Drama)
• June 16 - Day 7 Prompt (Woodworking and Carpentry)
• June 17 - Amnesty Day and Free-for-all posting
• March 17, 2025: 2024 AO3 Collection and DW community close to posting.

Housekeeping

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

Prompts will also be posted 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 Tolkien Ekphrasis Week Dreamwidth post.

Links

Tumblr Blog | Dreamwidth Community | AO3 Collection | FAQ

Glorfindel Week 2024

This is a Tolkien fandom week dedicated to Glorfindel, the character from The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and The Fall of Gondolin. Glorfindel has an epic tale of heroism, drama, rebirth, and happiness. As Tolkien wrote, “his face [was] fair and young and fearless and full of joy.” Come celebrate Glorfindel and his story by creating fanworks inspired by him! Glorfindel Week will run April 29-May 5, 2024.

You can create art, fics, graphics, meta, headcanons, or any other type of fanwork. When you post your work, make sure to mention this blog (@glorfindelweek) and put “glorfindel week” or “glorfindelweek” in the first 20 tags.

Rules

Basically, please be kind and respectful of other people. Here are the core rules:

1. Do not repost other people’s fanworks without their express permission.

2. Respect other people’s interpretations of Tolkien’s characters and relationships. Do you disagree with a certain ship or a creator’s perspective on a character? Please keep that to yourself.

3. Fanworks that are bigoted/ prejudiced in their messaging are not allowed. You may, however, depict instances of bigotry/ prejudice in your fanwork. E.g. You can write about characters experiencing sexism, but fanworks that endorse or promote sexism are not permitted. 

Violation of these rules will result in your being blocked.

See the FAQ for more information.

Prompts

Day 1: Valinor | Childhood | Family

Day 2: Traveling to Middle Earth | The Helcaraxë | Bonds Broken, Bonds Made

Day 3: Gondolin | House of the Golden Flower | Nobility | Friendship

Day 4: Romance | Celebrations | Hobbies

Day 5: Fall of Gondolin | The Balrog | Battle

Day 6: Reawakening | Relationship with the Ainur | Returning to Middle Earth

Day 7: Imladris | The Council of Elrond | Peace

Bonus prompts: Sunflower | Goldfinch | Braids | Gardening | Horseback riding

Teitho April/May Challenge: Quotes

Teitho is a monthly fanfiction contest. Our April/May prompt uses the source material directly for inspiration. Choose any of the following quotes as inspiration for your story.

1. From The Silmarillion: “the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.”

2. From The Hobbit: “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”

3. From The Lord of the Rings: “All’s well as ends Better!”

What thoughts and feelings do these quotes inspire? They may come from different books and from different characters, but they can encompass many moments from Tolkien’s legendarium.

The tales of Beleriand may have inspired song but so did the events of the Last Alliance, the search for the Entwives, the destruction on the One ring, the ride of the Rohirrim.

Many characters find something on their adventures—it could be an object but sometimes it’s a secret, unexpected information, or even something they learn about themselves.

Perhaps you would like to write about the moments those words reference? What did Mandos think of Fëanor’s words? Fingolfin? The Noldor gathered in that place?

There is no requirement to use the quote directly in your story but you are free to do so, if you like.

We are excited to read your submissions! Please email your stories to teitho.contest@gmail.com by May 31!

Find more about Teitho here.

Forgotten Ground Regained: Call for Submissions

The Fall issue of Forgotten Ground Regained is open for submissions. I am especially interested in poetry that explores themes of love, devotion, and desire – themes that are, thus far, relatively sparsely represented in modern English alliterative verse. Submissions should be sent to Paul D. Deane at the following email address: pdeane [at] alliteration.net.

Requirements

• Submissions must be in modern English, but authors should feel free to submit poems that take advantage of the diction, rhythms, and syntax of particular language varieties and communities. I do not discriminate against Scots, Appalachian English, Black English Vernacular, Indian English, or any other language variety, though I do ask that authors be prepared to supply notes to explain any terms or expressions that outsiders to their communities may not readily understand.
• Submissions should make skillful, systematic use of alliteration in ways that use alliteration to reinforce the rhythm and connect important ideas. Overall, I prefer poems that have the strongest impact on readers when they are read aloud. I therefore encourage authors to include links to audio or video versions of their poems in their submissions.
• I would love to see people experimenting with modern English versions of Old and Middle English alliterative verse, with Old Norse forms like ljoòahattr and drottkvætt or modern Icelandic rimur, or with new alliterative forms designed to highlight modern English rhythms and speech patterns. While my first preference is what traditional scholarship calls alliterative-accentual verse, I am also open to alliterative free verse or to alliterative versions of traditional forms, such as the ballad, as long as the alliteration is clearly a structural rather than a decorative feature of the form. 
• I am open to work both by contemporary poets and to projects that would normally be considered to fall outside the literary mainstream, such as speculative poetry, SCA Bardic Arts projects, and fan fiction.
• There is no hard upper length limit, though poems more than five to six pages in length are likely to be published separately on the website, with links provided from the Fall issue, rather than being included directly in the pdf magazine. Note that I love both both the lyrical and the narrative turns in poetry, so longer narratives will be given careful consideration.
• Please submit your poem in the body of your email. I will not open attachments.

Submissions for the Fall Issue must be received by September 15th, 2024.

PhD Research on Writing Tolkien's Female Characters: Participants Needed

Rebecca Davis is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Swansea and University of Central Oklahoma. Rebecca's PhD research uses corpus linguistics to explore how fanfiction participants depict Tolkien’s female characters—specifically characters with little to no development by the Professor—in fanfiction.

• Haleth
• Eärien from The Rings of Power
• Lothiriel of Dol Amroth
• Aragorn and Arwen’s Daughters

If you write or read Tolkien fanfiction about any of these characters, I’d love to talk to you! I’m looking to gather 40 interviews as part of my PhD research into the depiction of Tolkien’s female characters in fanfiction. These recorded interviews will take place by Zoom and will take 30-45 minutes.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, please see the participant information sheet and fill out the consent form linked below and I will be in touch.

Participant Information Sheet

Participant Consent Form

WIP Big Bang 2024

The WIP Big Bang has one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 15th
Sign-ups Close- May 21st
Check In #1- May 22nd
Check In #2- June 15th
Snippets Due- July 1st
Art Claims Begin- July 17th
Check In #3- July 22nd
Check In #4- August 6th
Rough Drafts Due- August 15th
Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd
Posting Claims Ends- September 1st
Final Drafts/Art Due- September 7th
Posting Starts- September 8th

FAQ | 2024 WIP Big Bang Sign Up

Feast of Horns Week 2024

Feast of Horns is a week-long Tolkien-themed event on Tumblr that will take place from the 16th to the 22nd of April, 2024, using headcanons as prompts. All sorts of fanworks are welcome, from drabbles, one-shots, multi-chapter fics, fan art, headcanon, moodboards, and playlists.

Prompts

Day 1: The feast | The chase

Suggestions: How did the Ainur feel when the first chase was suggested? Why was it suggested? Who suggested it? Who were the first to take part?

Day 2: The king and queen | The master and mistress of Ceremonies

Suggestions: Manwë and Varda sometimes took part in both the feast and the chase. How did they hunt? Did they have any favorites to go after? As for the master and mistress of ceremonies, how did Oromë and Vána conduct themselves? Did they keep to the side, or did they partake in the chase as well?

Day 3: Symbols | Collars and Necklaces

Suggestions: Everyone settles on a symbol to separate the hunter from the hunted. Those who take on the role of the hunter wear horns on their brows and amidst their hair. Those who take on the role of the hunted wear horns affixed to necklaces and collars. How elaborate do they get? Are they paired off with other adornments as well? How do Aulë, and later on, elves such as Fëanor make them? Did Fëanor make them for his sons?

Day 4: The hunter and the hunted | Battle of wills

Suggestions: How did the hunters choose who they would go after? Did they chase alone, or did they join hands with others? And what happened after they caught their intended target? There were also times when the hunted pitched themselves against the hunters in a test of will and skill. How did it happen?

Day 5: New alliances | New companions

Suggestions: Elves and Ainur who would not usually see eye-to-eye, worked together. Some alliances lasted only for the duration of the chase. Others may have lasted for much longer. Then there were those who went to form new intimate bonds with those they would have never considered before. How would such things unfold?

Day 6: Decree | No force

Suggestions: The feast and the chase that came after proved to be a huge success, and Manwë himself agreed to make the festivities a regular event. He even went so far as to demand that no force be used on anyone participating. Is this decree honored, or is force used at any point? Do those who want to use force find ways to gain consent from a not-so-willing participant in order to shield themselves from accusations that could ruin them?

Day 7: Free form

Rules

• This is an 18+ event, and works can and will include explicit/triggering themes such as non-consent and incest. Please do be mindful of any warnings given on any post.
• Please respect the writings/art/edits of other contributors, their headcanon, and whomever they ship. If you do not like a particular piece of writing, drawing, or ship, then don’t engage.
• Fanworks must not include minors.
• No reposting of other people’s works without their explicit permission.
• Any sort of bigoted behavior or the promotion of bigoted ideas (sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) will not be welcomed.
• Violation of these rules will result in you getting blocked.

FAQ

Mod: @a-world-of-whimsy-5

Silmarillion Epistolary Week 2024

Silmarillion Epistolary is a challenge dedicated to creating fanworks to tell the story of The Silmarillion in the style of an epistolary novel. Silmarillion Epistolary Week will run 15-21 April 2024.

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.

Prompts

Day 1: Daily Life, Customs

Day 2: Exploration, New Lands

Day 3: Family, Loyalty

Day 4: Friendship, Alliance

Day 5: Love, Creation

Day 6: Loss, Betrayal

Day 7: Remembrance, New Beginnings

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!

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.

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