New Challenge: Bollywood
This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
SWG News
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships
As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available
The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Series] The Light and the Sea (Steampunk Númenor) by AdmirableMonster
Largely focused on Númenor, its fall, and the aftermath, as seen from the perspective of two Mannish scientists, bit players in some ways, but who nonetheless cast their shadows across the history of Middle Earth.
[Writing] Reflections by AdmirableMonster
A story of three friends in Númenor, one of whom attracts the attention of the High Priest. What does friendship mean in the shadow of the Black Temple?
[Writing] No Time Have I by Flora-lass
A Silmarillion acrostic.
[Writing] An exercise in music... And patience by Aprilertuile
Makalaurë was sitting at the harp in his music room. He was holding a dark blindfold in his hands and was looking at it with much scepticism.
[Writing] I called it Fate that I should fail by AdmirableMonster
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
[Writing] All of you by chrissystriped
Elrond and Celebrían celebrate their anniversary with their family.
[Writing] Lament for the Singer by daughterofshadows
A short thing about Maglor, death and grieving.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Arda Underground
Take the dark back streets of one of Arda's cities, explore an unsigned tavern or hovel, and meet the people too insignificant or unsavory to make it into the history books. Read more ...
New in References
Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
Passing Ships by Simon J. Cook
[]The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Staging a Battle by StarSpray
[]He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
[Writing] From whose bourn no traveller returns by losselen
[]So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
[Writing] Sand Sorcery by StarSpray
[]It is well known that Psamathos does not leave his cove. He does not like to get his feet wet, and prefers to spend his days dozing under the sun.
Around the World and Web
Fellowship of the Fics: Summer Stories 2024
Fellowship of the Fics offers four weeks of summer-themed prompts during the month of July.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
July 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers and proposals in July 2024.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2024
A chill Tolkien event, where artists make art, and authors write little stories in response. Begins in June and ends in November.
New and Updated Fanworks
Include Beyond the Silmarillion Fanworks
Indis by oshun
Indis is remarkable in that, as far as is written in any of the published works of Tolkien, she is the only second wife named for any major figure within the Eldar. Her story ensnares her, for better or worse, with the dramatic tale of the Finwean Noldor.
Huan the Hound of Valinor by oshun
The famed hound, Huan is one of the most if not the most truly noble beasts in The Silmarillion and a hero by the standards of almost any reader.
Hareth by oshun
On the surface, Hareth of the Haladin is yet another woman defined primarily by her [male] relations but who, with a closer look at the details of the text, begins to come to life and ask for a story of her own.
Haleth by oshun, Hrymfaxe
Among the women of the legendarium, Haleth is heroic and a leader of her people, the Haladin.
Haldad by oshun
The first known leader of the Haladin, Haldad was succeeded by his heroic daughter Haleth, the best-known person from his house.
Gwindor of Nargothrond by Lotrfan
Given a richer and more nuanced characterization in The Children of Húrin, Gwindor is a tenacious character who gives us insight into the lives of captives of Morgoth. The effects of his captivity haunt him as he becomes a pawn in the tragic tale of Túrin.
Guilin of Nargothrond by oshun
What we know of Guilin of Nargothrond occurs only through inference, as his personal history is never described in any of Tolkien's writings.
Gorlim the Unhappy by Robinka
Before he was the Unhappy, he was one of the nine faithful servants of Barahir and deeply in love: an oft-overlooked but tragic figure from The Silmarillion.
Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell by oshun
Glorfindel is one of several among Tolkien’s notable heroes who have provoked a substantial amount of controversy, most notably in the appearance of two essential Glorfindels and the ensuing debate over whether they are the same character.
Glaurung by oshun
Known as the Father of Dragons, Glaurung is the first of these mighty monsters to emerge in the legendarium.
Gil-galad by oshun
Gil-galad is first met by most reader in The Lord of the Rings, but his story is deepened and expanded in The Silmarillion.
Gilfanon by darthfingon
A character appearing only in The Book of Lost Tales, Gilfanon nonetheless survives later in the legendarium in the character of Pengolodh.
Gildor Inglorion by oshun
Gildor Inglorion is one of the many links between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, providing a final glimpse in the Third Age of the exiled Noldor.
Gethron by oshun
Gethron is an aged man of the people of the House of Hagor who plays small but a not insignificant role of tragic story of Húrin Thalion and his family.
Gandalf (Olórin) by oshun, pandemonium_213
Whether in the guise of Gandalf the Grey or Gandalf the White, Tolkien’s most famous wizard plays the role of the nearly perfect guide, instigator, and mentor for the heroes of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Galadriel by oshun
Galadriel is a rare example of a character added to The Silmarillion after and because of The Lord of the Rings. The complexity of her character development post-LotR largely comes from trying to fit her character into the existing myth. Part 1 explores her life in the Years of the Trees and the First Age; Part 2 continues with the significant influence she wields over the legendarium in the Second and Third Ages.
Finwë by oshun
Finwë, the first King of the Noldor, the unchallenged and beloved patriarch of his people, is written with shoulders figuratively broad enough to bear the weight of leadership of the most contentious family and people within Tolkien's history of the Elves.
Finrod Felagund by oshun, pandemonium_213
The considerable virtues of Finrod Felagund are tempered with enough flaws to leave him an intruiging character.
Fingon the Valiant by oshun
The story of Fingon the Valiant epitomizes the fate of the exiled Noldor, involving elements of extraordinary personal heroism combined with a foreordained doom to form the gripping foundation for the principal story.
Fingolfin by oshun
The life story of Fingolfin is one of those central to the fierce and tragic tale of the fall of the Noldor.
Finarfin by oshun
Finarfin exhibits traits the opposite of what one expects of the Noldor, ironically causing the "least exciting" of Finwë's sons to stand out among them.
Fëanor by oshun
In a brief biography written for the Seven in '07 event, Fëanor emerges as a star in the backstory of Tolkien's legendarium.
A heart is a foolish thing by firstamazon
In Imladris, Erestor receives news and reminisces about the present and the past.
| Major Characters: Elladan, Elrond, Erestor, Glorfindel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 328 |
| Posted on 14 November 2020 | Updated on 21 March 2021 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
The Divinity Braid by Gabriel
In the weeks leading up to the War of Wrath, one would be right to believe there would not be much to celebrate, with so much in the way of work to be done in preparation. But an unexpected visitor to High King Arafinwë’s pavilion brings with them renewed sense of hope for the future and intriguing tidings.
| Major Characters: Finarfin, Galadriel |
| Major Relationships: Finarfin & Galadriel |
| Genres: Family, Fluff, General, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 2 | Word Count: 1, 334 |
| Posted on 1 January 2021 | Updated on 21 March 2021 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
