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
Estë by Dawn Felagund
Estë is the goddess who sleeps through the book--or is she? Her character illustrates both the potential and ultimate shortcomings of so many female characters in Tolkien's legendarium.
Erestor by oshun
Erestor has long been a favorite character among Tolkien fans. This biography explores what little the texts tells of him and how some of the most popular Erestor-related fanons may have arisen.
Erendis, the Mariner's Wife by oshun
Although never mentioned in The Silmarillion, Erendis rivals the most significant women in Tolkien’s legendarium in forcefulness of personality and certainly in sheer number of words expended upon her behalf.
Eöl by oshun
Eöl is one of many First Age characters who walks the line between complexity and villainy.
Emeldir the Manhearted by Robinka
Even in the absence of many words about her in the text, Emeldir's story stands on its own merits.
Elwing by oshun
In addition to her place in the important lineage of the Peredhil, Elwing plays a key role when she chooses to withhold the Silmaril from the Fëanorians.
Eluréd and Elurín by oshun
Eluréd and Elurín enter the legendarium as the little lost princes whose tragic demise is recounted in the story of the assault upon Doriath.
Elros Tar-Minyatur by oshun
The first king of Númenor, Elros's heritage manifests itself in the portrayal of various central characters of The Lord of the Rings.
Elrond by oshun
The major events in the life of Elrond tie together the main threads of Tolkien’s great history from the First Age through the Fourth Age.
Elladan and Elrohir by oshun
Although not typically thought of as Silmarillion characters, Elladan and Elrohir's family tree is a veritable thicket of who's-who in the First Age. Part One of this two-part biography explores their family ties and the events in their lives up to the Ring War, while Part Two considers their role in the Ring War and the broader thematic importance of their storyline to the legendarium.
Elenwë by oshun
Elenwë joins the contingent of "another wife, another untold story," whose death heightened tensions between the factions of the Noldor.
Elendur of Númenor by oshun
The eldest son of Isildur, Elendur plays a vital role in keeping the One Ring out of enemy hands.
Elemmírë by oshun
Elemmírë, the Vanyarin Elf who wrote the Aldudénië, is intriguing as one of the rare Tolkien characters whose gender is not identified.
Eldalótë by oshun
Eldalótë, the wife of Angrod, is mentioned only in History of Middle-earth texts and not once in the published Silmarillion. This biography reviews what is known of this elusive character, including what linguistic clues can tell us about whether she accompanied her husband to Middle-earth.
Eilinel by Robinka
Eilinel is a little-known character, the wife of Gorlim the Unhappy, who is both central and nonexistent in the tale of the betrayal of Barahir.
Edrahil of Nargothrond by oshun
The capture of Edhrahil--one of Finrod's twelve companions--is among the most chilling in The Silmarillion.
Ecthelion of the Fountain by oshun
As one of the lords of Gondolin, Ecthelion appears in some of Tolkien's earliest writings about Middle-earth.
Eärwen by oshun
Barely mentioned in the texts, Eärwen's story--and her essential role in the legendarium--leave many tantalizing gaps.
Eärendil the Mariner by oshun
In addition to his essential role in the histories of the early ages, Eärendil is steeped in symbolic and mythic significance that elevates him to one of the most important characters in the legendarium.
Durin I by oshun
One of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves, Durin provides one of the few connections between The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.
Dorlas by Himring
The chief opponent of Brandir, Dorlas's role provokes the disastrous turn Túrin's tale takes in Brethil.
Dior Eluchíl by oshun
The only child of Lúthien and Beren, Dior's legacy is mostly due to his place in the history of the Peredhil who would knit together the First, Second, and Third Ages.
Denethor of the Nandor by oshun
One of the few named Avari in the texts, Denethor's death in an early battle would have long-standing consequences for his people, the Laiquendi.
Daeron by oshun
Given a prominent role in the narrative, Daeron nonetheless receives few words in The Silmarillion.
Círdan the Shipwright by oshun
Círdan the Shipwright is one of Tolkien's few important characters who plays a substantial role throughout the entire history of the Elves in Middle-earth, present from Cuiviénen to the departure of Frodo at the start of the Fourth Age.
