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
[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.
[Writing] Cosmological Poems of Arda by AaronAzrael
I would like to share my revelations of Tolkien's Universe in the form of narrative and emotional poems.
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Another Place in Time
Move beyond the places and times of familiar events to consider what was going on elsewhere in Arda at the same time as a major event covered in The Silmarillion. How--if at all--did the event impact what was transpiring elsewhere at the same time? 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
The Long Despair of Success by AndyC
Maglor, just wanting to be alone, is forced to tell his story to some victorious Elves of the Host of Finarfin.
But he doesn't tell them everything.
| Major Characters: Maglor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 446 |
| Posted on 5 November 2019 | Updated on 5 November 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
A Game of Chess by Lilith
A series of outtakes from an AU about Sauron’s sojourn in Númenor in which Sauron is a lady (of sorts).
| Major Characters: Amandil, Anárion, Ar-Pharazôn, Elendil, Isildur, Sauron, Tar-Míriel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Alternate Universe | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: Mature Themes |
| Chapters: 2 | Word Count: 4, 014 |
| Posted on 22 August 2019 | Updated on 3 November 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (9) |
No rolling eyes by Raiyana
Nienna finds an escape beneath the sea... and more understanding than she might have expected.
And Ulmo realises he might have more in common with a Valië than he could have imagined...
| Major Characters: Nienna, Ulmo |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Family Matters |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 512 |
| Posted on 3 November 2019 | Updated on 3 November 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
Even More About Maedhros by Himring
Collection for slightly longer pieces featuring Maedhros.
Now added: Land of Mist (Maedhros, Fingon)
| Major Characters: Curufin, Elrond, Fëanor, Fingon, Gandalf, Maedhros, Maglor, Mahtan, Noldor, Saruman |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: B2MeM 2015, B2MeM 2016 |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 7 | Word Count: 8, 085 |
| Posted on 30 June 2014 | Updated on 3 November 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (18) |
| Major Characters: Fingon |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: Start to Finish |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 200 |
| Posted on 3 November 2019 | Updated on 3 November 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (10) |
Namesakes by Himring
In the First Age, just before the Fifth Battle of Beleriand, Beleg joins the forces of King Fingon and meets Haldir of the Haladin, son of Halmir, who had been his ally in an earlier victory in Brethil.
Millennia after the disastrous loss of the Fifth Battle, Haldir of Lothlorien is introduced to a re-embodied Beleg in Valinor, and Beleg speaks to him of his namesake.
| Major Characters: Beleg, Haldir |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 805 |
| Posted on 27 October 2019 | Updated on 27 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
To Remember by Raiyana
The Reborn Slain, those who fell in the First Kinslaying, are born from the Halls of Mandos into lives that are not quite familiar...
Some chose to forget, but some... some chose to remember.
| Major Characters: Nerdanel, Original Female Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: Start to Finish |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 724 |
| Posted on 23 October 2019 | Updated on 23 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (6) |
infin che 'l mar fu sovra noi richiuso by Feanoriel
Tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died. --- J.R.R.Tolkien, The Silmarillion
A collection of stories about the Fall of Númenor.
| Major Characters: Ar-Pharazôn, Sauron, Tar-Míriel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama, Het, Slash/Femslash | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Character Death, Sexual Content (Mild), Violence (Mild) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 5, 959 |
| Posted on 22 October 2019 | Updated on 22 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The High Queen's Foretelling by Kaylee Arafinwiel
One day, in the orangery on Ilmarin, Queen Elindis, wife to Ingwe, and her adolescent great-niece Artanis have a quiet talk, and Elindis reveals some surprising information.
Challenge quote:
"In my time, I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen." ~ Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon
| Major Characters: Galadriel, Ingwë, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family, General | Challenges: Start to Finish |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Sexual Content (Mild) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 433 |
| Posted on 17 October 2019 | Updated on 17 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
Can No More Stay by Independence1776
Lalwen and Findis say farewell.
| Major Characters: Findis, Lalwen |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 637 |
| Posted on 17 October 2019 | Updated on 17 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (6) |
Setting a Precedent by Elwin Fortuna
When one woman threatens another in the marketplace, Finarfin must judge the circumstances and determine consequences.
| Major Characters: Finarfin, Original Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 778 |
| Posted on 14 October 2019 | Updated on 14 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Northern Skies by Idrils Scribe
Elrohir's perilous odyssey across Middle-earth finally brings him home to Rivendell. Sadly all is not well: the Elf-child that was abducted into Umbar is now a Man grown. Forty years of war and darkness left Elrohir deeply scarred, and the Hidden Valley harbors ancient conflicts of its own. Will the love of his family be enough when Elrohir finds himself a stranger in a strange land?
This story is part of the Under Strange Stars series, but it can perfectly well be read on its own. STORY COMPLETE!
Many thanks to my excellent beta Dawn Felagund. Any remaining mistakes are mine.
| Major Characters: Elrohir |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Adventure | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 32 | Word Count: 103, 416 |
| Posted on 4 March 2019 | Updated on 14 October 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (40) |
He Who Harps by StarSpray
While on a walking tour of the Shire, Bilbo goes looking for Elves in the Woody End. He finds one.
| Major Characters: Bilbo Baggins, Maglor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 904 |
| Posted on 13 October 2019 | Updated on 13 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
We Keep Living Anyway by StarSpray
Finally, Gil-galad said, "Why did you come out here alone?"
Elrond didn't answer right away. He picked up a seashell and turned it over in his fingers. "I was—angry," he said finally. "It would not be befitting for the lord of Imladris to stand in the middle of Mithlond and scream at the sky, I thought."
| Major Characters: Elrond, Finduilas, Gil-galad |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Alternate Universe, General, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 264 |
| Posted on 13 October 2019 | Updated on 13 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
A Gift Like No Other by Raiyana
In the aftermath of Curufin's exile, Celebrimbor receives a package.
It changes... everything.
| Major Characters: Celebrimbor, Orodreth |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 582 |
| Posted on 13 October 2019 | Updated on 13 October 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
On Northern battlefields long ago by turlas
Bragollach with Finrod's eyes
| Major Characters: Edain, Edrahil, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Adventure | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Violence (Mild) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 357 |
| Posted on 12 October 2019 | Updated on 12 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Ryhme of Letters by turlas
A smal chant made up by the schoolboys of Minas Tirith to help remember the Quenya names of the tengwar. In it the high and the low, the funny and the grave are strangely mixed, as it is pieced together from trivia of the Elder Days and notions relating to the then recent events of the War of the Ring
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Poetry | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 643 |
| Posted on 11 October 2019 | Updated on 11 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The Legend of Fasta and Nykr by Raiyana
A Dwarven fairytale involving some Scandinavic folkloric creatures
I originally wrote the bones of this for a Fíli ficlet; it is a tale told to Dwarf-children, but I thought it fitted the challenge so well I had to polish it up a little.
| Major Characters: Original Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 502 |
| Posted on 11 October 2019 | Updated on 11 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Blue and Silver, Black and Gold by Lferion
Fingon the legend juxtaposed with Fingon the person.
| Major Characters: Fingon |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Poetry | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 317 |
| Posted on 11 October 2019 | Updated on 11 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Flames and Moths by HannaGoldworthy
Vignettes of relationships between Elves and Men, with the addition of one small detail.
| Major Characters: Caranthir, Haleth |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Alternate Universe, Drama | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 042 |
| Posted on 10 October 2019 | Updated on 10 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
My Dearest Makalaurë by StarSpray
Before he departs for Middle-earth, Gandalf takes pity on Nerdanel and offers to carry a letter for her.
| Major Characters: Gandalf, Maglor, Nerdanel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 2 | Word Count: 3, 016 |
| Posted on 8 October 2019 | Updated on 9 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Let Me Play Among The Stars by Grundy
Elves in space. Or at least, elves on a space station.
| Major Characters: Fingon, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Science Fiction | Challenges: In Rare Form |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 973 |
| Posted on 8 October 2019 | Updated on 8 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Without a Word by Independence1776
Haunted by the past two years of his life, Maglor returns to the home he vanished from. Maglor in history.
| Major Characters: Maglor, Original Character(s) |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family, General, Hurt/Comfort | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 379 |
| Posted on 8 October 2019 | Updated on 8 October 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Under strange stars by Idrils Scribe
Barely a long-year after the Last Alliance all is not well in Imladris. Elrond's household has been dealt a crippling blow: a very young Elrohir has disappeared. After decades of false leads he is found in the Far South of Middle-Earth. Can Glorfindel find and rescue the descendant of Earendil once more? There is just one problem: Elrohir has no memory of who he was, and little interest in leaving his people's fight against the Black Nùmenoreans of Umbar...
A huge thanks to my beta, the irreplaceable Dawn Felagund, who made this tale at least twice as good as it was originally. All remaining mistakes are mine.
| Major Characters: Celebrían, Elladan, Elrohir, Elrond, Erestor, Glorfindel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Adventure, Drama, Suspense | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Violence (Moderate) |
| Chapters: 11 | Word Count: 29, 826 |
| Posted on 28 April 2018 | Updated on 2 October 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
The Art of Ending by Idrils Scribe
“I'll never see them again. I know that. And they know that. And knowing this, we say farewell.”
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
When Elrohir left Harad to go home to Rivendell, what -or who- did he leave behind? Glorfindel never noticed anything unusual about Elrohir's companion, but Mortal loves are strange to the Elves ...
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 519 |
| Posted on 2 October 2019 | Updated on 2 October 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (1) |
