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
It Comes in Threes
Choose a prompt from a list of 130 different things that "come in threes." 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 Ring of Stone. by hennethgalad
after Akallabêth, an architect of the Edain is summoned to meet Gil-galad.
| Major Characters: Gil-galad |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Notion Club Revival |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 4, 447 |
| Posted on 29 August 2019 | Updated on 29 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
to higher ground by kimaracretak
She is only nine summers old, Nienor, but already she knows that not all creatures are like her. She is only nine summers old, and she has not yet learned which of the others are to be feared, and so she approaches the girl with a heart vast as the sky, a heart that she knows her mother would scold her for not keeping shut.
| Major Characters: Lalaith, Nienor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Family | Challenges: B2MeM 2019 |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 932 |
| Posted on 29 August 2019 | Updated on 29 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Retreat by Independence1776
Maglor makes a strategic retreat.
| Major Characters: Maglor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Alternate Universe, General | Challenges: Notion Club Revival |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 156 |
| Posted on 28 August 2019 | Updated on 28 August 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (6) |
your killer and your lifeline too by kimaracretak
She worried over such futures in the furrows of the world, the spaces of the in-between that she was sure held answers she had yet to grasp. Thuringwethil's skin did not come with her memories, but Lúthien knew what it meant when the world she saw no longer responded to her song. No more could she draw flowers from the earth, or ask the waters of Sirion to dance beneath her outstretched hand.
[ Lúthien, and the price she paid for skin. ]
| Major Characters: Thuringwethil |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Horror, Slash/Femslash | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 415 |
| Posted on 26 August 2019 | Updated on 26 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
As who loses a star by Lumeriel
From the point of view of someone different, someone who was next to the King in his last battle
| Major Characters: Fëanor, Fingolfin |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama, Slash/Femslash | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 065 |
| Posted on 26 August 2019 | Updated on 26 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Nothing Beside Remains by StarSpray
Maglor comes to Ost-in-Edhil some time after its destruction.
| Major Characters: Maglor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Notion Club Revival |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Mature Themes |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 666 |
| Posted on 26 August 2019 | Updated on 26 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (3) |
The Stricken Anvil by SkyEventide
Morgoth has found Gondolin and is attacking it. The city is falling. Rôg leads the House of the Hammer of Wrath into battle and to its death, and he, former slave of Angband, also finds his end.
| Major Characters: Penlod, Rog |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Drama | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Character Death, Violence (Moderate) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 609 |
| Posted on 22 August 2019 | Updated on 22 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (6) |
Of Elwing's obsession, of Celegorm's hair by liruinielfeanoriel
A retelling of Elwing’s short-lived tragedy, from childhood to the Kinslaying of Sirion, of her obsession with the Silmaril and the strand of Celegorm’s hair that changed the course of Arda’s History.
| Major Characters: Celegorm, Elwing |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 4 | Word Count: 1, 725 |
| Posted on 10 August 2019 | Updated on 19 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
Hope in the Hills by My blue rose
Nerdanel discovers a secret hidden in the wilds of Aman. Or, on the (literal) afterlives of Orcs.
| Major Characters: Maiar, Nerdanel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 556 |
| Posted on 17 August 2019 | Updated on 17 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (3) |
Battle Cry by Himring
On the battle cry of the Edain of the North--and the cry of Fingon on the first morning of the Dagor Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
| Major Characters: Edain, Finarfin, Fingon |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Character Death |
| Chapters: 4 | Word Count: 260 |
| Posted on 17 August 2019 | Updated on 17 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
Out of the Darkling West by Lindariel
Teleporno and Alatáriel arrive in Middle-Earth.
| Major Characters: Celeborn, Círdan, Galadriel, Ulmo |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Adventure | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 2, 408 |
| Posted on 16 August 2019 | Updated on 16 August 2019 |
This fanwork belongs to the series
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
Thorondor's Rescue of Maedhros - Realistic or Not? by Grundy
How realistic are Thorondor and the eagles of Manwë? Could eagles of such size actually fly, much less carry people on their backs?
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Nonfiction/Meta | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 316 |
| Posted on 16 August 2019 | Updated on 16 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is a work in progress. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (13) |
Who is the tallest? More Heat than Light on Height in Tolkien’s World by oshun
I beg your indulgence for this, my entry for the "Solve a problem" challenge. I realize the problem is all mine. Who IS the tallest? Or does it matter? What was Tolkien thinking?
| Major Characters: Ancalagon, Aredhel, Azaghâl, Beleg, Celeborn, Dwarves, Edain, Elendil, Elves, Fëanor, Galadriel, Galdor (Edain), Glaurung, Húrin, Indis, Legendary/Mythical Character(s), Maedhros, Melkor, Nerdanel, Noldor, Númenóreans, Other Fictional Character(s), Real Person(s), Turgon, Túrin |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Nonfiction/Meta | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 446 |
| Posted on 15 August 2019 | Updated on 15 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (10) |
| Major Characters: Fingon, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Fixed-Length Ficlet | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 401 |
| Posted on 15 August 2019 | Updated on 15 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (10) |
Future Set In Stone by Tyelca
The truth behind the Mirror of Galadriel.
| Major Characters: Celebrimbor, Galadriel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 028 |
| Posted on 13 August 2019 | Updated on 13 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
Neither Linguist Nor King by eris_of_imladris
There is no word for what he is now.
Written for the "Solve a Problem" challenge for the Silmarillion Writers Guild.
| Major Characters: Maglor |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: Violence (Mild) |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 098 |
| Posted on 12 August 2019 | Updated on 12 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (3) |
A Hairy Situation by eris_of_imladris
A young Celegorm questions his hair color after a remark from his older brother.
Written for the "Solve a Problem" challenge on the Silmarillion Writers Guild.
| Major Characters: Celegorm, Fëanor, Finarfin |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 271 |
| Posted on 12 August 2019 | Updated on 12 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (8) |
Playing With Fire by liruinielfeanoriel
Some happy and sad times of Findarato's romance to oc "I"; some hints to Findarato's relationship with Amarie; throw in a few comments from Celegorm and Curufin; it became a short story.
And it all started with a poem.
| Major Characters: Amarië, Celegorm, Curufin, Finrod Felagund |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Romance | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 443 |
| Posted on 12 August 2019 | Updated on 12 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Maeglin. by hennethgalad
Maeglin is delighted with Gondolin.
| Major Characters: Maeglin |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 351 |
| Posted on 10 August 2019 | Updated on 10 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The Water. by hennethgalad
Turgon sends Idril away, but Tuor follows her.
| Major Characters: Idril, Tuor, Turgon |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Romance | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 406 |
| Posted on 9 August 2019 | Updated on 9 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Non fiction: the problem of orcs by hennethgalad
some observations concerning orcs
| Major Characters: No major characters listed |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Nonfiction/Meta | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 353 |
| Posted on 7 August 2019 | Updated on 7 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
Nan Dungortheb. by hennethgalad
The Ride of Aredhel Ar-Feiniel through the Vale of Dreadful Death.
| Major Characters: Aredhel |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Horror | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 3, 505 |
| Posted on 6 August 2019 | Updated on 6 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (0) |
The Ant and the Wall. by hennethgalad
A drunk Fingon is questioned about the rescue of Maedhros.
| Major Characters: Fingon, Maedhros |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: Horror | Challenges: No challenge listed |
| Rating: Teens | Warnings: Mature Themes |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 508 |
| Posted on 5 August 2019 | Updated on 5 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (2) |
A half-life, a cursed life by Lyra
Anárion discusses the specifics of Maedhros' and Húrin's captivity with his brother, and comes to a chilling conclusion.
Rated Adult for some discussion of torture.
| Major Characters: Anárion, Isildur |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: Adult | Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 1, 144 |
| Posted on 2 August 2019 | Updated on 2 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (12) |
Elostirion by hennethgalad
Gildor Inglorion invites Merry and Pippin to ride to Elostirion with him, in the second year of the fourth age.
| Major Characters: Gildor, Merry, Pippin |
| Major Relationships: No major relationships listed |
| Genres: General | Challenges: Solve a Problem |
| Rating: General | Warnings: No warnings apply |
| Chapters: 1 | Word Count: 4, 364 |
| Posted on 1 August 2019 | Updated on 1 August 2019 |
| This fanwork is complete. |
| Table of Contents and Single Chapters | Show All Chapters | Comments (4) |
