SWG News

Tolkien Meta Week Starts December 8!

Posted by SWG Moderators on 7 December 2024. Last updated on 14 December 2024.

Tolkien Meta Week starts on Sunday, December the 8, and will run until December 14 as part of our ongoing push that Meta Is for Everyone! Meta is more than full essays and articles (though those are welcome too!), and we hope Tolkien fans of all experience levels will join us in sharing their thoughts, ideas, rants, headcanons, manifestos, and musings about all that is Tolkien related. Tolkien Meta Week will take place on Tumblr and here on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild archive.

FAQs

The SWG is Silmarillion group. Are you only looking for Silmarillion meta?

Tolkien Meta Week is hosted by the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, but we welcome meta about any and all of Tolkien's works. On our archive, the usual rules about "Silmworks" apply, but we will gladly reblog all Tolkien-related content on our tumblr.

If you have posting access to our Beyond the Silmarillion section, of course, non-Silmarillion meta is welcome there!

Do I have to follow the prompts?

Nope. You can use one of our prompts or go rogue and do your own thing! As long as it is a nonfiction work related to Tolkien, it is welcome for this event.

"Meta" doesn't have to be lengthy, finished, or polished. A paragraph describing a wild theory you had suddenly while brushing your teeth is just as welcome as a lengthy, detailed, essay.

There are four prompts available for each day of the week. If you want to use the prompts, you can use one, a few, or all of them—your choice! You don't have use a prompt on the day it is posted. You can also combine prompts from different days.

How do I make sure my work is included?

Here on the archive, choose Tolkien Meta Week from the Challenge dropdown when you post your work. On Tumblr, tag #tolkien meta week so that we can reblog your work!

We will reblog anything tagged on Tumblr for Tolkien Meta Week to the SWG tumblr. A roundup of Tolkien Meta Week contributions will be featured as part of the December 21st newsletter. If you don't want your entry reblogged or included in the newsletter, let us know as soon as possible.

Prompts

Each day of the event will feature four prompts centered on genre, format, source text, and approaches that range beyond Middle-earth. However, these prompts are entirely optional, and any Tolkien-related meta is welcome for the event! Prompt definitions can be found on the Tolkien Meta Week challenge page.

December 8: theory | infographic | The Silmarillion | the Tolkien fandom

December 9: open letter | podcast/audio | The Lord of the Rings | Tolkien's non-Middle-earth writings

December 10: literary analysis | wiki article | The Hobbit | adaptations

December 11: character study | video | Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, The Nature of Middle-earth, and The Fall of Númenor | books, articles, and meta about Tolkien

December 12: headcanon | meme | The Three Great Tales: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin | compare Tolkien to another text

December 13: ship manifesto |  personal essay | Tolkien's art | apply real-world disciplines to Middle-earth

December 14: research | list (including link collections) | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | Tolkien fanworks (with permission!)

Artists Needed to Create 2025 Challenge Stamps

Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 November 2024. Last updated on 13 December 2024.

Note: All challenge stamps have been claimed for 2025! Thank you, artists!

One of our favorite parts of our challenges is the stamps participants receive. For the past two years, we've asked for artists who want to help us create these stamps, so that each month's collection of stamps has its own unique style. It's that time of the year where we solicit help from artists who want to make a set of challenge stamps for the coming year. No matter your level of expertise with traditional or digital art, we welcome all volunteers who'd like to share their work with challenge participants!

If you'd be interested in creating a set of stamps for one (or more) of our 2025 challenges, here is how it will work:

  • Comment here (or otherwise contact the mods) and we will grant access to a bare-bones list of the 2025 challenges, the number of stamps needed, and the due date. Please note that if you want to remain absolutely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, than this is probably not for you! We will send additional details on the challenge and specific stamps needed once you choose the challenge you want to work on.
  • Create your set of stamps. You have a lot of creative free rein here. Stamps must
    • include the month number of the challenge. Most of the time, we also include the challenge name (or part of it) too, but this is not required.
    • thematically match the challenge that month.
    • be appropriate for all audiences: no violence, blood/gore, nudity, or sexual content.
    • use our templates or a similar postage stamp template that is not drastically different from ours. (Please check with us first.)
    • use only art and images that you have permission to use, which means that you must own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to use the image for this project, or the image is in the public domain.
  • Email your completed stamps to the mods before the due date! We will send you a reminder about a month before your stamps are due.

Please note that while we can (and will) credit you as an artist on the challenge page and any announcements about the challenge, we cannot include credit on the stamps themselves or with every appearance of the stamps on our site.

You will also have the option of designing the challenge banner for that month if you wish to do so. (It is not required.) Banners are used on the challenge page, as well as in announcements on our site and social media about the challenge. Requirements for stamps apply to banners as well, with the addition that the banner should include the challenge name, dates, and text "SWG Challenge" or "Silmarillion Writers' Guild Challenge" somewhere on the banner. We prefer that the art used on stamps not be used on the banner as well. Banners should be at least 500px wide.

In participating in this project, you are granting the SWG the right to use your stamps and banner, including any art or photography that the contain, on our website and social media, in accordance with the terms described here. This includes minor modifications, such as resizing graphics to work with the layout of our site.

If you are interested in learning more or gaining access to the sign-up page, please comment here or contact us. The last day to sign up is 31 December 2024.

Tolkien Fanartics: Mapping Arda - The Second Age

Posted by SWG Moderators on 25 November 2024. Last updated on 25 November 2024.

Maps and geography are an essential part of Tolkien's worldbuilding and a major allure for fans of his work. As part of the Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea has been working on a series, Mapping Arda, that considers not only the maps and geography from the books but how fans represent, reinvent, and fill in the cartographic work that Tolkien did.

The Second Age is the most fragmentary of Tolkien's work on the three ages of Arda, and its maps are no exception. This month, joined by Varda delle Stelle, Anérea takes a look at Tolkien's (incomplete) maps of the Second Age and how fans have explored and answered the questions they present, representing the geography of the Second Age in myriad forms, from traditional paint and ink to embroidery to three-dimensional models. Anérea and Varda have curated a collection of fan-made Second Age maps that show the various ways that fans approach and represent this most mysterious of the ages of Arda.

You can read "Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age" here.

New Challenge: Potluck Bingo

Posted by SWG Moderators on 16 November 2024. Last updated on 16 November 2024.

You are invited to a potluck hosted by the SWG community! Just like potluck meals allow participants to bring their favorite recipes cooked up with a personal flair, our new challenge, Potluck Bingo, features prompts served on bingo boards created by—you! the members and friends of the SWG!

You are free to play any board—you are not required to play your own. You may also play as many boards as you want. And of course, you’re free to combine prompts from different boards.

We will not be pulling numbers—there is no daily prompt. Pick your board, and see what prompt(s) on the board spark something.

Commenters, you’re not left out of the bingo fun. There will be a few comment challenge boards to play. (Possibly more than a few if our boardmakers decide to run with it …)

As there will be many different boards in play, both creators and commenters will need to notify the mods when stamps are needed for bingo (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or card blackout). You can reach us on Tumblr, DW, Discord, or using the contact form. We will have a special stamp for anyone who plays multiple boards. There will NOT be a stamp for playing all boards, as past experience suggests there could be quite a few.

As is tradition, the last challenge of the year runs for two months, from November 15 through Janaury 15. If you want to receive a stamp for your fanwork, you should have it posted to the site by January 15, 2025. (However, note that the January challenge, which will begin on January 1, is always an amnesty month, so technically you can receive stamps for this final challenge through February 15, 2025!)

If you want to make a bingo card (or cards) to bring to the party, note that we are accepting new cards throughout the challenge.

Potluck Bingo cards, challenge guidelines (including directions and templates for making bingo cards), and fanworks are here, and guidelines for SWG challenges overall are here.

Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo

Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 November 2024. Last updated on 16 November 2024.

This November and December, our challenge will feature bingo boards created by ... you! Potluck Bingo brings the concept of the holiday potluck—a chance to come together and share in a bounty collaboratively created—to our monthly challenge.

The challenge will open on November 15, but we are currently seeking bingo cards. If you would like to make your own cards, the sky is the limit! You can make as many cards as you would like. Templates are available to make it as simple as possible to create a board:

There is no deadline for cards that you create, aside from the challenge deadline of January 15.

If you don’t have time to make a board, we also have a form open from November 1 - 8 to submit prompts that someone else can turn into a board. Form submissions are limited to 1 per person. The window to submit prompts through the form isn’t very long, but that’s to give the boardmakers sufficient time to work their magic.

If you'd like to collaborate directly with another person to make the boards for you, then you can also do so, with unlimited boards that can be submitted anytime during the challenge.

If you are interested in making boards from prompts, let the mods know.

Boardmakers, we ask that you do the following:

  • If you choose to make a board from scratch rather than use the templates, please keep the dimensions roughly 575 x 865 pixels, with a portrait orientation.
  • Submit a plain text list of the prompts along with your board—we provide a text-only version for every board for accessibility. (There is a text-only prompt list template also. Note that links, hexadecimal color codes, etc can be given as part of the text!)
  • If submitting a NSFW board, let the mods know so we can mark it appropriately.
  • Finished boards should be submitted to moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org

Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14

Posted by SWG Moderators on 26 October 2024. Last updated on 7 December 2024.

Tolkien Meta Week is a week-long event to encourage fans to create nonfiction works related to Tolkien's world. Tolkien Meta Week will run from December 8-14, 2024 on Tumblr and here on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild archive.

How to Participate

Tolkien Meta Week is hosted by the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, but we welcome meta about any and all of Tolkien's works. On our archive, the usual rules about "Silmworks" apply, but we will gladly reblog all Tolkien-related content on our tumblr.

You can use one of our prompts or go rogue and do your own thing! As long as it is a nonfiction work related to Tolkien, it is welcome for this event. Note that "meta" doesn't have to be lengthy, finished, or polished. A paragraph describing a wild theory you had suddenly while brushing your teeth is just as welcome as a lengthy, detailed, essay. There are four prompts available for each day of the week. If you want to use the prompts, you can use one, a few, or all of them—your choice! You can also combine prompts from different days.

Here on the archive, choose Tolkien Meta Week from the Challenge dropdown when you post your work. On Tumblr, tag #tolkien meta week so that we can reblog your work!

The SWG also has a weekly newsletter, and we will include a roundup of Tolkien Meta Week submissions at the end of the event. If you do not wish to be included in the round-up, let the mods know before December 13.

We will not reblog or include meta that violates our Site Etiquette. This includes meta that promotes the idea that some people have more value than others or that insults or belittles other fans.

Make sure to give credit for ideas not your own and ask permission before using or discussing another fan's fanworks as part of your meta.

Prompts

Each day of the event will feature four prompts centered on genre, format, source text, and approaches that range beyond Middle-earth. However, these prompts are entirely optional, and any Tolkien-related meta is welcome for the event!

December 8: theory | infographic | The Silmarillion | the Tolkien fandom

December 9: open letter | podcast/audio | The Lord of the Rings | Tolkien's non-Middle-earth writings

December 10: literary analysis | wiki article | The Hobbit | adaptations

December 11: character study | video | Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, The Nature of Middle-earth, and The Fall of Númenor | books, articles, and meta about Tolkien

December 12: headcanon | meme | The Three Great Tales: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin | compare Tolkien to another text

December 13: ship manifesto |  personal essay | Tolkien's art | apply real-world disciplines to Middle-earth

December 14: research | list (including link collections) | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | Tolkien fanworks (with permission!)

Prompt Definitions

Prompt definitions are provided for informational purposes only. We do not police how creators use our prompts for challenges and take creators at their word if they share a fanwork as part of one of our challenges. In other words, we are not going to be coming behind anyone, arguing that something should be posted because it doesn't fit our particular understanding of a prompt. All that being said, if you read the definitions below and still aren't sure what a prompt means, our mods are here to help!

Genre Prompts

Theory: Share your theories about one of the many mysteries or open questions about Tolkien's work. Unlike headcanons, theory meta uses details from the text rather than original concepts to formulate ideas about the legendarium.

Open Letter: Write a letter to someone, expressing your views on the canon as it relates to them. For example, you could write to a character, the creator of an adaptation, or Tolkien himself!

Literary Analysis: Literary analysis considers what makes Tolkien's work effective as art or literature, considering such elements as imagery, word choice, characterization, structure, and theme. Literary analysis can also consider influences on Tolkien's work, such as mythology, folklore, and other works of literature.

Character Study: Character studies take a deeper look at a character, considering what the texts say and imply about the character's backstory, motives, emotions, personality, and other elements.

Headcanon: Headcanons are your personal interpretations of the texts. They can be grounded in details from the texts but don't have to be. This is the meta where you elaborate on the original elements that you imagine for Middle-earth.

Ship Manifesto: Present the reasons why a particular ship is appealing to you and should be embraced by others.

Research: Share your research on a topic, large or small, in any format, whether your rough notes or a perfectly polished essay or anything in between—or a format totally novel and new!

Format Prompts

Infographic: Present your meta in visual form, using graphics alongside text. Note that while traditional infographics are of course welcome, other formats that combine information + visuals are welcome too.

Podcast/Audio: Record a discussion of a topic or a reading of a work of meta.

Wiki Article: Create or add to a Tolkien-related article on a wiki. (Fanlore is a fandom-specific wiki that is still missing articles on many Tolkien characters, ships, and other topics!)

Video: Share a work of meta in video form.

Meme: When we created this prompt, we had in mind visuals with catchy text that comment on Tolkien. However, the word meme has many meanings and permutations. Any are welcome here.

Personal Essay: Reflect on how Tolkien, Tolkien fandom, or aspects of Tolkien's world have influenced you personally. Note that while this prompt includes the word "essay," any format of personal reflection—video, audio, visual, something else?—is welcome.

List: Make a list of things related to a topic related to Tolkien.

Beyond Middle-earth

The Tolkien Fandom: Create meta about the Tolkien fandom, which is many decades old, vast, diverse, and complex. Note that exploring all aspects of Tolkien fandom—not just the fanworks fandom—is welcome for this prompt.

Tolkien's Non-Middle-earth Writings: Tolkien wrote original stories (like Leaf by Niggle), adaptations (like The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun), translations (like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), and academic works (like "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"). This prompt welcomes meta that engages with these texts.

Adaptations: There have been dozens of films, radio plays, television shows, and games inspired by Tolkien's works. Use one or more of these adaptations to inspire your meta.

Books, Articles, and Meta about Tolkien: People love writing and ruminating about Tolkien. You're considering doing it now or you wouldn't be here! Discuss what fans and scholars have to say about Tolkien for this prompt.

Compare Tolkien to Another Text: Discuss Tolkien alongside another text or texts. Specific texts (like a specific book or movie) are welcome, as are groups or genres of text (such as the fantasy genre or stories that include dragons). Note that when we say "text," we mean that loosely, and you can engage with works in any format, not just books and stories.

Apply Real-World Disciplines to Middle-earth. Take your expertise in a real-world subject and apply it to the people, places, and situations of Middle-earth. This could be an academic or professional discipline (such as volcanology, astronomy, or psychology—all of which have been applied to Tolkien!) or a hobby or more casual pursuit (such as gardening, mushroom foraging, or horses) or anything in between.

Tolkien Fanworks: Write or make a work of meta that engages with Tolkien fanworks—roughly defined as amateur not-for-profit adaptations of Tolkien's works—either specific works or in the general sense. If you are going to discuss specific fanworks, please reach out to the creators first.

New Challenge: Orctober

Posted by SWG Moderators on 15 October 2024. Last updated on 16 November 2024.

Winter is stretching its bitter fingers across the lands to the north. Dead leaves rattle upon the hissing winds that bring the cold and first stinging snows to the dying lands. Listen closely, and you will hear another sound: the crackle of a feeble fire, the rustle of an old parchment map, and whispering voices, plotting.

We know the Free Peoples of Middle-earth observed the lives of Melkor's servants, and Melkor sometimes seduced (or coerced) Elves and Mortals to his service. But what about the Orcs? They too came into contact with cultures different from their own, and some doubtlessly braved Melkor's wrath to seek a better life for themselves.

This month's challenge has two parts. Prompts will be spooky-themed and associated with locations on the old parchment map discovered by a troop of Orcs braving the first bitter patrols in the icy north. Each location on the map represents a location where an Orc seeking freedom can find protection, shelter, or objects useful to resistance.

You can, of course, complete the challenge simply by completing one or more prompts. If you would like to go a step further, there is also a puzzle to solve. The whispers around the guttering fire speak of escape from Melkor's enslavement. Will you join this quiet rebellion?

Find the Orctober challenge guidelines and prompts here.

This month's spooktacular banner and stamps were created by Independence1776!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 November 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Mereth Aderthad 2025: Call for Presenters for Meta, Research, and Scholarship Open

Posted by SWG Newsletter Staff on 12 October 2024. Last updated on 12 October 2024.

The SWG is foremost an organization for fanworks but has also, throughout our twenty-year history, recognized that within the broader Tolkien fanworks fandom, it is almost impossible to separate creative and scholarly works for many creators. Our community has offered space for discussing and better understanding the legendarium, and our archive hosts hundreds of research and scholarly works created by fans.

A component of Mereth Aderthad will therefore be the sharing of meta, research, and scholarly works about Tolkien's legendarium.

  • Presentations will be delivered live, either in-person or virtually.
  • Presentations should be 15 minutes in length.
  • While any topic related to Tolkien's works is acceptable, priority will be given to presentations with a significant Silmarillion component.
  • Proposals are due by January 15, 2025.

We explicitly welcome fans, not just academics and scholars, to submit a proposal to present meta, research, or scholarship about the legendarium. We believe that fans offer meaningful contributions to the scholarly and academic conversations around Tolkien's work and furthermore offer perspectives that career academics often miss. In order to encourage fan participation in this component of the event, we will offer support and resources to fans who are interested in presenting but aren't sure where to begin. To learn more about these opportunities, subscribe to the SWG's weekly newsletter, join our Discord server, follow us on Tumblr, or follow us on Dreamwidth.

Presentations of meta, research, and scholarship will be accompanied by fanworks that are crafted around the same topic. In submitting a proposal to present at Mereth Aderthad 2025, you acknowledge and accept that fanworks will be made to accompany your presentation. While presenters and fanworks creators can collaborate if both parties wish to do so, presenters and fanworks creators should understand that they will not be given the opportunity to approve or require changes to the pieces that accompany their presentation.

Proposals should be about 300 words in length and are due no later than January 15, 2025. Click here to submit a proposal. Questions are welcome at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.

A Sense of History: Doom and Ascent

Posted by SWG Moderators on 12 October 2024. Last updated on 12 October 2024.

In July 2023, we published the first in a series of posts by Simon J. Cook as part of our A Sense of History column that considered Tolkien's lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," looking especially at the well-known tower allegory that Tolkien used to describe the state of Beowulf criticism in 1936, when the lecture was first given.

Since that time, Simon has looked at individual elements in that allegory, considered critical reception of them, and ultimately connected them back to Tolkien's work on the legendarium. This month's essay is the final in the series and brings all of the smaller pieces together into a coherent interpretation of the tower allegory, one that pushes against long-established readings by scholars of both Beowulf and Tolkien. By using Tolkien's allegories of the tower and the rock garden, Simon creates a metaphorical map for how the various elements of both Beowulf and the legendarium are both physically and symbolically situated.

You can read Simon's final essay in this series, "Doom and Ascent: The Argument of ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’," here.

Themed Collection: Orcs Are People

Posted by SWG Moderators on 5 October 2024. Last updated on 5 October 2024.

Tolkien's legendarium is sometimes criticized for a too-tidy binary of Good and Evil. While this is less true of The Silmarillion than the better-known Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, the criticism can ring true there as well, perhaps best exemplified by the Orcs, who are depicted in the book as uncomplicated pawns for pure evil with few humanizing traits that invite empathy or even for readers to consider them as human beings.

In the newest addition to our Themed Collection series, Cuarthol has assembled ten stories, essays, and works of art that challenge the idea of Orcs as purely evil or unthinking, unfeeling pawns of Melkor. Introducing the collection, titled with the plainspoken and (in some circles) radical title Orcs Are People, Cuarthol writes:

Whatever Tolkien’s final thoughts, his works depict Orcs with an undeniable humanity—they sing songs, chafe against Big Bosses, and even seek vengeance for deaths of family or comrades. Whether by intent or no, they were people beyond being mere pawns driven by a Dark Lord’s will.

Fanworks, of course, provide one powerful means to transcend the depictions of Orcs that we see in Tolkien's published works, considering what the lives of Orcish people were like and what the dismissal of those lives in works told from the points of view of Elves and Men show us about the insidious power of dehumanization in our own world.

You can find Cuarthol's collection "Orcs Are People" here. Our themed collections are viewed as a starting point for exploring fanworks centered around a topic, so we encourage adding your own favorite fanworks that seek to (re)humanize Orcs as a comment on the collection. And remember we are always looking for new themed collections; find out more about how to share a collection of fanworks on your favorite character, pairing, genre, or topic here!