SWG News

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 29 October 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!

Themed Collection: Alliterative Verse for Arda

Posted by SWG Moderators on 28 September 2024. Last updated on 30 September 2024.

If you've ever read Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you have read an alliterative poem. These poems are not the light love poems that often come to mind when we think of English poetry but capture what Tolkien called the Northern imagination: sometimes bitter, sometimes harsh, steeped in courage, calling to mind an austere beauty.

This month, as part of our Themed Collection series, Rhunedhel has assembled a collection of alliterative poems about Tolkien's world. Rhundhel is the editor of Forgotten Ground Regained, the definitive source of Modern English alliterative poetry online, which publishes a quarterly journal of alliterative verse. Alliterative verse, which is the traditional format of many early Germanic poetic traditions, was beloved by Tolkien, who centered his scholarly and creative efforts upon it. Today, his fans continue working in this ancient form as they craft poems about the legendarium. Rhunedhel was kind enough to select ten legendarium-inspired poems to introduce readers to alliterative verse based on Tolkien. As always, we want to hear your favorites as a comment on the collection.

You can check out Rhundhel's collection, "Alliterative Verse for Arda," here.

Mark Your Calendars! Mereth Aderthad 2025

Posted by SWG Moderators on 21 September 2024. Last updated on 26 October 2024.

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting an event on July 19, 2025 in celebration of our twentieth birthday! The event will be hybrid, with both virtual and in-person options, with the in-person event taking place at the South Burlington Library in Burlington, Vermont. For those able to attend in-person, we will also host community meals and other outings the weekend of the event.

In the spirit of the SWG's (almost) twenty-year history, the event will involve both research/scholarship and fanworks components, as we seek to showcase and celebrate the variety of ways that Tolkien fans engage with and illuminate his work through fiction, artwork, poetry, research, scholarship and meta, music, and other forms. If you'd like to present research, create a fanwork for the event, or attend either in-person or online, we encourage you to follow us on at least one of our social platforms so that you receive updates as they come in:

In the next few weeks, we will open the call for presenters for research, meta, and scholarship.

Right now, we are looking for volunteers to help with the various tasks we will be faced with over the next ten months. You do not need to be able to attend in-person to volunteer, and there is no minimum time commitment. Anything helps! If you'd like to volunteer, comment on this post, email the mods, contact us on any of our social media platforms, or post to the #town-hall on our Discord. Let us know if you'd like to be on the logistics committee (scheduling, tech setup and testing, weekend outings, etc.) or the promotions committee (graphics design, social media, presenter interviews, etc.) or both!

Click here to see the full information that's available for the Mereth Aderthad 2025 event.

Cultus Dispatches: Why People Don't Comment

Posted by SWG Moderators on 21 September 2024. Last updated on 21 September 2024.

It is one thing to document that, yes, the vast majority of creators love comments on their work. But the big question that hangs over any discussion of commenting remains: What about the dozens upon dozens of readers who read a story but do not comment?

Authors have been angsting over the disparity between their click and comment counts since those data became available to them. In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, Dawn dusts off a 2018 article that she wrote for the Project Long Live Feedback, which dug into the 2015 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data and what it showed about comments ... or why people don't comment. Using data from the 2020 survey, she's updated the article this month, but the takeaways remain the same: Commenting is a skill and its own unique type of writing. A lack of confidence as writers can hold people back from commenting. And feeling part of a community is an essential component of easing the way from becoming readers to commenters. In the Tolkien fanfiction fandom, which has been around a lot long (both online and offline) than most fic fandoms, platform shifts at least partly account for the rise and fall of comment counts.

You can read this month's article, "Why People Don't Comment: Data and History from the Tolkienfic Fandom," here.