New Challenge: Potluck Bingo
Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
SWG News
Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo
Our November-December challenge will be Potluck Bingo, featuring cards created by you! If you'd like to create cards or prompts for cards, we are taking submissions.
Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14
We will be hosting a Tolkien Meta Week in December, here on the archive and on our Tumblr, for nonfiction fanworks about Tolkien.
New Challenge: Orctober
Orcs on a quest for freedom seek a place sheltered and safe from the Dark Lord. Fulfill prompts to gather the clues needed to bring them to freedom.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Reference] Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age by Anérea, Varda delle Stelle
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
[Writing] Collection of Potluck Drabbles by Artano
This is a collection of true drabbles completed for the 'Four Words' drabble bingo card.
[Writing] Getting Dirty by Elleth
A collection of NSFW ficlets for the "Keep It Clean" bingo card of the 2024 Potluck Bingo.
[Reference] Doom and Ascent: The Argument of ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’ by Simon J. Cook
Simon reads 'Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics' to conclude his account of the Anglo-Saxon tower of its allegory.
[Artwork] 2024 Potluck Doodles by silmalope
Assorted prompt fills for the 2024 Potluck bingo boards, to varying degrees of completion! :)
[Artwork] A Collection of Maps Exhibiting the Changing Political Landscape in Beleriand by Artano
Created for the 'Geography/Maps/Places' prompt on the "Tolkien meta" bingo board, this is a collection of maps marked with the various people groups showing how they arrived and moved about Beleriand. This collection focuses specifically on the time from the arrival of the Teleri, Vanyar, and…
[Writing] On the Nature of the Sindar’s Hunting the Petty-dwarves by Artano
This is an analysis on whether the Sindar ate the Petty-dwarves during the years they hunted them, completed for the 'Literary Analysis' prompt on the "Tolkien Meta" bingo card.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Plot Thickens
Create a fanwork that depicts characters in the act of plotting something. Read more ...
New in References
Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age by Anérea, Varda delle Stelle
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
Doom and Ascent: The Argument of ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’ by Simon J. Cook
Simon reads 'Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics' to conclude his account of the Anglo-Saxon tower of its allegory.
Why People Don't Comment: Data and History From the Tolkienfic Fandom by Dawn Walls-Thumma
A reworking of the 2018 article for Long Live Feedback that includes data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, pointing to a lack of comments as related to skill, confidence, and community connection.
Featured Themed Collection
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Alliterative Verse for Arda by Rhunedhel
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features alliterative poems about Middle-earth.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Artwork] Long-tressed Wingildi by Anérea
"... the long-tressed Wingildi ... spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean."
~ a painted sketch for Scribbles and Drabbles 2024.
[Writing] Partners in Craft by elennalore
Annatar realises that he might like Celebrimbor too much.
[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.
Around the World and Web
Teitho November/December Contest: Healing
The theme for Teitho's November/December contest is healing.
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
LotR SESA has been ongoing for twenty-one years and is running again this year as a prompt meme hosted on AO3 for all genres of Tolkien-based fanfiction.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic prompt: refuge. Formal challenge: include imitation of a sound. As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges. New participants welcome!
November 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Calls for papers and proposals for conferences and publications that are open during the month of November 2024.
SWG News
New Challenge: X Marks the Spot
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 October 2022. Last updated on 14 November 2022.
Every year, we run a challenge that we call a Matryoshka after the concept of the Russian nesting dolls where you lift one doll to find another, smaller doll inside. Similarly, the Matryoshka challenge concept centers on the idea that you complete a prompt to find that it leads you to another prompt, which you must try to then incorporate into your fanwork-in-progress. The idea is that you are always building a fanwork but never entirely sure where it might end up going.
This month's X Marks the Spot challenge uses this concept with a twist. Instead of us sending a series of emails with prompts, you will choose your own prompts from a map of Beleriand. You may choose to complete a challenge using two, three, five, or seven prompts. (Seven is jaw-dropping and will earn you a special stamp—the least we can do for those of you willing to subject yourself to this! Let us know in the fanwork notes if you complete the Difficult level challenge.)
So how to participate?
Choose a starting location. Note that a few locations have special rules. You'll find these on the prompt list.
Decide your level of challenge and follow the paths on the map to complete that many prompts. Note that the prompt list will show next locations, and hovering over a location on the list will show you its prompt. As always, prompts are intentionally open-ended and often have multiple interpretations. How you satisfy a prompt is entirely up to you, and we encourage creative thinking and the shameless exploitation of loopholes presented in the prompts.
All fanwork types are eligible for this challenge.
Ready to start your journey? For more information on the X Marks the Spot challenge and to view the map and prompts, click here.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 November 2022. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Finally, many thanks to Grundy, who planned and designed the map and graphics for this month's challenge!
A Sense of History: The Plague in Gondor
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 October 2022. Last updated on 18 November 2022.
For almost three years now, we've all had plagues on our minds. History is littered with examples of highly contagious and deadly diseases that dispatch with large swaths of the population with frightening ease.
In this month's A Sense of History column, MirienSilowende looks at the plague that afflicted Gondor, before spreading northward to wreak havoc on the northern domains of mortal Men, in the middle of the Third Age. As her article shows, the plague in Gondor shares some elements with real-world plagues, namely the Black Death.
You can check out MirienSilowende's The Plague in Gondor here.
Fanfiction Book Club: Novelettes
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 October 2022. Last updated on 2 December 2022.
The Fall of the House of Usher ... The Birds ...The Little Prince ...The Call of Cthulhu ... what do they all have in common?
Answer: they all have word counts of 7.5k – 20k, and so meet the common definition of a novelette!
Often a forgotten middle child between the short story and novella, novelettes will be the focus of our next SWG book club on 25th-27th November hosted by Narya and polutropos. Submissions should be complete and in their entirety, and must meet the SWG criteria for a Silmarillion fanwork (these are pretty broad ... basically anything that isn't covered in detail in The Hobbit or the main body of The Lord of the Rings will qualify).
Sign-ups are now closed, but the book club is open to all who want to participate in the discussion! See below for the schedule.
Please endeavour to attend the sessions of at least two other authors. We won't enforce this as we know people will have other commitments throughout the weekend, but book clubs only work well when you are willing to engage with other fanworks besides your own!
You can participate in the discussions without signing up as an author if you prefer—there's no need to submit the form, and no minimum time commitment. Turn up to whichever sessions suit your schedule.
If you've never participated in one of our fanfiction book clubs before, our book club FAQ has more information.
Schedule
Friday, November 25
Find the Friday book club schedule in your timezone.
18:00 UTC: Stars Above, Voice Within by Melesta
19:00 UTC: Break
19:30 UTC: wear this now in memory by starlightwalking
Saturday, November 26
Find the Saturday book club schedule in your timezone.
15:30 UTC: So do our Minutes Hasten to their End by maglor_my_beloved
16:30 UTC: Break
17:00 UTC: No Longer Mourn by JazTheBard
18:00 UTC: Break
19:00 UTC: Dream Walking by Torpi
20:00 UTC: Break
20:30 UTC: Hearken Still Unsated by polutropos
Sunday, November 27
Find the Sunday book club schedule in your timezone.
11:30 UTC: Inside Fëanor by 2Nienna2
12:30 UTC: Break
13:00 UTC: Living Reflections of Shadow by jamcake_muses
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19:00 UTC: Touch of a Vanished Hand by elfscribe
20:00 UTC: Break
20:30 UTC: Gone with the Harp's Echo by Narya
Do You Want to Read SWG Fics as eBooks?
Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 October 2022. Last updated on 1 October 2022.
If you have ever wished that it was possible to download a favorite story on the SWG as an ebook, you are not alone. We have been trying to add ebook downloads almost as long as the archive has existed, but the software to do so is never quite what we need to work with our current setup. So this remains an ongoing goal, but in the meantime, downloading SWG fics as ebooks can be done.
In a new FAQ, Anérea investigates two plugins, Save-as-eBook and ePub-Creator, that work with the SWG archive and allow you to save stories as ebooks. Check out the FAQ on ebook plugins here and happy reading!
Character of the Month: Tinfang Warble
Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 September 2022. Last updated on 2 November 2022.
Tolkien was a young man when his earliest work on the "Silmarillion" emerged in the form of the Book of Lost Tales. Full of whimsy, the Lost Tales present a version of Middle-earth where enchantment reigns and Faerie is a place where mortals sometimes land.
From this earliest work comes Tinfang Warble: a mysterious character whose eerie music enchants its mortal listeners and makes the stars burn brighter. Tinfang first appeared in Tolkien's writings even before the Lost Tales, and his character evolves along with Tolkien's work on the tales until he disappeared from the legendarium altogether. Tinfang survives in the two renowned (doomed) musicians of the legendarium: Daeron and Maglor. The difference between Tinfang's character and these later evolutions illustrates the stark shifts the legendarium underwent as it progressed from the Lost Tales to its final form. This month's biography, by Dawn Felagund, explores what we know of this obscure character and his shifting role in the legendarium.
Cultus Dispatches: Tolkien Fanfiction and Demographics
Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 September 2022. Last updated on 29 October 2022.
In a lot of communities, you can get a sense of who is present just by looking around yourself. In online communities—especially online fan communities, where pseudonymity is a cultural norm—it can be harder to know just who you share your online spaces with.
This month's Cultus Dispatches column looks at Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data from 2015 and 2020 to answer that question: Just who is in this fandom? Who is present? Who is missing? And why are some groups of people heavily represented in the fandom while others are barely present or absent altogether?
Remember that Cultus Dispatches is always open to contributions! If you'd like to share a piece of fandom history, consider writing an article for the Cultus column.
Major Upgrade to SWG Site Software
Posted by SWG Moderators on 24 September 2022. Last updated on 24 September 2022.
This past weekend, Russandol and Dawn completed a major update to the site's software, upgrading us from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. This was an important upgrade but also a tricky one, as changes to the file structure between versions (why, Drupal, why??) meant that we also had to build in redirects so that existing links to our site would continue to work.
On September 19, 2022, we were thrilled to switch the lights back on to a Drupal 9 site. However, many minor issues remain that we are in the process of addressing. Just a friendly reminder that we maintain a page of known site issues that you can check; we will be updating here as we find new issues and fix those that have been reported. You can comment directly on the Known Issues page or email us if there is an issue we haven't listed that you need to report.
We greatly appreciate those of you who have reported issues and EVERYONE for being patient with us during the site outage last weekend and as we fix the final small problems with the site.
New Challenge: Major Arcana
Posted by SWG Moderators on 15 September 2022. Last updated on 14 October 2022.
Tarot cards first appeared in the 15th century as playing cards that were later used as well for divination. This month, we draw on the arcane and alluring imagery of the Rider Waite Tarot deck to inspire our fanworks.
You will select a card as your prompt. You can find the Major Arcana prompts here. You can use any aspect of the card's imagery, name, description—found below—or reading (upright or reversed) to inspire your fanwork. Want to let fate decide? Choose a random Tarot card here.
Fanworks should be posted to the archive no later than 15 October 2022 in order to be eligible for a stamp.
SWG Archive Read-Only for the Weekend of Sept. 16-18
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 September 2022. Last updated on 10 September 2022.
On the weekend of 16-18 September 2022, we will be putting the site into read-only mode so that we can upgrade our site's software and complete other important updates. There may also be times during that weekend where we need to take the site down altogether.
We expect to be back up by the end of the weekend with a site that is updated and more secure. As always, questions can be directed to the moderator team.
A Sense of History: On Oaths
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 September 2022. Last updated on 14 October 2022.
From the earliest ages of Arda to the culmination of the Ring War, characters in the legendarium swear oaths for various purposes. These oaths are depicted both positively and negatively. In this month's A Sense of History column, Angelica looks at how oaths were used by cultures throughout the world. Just like in Middle-earth, oaths form a part of the traditions of a range of cultures and serve a variety of purposes.
"Oaths in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings fit almost seamlessly into these models, showing the Professor’s undoubted familiarity with the main features of historical oaths," Angelica writes. The use of magic and extraordinary objects to bind a person to pledge has roots in places of the world ranging from Egypt to England.
