SWG News

Upcoming Instadrabbling Session

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 31 July 2022. Last updated on 26 August 2022.

Instadrabbling is a longstanding Tolkien fanfiction tradition where creators gather, make flash fanworks, and share those fanworks based on prompts shared as part of a chat session. Our next challenge (still to be announced!) will include an instadrabbling session using challenge prompts.

We will gather on the following dates and times on the SWG Discord server:

Never instadrabbled before? We gather on the #instadrabbling channel and create and share flash fanworks in response to prompts. You can learn more about how instadrabbling works here.

To join our Discord server: If you are a logged-in member, you will see an invite link in the footer of all pages on the site. If you're not an archive member, you can contact the moderators for an invite link.

Cultus Dispatches: A Tribute to the Library of Moria

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 30 July 2022. Last updated on 26 August 2022.

Founded in 2002, the Library of Moria is one of the Tolkien fandom's oldest fanfiction archives. Amid numerous archive closures in recent years, it is also one of the longest-enduring.

As the Library prepares to close and move its fanworks to AO3 via the Open Doors project, we want to remember not only the site's history but its invaluable contributions to the culture of the Tolkien fanworks fandom. Known as a welcoming and fun-loving place, the Library served as a counterpoint to more exclusive and conflict-driven fandom spaces and, through the joy and love they felt for Tolkien's world, Library authors helped move the slash and femslash genres from the hidden corners of the internet to the mainstream.

You can read this month's article here:  A Tribute to the Library of Moria.

Remember, Cultus Dispatches is always looking for contributors to our column about Tolkien fandom history and culture. Find out more about writing for this column here.

In addition, "A Tribute to the Library of Moria" is an open article that is part of our ongoing efforts to preserve memories from fandom history. Was the Library of Moria important to your fandom experience? Contact Dawn to share your memories of the Library (or if you want to share but aren't sure where to begin, message Dawn for a list of questions to get you started).

Happy 17th Birthday, SWG!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 30 July 2022. Last updated on 30 July 2022.

The end of July roughly marks the SWG's birthday, so we are pleased to have reached seventeen amazing years as a community and fanworks archive for the Silmarillion fandom!

We do not honor an exact date as a birthday because Dawn Felagund and ford_of_bruinen, our founding moderators, recruited members to their new group across the course of several days at the end of July. It was then that the first of many conversations, fanworks, and friendships were sparked. At the time, the website was still almost two years away, and the SWG existed on Yahoo! Groups and LiveJournal.

So here's to a happy 17th birthday with much love and gratitude to the many, many volunteers, creators, fans, and readers who have made those 17 years (!!) possible.

"The Rings of Power" and the SWG

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 28 July 2022. Last updated on 28 July 2022.

As we approach the release date of the new Rings of Power show, the mods have been in discussion about how best to handle the show on the SWG. Because the show is based on LotR Appendix materials, we expect much more overlap with our group than the two Jackson trilogies. We know that some SWG members will be really into the show, and others will want to avoid it entirely. We have discussed how to balance these competing interests so that everyone feels welcome and valued here and can "do fandom" in the way that is best for them.

Our complete policy on The Rings of Power can be found here, but check out the highlights below.

  • RoP fans are welcome here, and we continue to welcome new Tolkien fans. We will not tolerate disparagement of fans (whether present here or not) because of their interest in the show, newness to Tolkien/fandom, or lack of knowledge about the legendarium.
  • At the same time, we ask RoP fans respect that we are predominantly a Silmarillion group and keep RoP discussions to spaces created for those discussions (currently, this is the #tv channel on our Discord server) or on fanworks for/about RoP.
  • RoP is based off the LotR Appendices and, as such, is not a related work to The Silmarillion. Therefore, strictly RoP fanworks do not meet the criteria for our site. Silmarillion-based fanworks that use elements from RoP are welcome, but we ask that they be labeled as crossovers. How we define "Silm fanworks" can be found here.
  • RoP fanworks will be eligible for our Beyond the Silmarillion archive.

As always, if you have questions, please contact our moderators!

Coming Soon: Beyond the Silmarillion Archive

Posted by SWG Moderators on 22 July 2022. Last updated on 12 August 2022.

We're excited to announce that the new section of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild site for non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks will be called Beyond the Silmarillion!

What Is the Beyond the Silmarillion Archive?

Back in December 2021, we asked SWG members to let us know what new features they'd like to see us add to the site in the coming year. One of the choices was the option for active creators to also archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien-based fanworks with us, and this was a popular choice.

We sometimes hear from SWG members that they wish there were more archives where they could store all of their fanworks in one place. Since very few creators in the Tolkien community only create Silmarillion-based fanworks, giving space to our creators to also store their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks with us seemed a small but hopefully meaningful way to help our creators preserve all of their Tolkien fanworks.

All fanworks based on all of Tolkien's books and the various adaptations of those books—such as films, games, and shows—will be eligible. Since we will very soon be able to accept all kinds of fanworks, we truly mean all fanworks: fiction, artwork, nonfiction/meta, audio/podfic, playlists, poetry, link collections, videos, and multimedia fanworks that use more than one of the listed types.

The new section will be open to SWG members who have actively posted Silmarillion-based fanworks to our archive, which we are defining as either five Silmarillion-based fanworks or 10,000 words of Silmarillion-based writing. New creators will be able to earn posting privileges in the new section when they reach one of these thresholds.

Finally, this will truly be a separate section of the site. Visitors who are here for the Silmarillion-based fanworks and not interested in other Tolkien fanworks will not see their experiences change. But visitors who want to see what some of their favorite creators are doing with fanworks that range beyond The Silmarillion will soon have the option to do so.

State of the Site Update: What to Watch for in the Weeks to Come

This year has been a busy one for building our site beyond what we have ever been able to offer before. So far this year, we have added several new fanwork types: art, playlists, and link collections. This week, we opened beta-testing on the final two fanwork types: video and multimedia.

Video is self-explanatory, but multimedia fanworks will serve those of you who create works in multiple media that you'd like to see displayed together as a single fanwork. Say you do a painting to go with a story. Or you post a work of meta with a link collection of suggested reading. Or a podfic recording of a story with a playlist of the songs you used in your soundtrack. Multimedia fanworks will let you display all of those elements together as a single fanwork. We hope video and multimedia fanworks are available on the site for everyone to use by the first week of August at the latest.

Next: the new Beyond the Silmarillion section. As this is a much easier build than multimedia fanworks, we hope we will have the new site section up and running by the end of August.

Part of why we built out all of the fanwork types first is because Beyond the Silmarillion will allow you to post fanworks of all of the types available elsewhere on the archive.

After that, the only item on the December survey that we still have to complete will be the ability for members to use the SWG archive to host events. This will take some information-gathering to see what possible event hosts would need or like to see and will likely end up being a pretty big undertaking. We'd like to see it well underway (if not complete but I'm probably being ambitious there!) by the end of the year. We also plan to create a function that allows creators to identify related works on the archive, e.g., if you remix another author's story or make a work of art, playlist, etc for a fic, those works can be associated with each other.

As always, we love to hear what Tolkien creators would like to see on our archive. Comments are open here, or we can be reached by email. The archive is for you and we serve the Tolkien fanworks community, so never hesitate to be in touch with suggestions or ideas.

Read & Review: The Great Tales Never End

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 15 July 2022. Last updated on 26 August 2022.

This month, we introduce a new newsletter column. Read & Review is a column for book reviews of books and collections related to Tolkien.

For our inaugural article in our new column, Grundy reviews the recent essay collection The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien. Intended as a tribute to be enjoyed while he was still alive, the collection is nonetheless a testament to Christopher's invaluable contribution to the field of Tolkien studies and the Tolkien fan community. You can read Grundy's review of The Great Tales Never End here.

Read & Review will be an occasional column, which means we will publish it when we have reviews to publish, whether that's once every three months or three in a month. If you'd like to review a new(ish) Tolkien book or collection, you can find the submission guidelines for Read & Review here (and submissions guidelines for all newsletter columns here).

New Challenge: Zingers

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 15 July 2022. Last updated on 19 August 2022.

I wish I’d said that! We all love a cool comeback, a fierce burn, or a witty insult, particularly when it’s from one of our favorite characters. This month, we’re offering zingers and insults from literature and pop culture as inspiration. You may use the prompt any way you like - it need not be included in the fanwork, only inspire it!

To receive a prompt for this challenge, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, post the the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, or message us through the SWG site.

In order to receive a creator stamp for this challenge, your response should be posted to the SWG archive on or before August 15, 2022.

Also, a friendly reminder that if you use an SWG challenge prompt as part of a fanwork that you create for another fandom event (e.g., TRSB, Slashy Santa), if the reveal date for your fanwork is after the challenge closes, you can still receive your stamp! Simply post your fanwork to the SWG archive as soon as you are permitted to by the rules of the other event, tag the correct SWG challenge, and alert the mods that you need a stamp for that challenge.

Vote to Name the New Section of Our Site!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 13 July 2022. Last updated on 22 July 2022.

We are in the process of opening a new section of our site for members who post Silmarillion fanworks with us. In this new section, active creators will be able to archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks. You can learn more about this new section of the site here.

But our new section of the site needs a name! We have received a number of suggestions over the past week and voting is now open to choose what the new name will be.

Voting is only open to members who are registered on the SWG site so that we can make sure that we receive only one vote per person. If you're not a member but want to vote, you're welcome to register!

Voting will close on when the clock strikes midnight, UTC, at the end of Wednesday, July 20, so make sure you vote before then! We will announce the new section's name on July 21.

 

Name the New Section of Our Site!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 6 July 2022. Last updated on 13 July 2022.

When the SWG archive opened in 2007, there were dozens of Tolkien-specific fanworks archives on the Internet. Most specialized in some way, so as a site that accepted only Silmarillion-based fanworks, we were just one of many with a specialization.

Fifteen years later, the fandom landscape looks very different. Very few independent Tolkien-only archives remain. (Longtime SWG member Independence1776 maintains a list of Tolkien archives if you're curious which still remain open.) Outside of the Archive of Our Own, there are few places where all Tolkien fanworks can be preserved.

Our members sometimes tell us that they wish they could archive all of their Tolkien-based fanworks with us. This past December, when we asked our members to let us know what they wanted to see us add to the newly rebuilt site, a section for non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks was a popular choice. We've heard your request! In the next few months, we will be opening a new section of our site, available to SWG members who archive Silmarillion fanworks with us, that will accept all fanworks based on Tolkien's books and adaptations of those books. Keep reading to learn more about this forthcoming new section, but first ...

We Need Your Help!

This new section of our site needs a name, and we'd like the community that behind the SWG to name it! If you'd like to suggest a name (or two, or ...), you can fill out the form here. We will stop accepting suggestions when the clock chimes midnight in UTC time at the end of the day on July 13, 2022. Please note that nominations for the new name are now closed! You can vote here.

Suggested names will be put before the SWG's membership for a vote. (Register here if you want to be a member of our site but aren't already. You do not need to be a member to suggest a name, just to vote on the final name.) Please note that the SWG moderators reserve the right not to include suggestions that do not fit the culture and mission of our site. You can suggest more than one name.

What Will Be Posted in This New Section?

All fanworks based on all of Tolkien's books and the various adaptations of those books—such as films, games, and shows—will be eligible. Since we will very soon be able to accept all kinds of fanworks, we truly mean all fanworks: fiction, artwork, nonfiction/meta, audio/podfic, playlists, poetry, link collections, videos, and multimedia fanworks that use more than one of the listed types.

Who Will Be Eligible to Post in the New Section?

The new section will be open to SWG members who have actively posted Silmarillion-based fanworks to our archive, which we are defining as either five Silmarillion-based fanworks or 10,000 words of Silmarillion-based writing. New creators will be able to earn posting privileges in the new section when they reach one of these thresholds.

No Offense, But I'm Really Just Here for Silmarillion Fanworks ...

We get that, and we are committed to remaining a Silmarillion group. This will truly be a separate section of the site. How we present the Silmarillion-based fanworks on our All Fanworks page, front page, search results, and sidebars will not change. You will be able to access the new site section—or if you truly want a listing of every fanwork posted to the site—on the Fanworks menu, under its own link. If you're not interested in the new section, you need never know it's there.

It's good to circle back and remember that the purpose of this section of the site is to offer members who are already participating as creators on our site the opportunity to archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks somewhere other than a large multifandom archive. As places to archive Tolkien fanworks dwindle, that's increasingly difficult to do, and while we have nothing against AO3 and Fanfiction.net, we also know that many of you feel your work is safer if archived in multiple places.

Have More Questions?

The comment section is open below, or you can always email us if you'd prefer to communicate privately.

Character of the Month: Bór

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 1 July 2022. Last updated on 5 August 2022.

Bór is one of those characters in the legendarium who feels like a work in progress. He's also one of those characters barely mentioned (just four times!) but whose role, according to this month's biography author Himring, "has some importance within the Legendarium for its implications and the questions it raises."

Bór, along with his sons, is one of the loyal Easterlings who followed Maedhros and died fighting the (disloyal) Easterlings led by Ulfang. This month's biography not only details what the texts tell us of his life and the Easterlings overall but those larger implications: namely, the role of free will and choice and the expansion of the world of Middle-earth from its Beleriandic focus.

The latter, of course, introduces the issue of race, with the Easterlings often held up as one more example of Tolkien's tendency to correlate melanism and a susceptibility to evil. Himring calls Bór and his sons "at first sight a very welcome counterexample," but as always with Tolkien, a more thorough unpacking of Bór and the Easterlings uncovers complexity.

You can read this month's biography of Bór here.