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
A Sense of History: Crossroads
Posted by SWG Moderators on 13 April 2024. Last updated on 11 May 2024.
For the past several months as part of our A Sense of History column, Simon J. Cook has been pursuing the question of towers in Tolkien, beginning with the mysterious tower of "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" and into the towers of Tolkien's Ardaverse, currently The Lord of the Rings.
This month's column follows the "red thread" of Valarin aid to the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings. Returning from the West-gazing palantír of Elostirion, which is said to show a glimpse of Varda in Valinor, Gildor Inglorion bestows a blessing of Varda's protection upon Frodo. Simon traces the miraculous influence of Varda, revealed via a palantír in a tower, throughout the ensuing narrative that becomes an essential element of The Lord of the Rings.
Cultus Dispatches: Canon Deviations, Multifandoms, and Original Content
Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 March 2024. Last updated on 25 May 2024.
Fanfiction and original fiction are sometimes depicted as different, separate forms of writing. In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, using data from the 2015 and 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Surveys, Dawn Felagund looks at the various iterations that exist between canon-compliant fanfiction and original fiction. Writers may, for example, push the boundaries of canon in original directions or invent their own original characters. They may write in other fandoms or even cross fandoms together. Do these tendencies predict whether or not a writer will also create original fiction, as well as fanfiction?
You can read "Beyond Borders: Canon Deviations, Multifandoms, and Original Content" here.
The SWG Is Featured in Two Journal Articles
Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 March 2024. Last updated on 30 March 2024.
Last week, the journal Transformative Works and Cultures released their special issue on Fandom and Platforms. The SWG features in two of the articles in this issue!
Welmoed Fenna Wagenaar in Discord as a Fandom Platform: Locating a New Playground looked at two Discord servers and used the lens of play to study how "users interact with and negotiate rule-based structures and designs" on a Discord server. It won't be hard to figure out which is the SWG, even though we are not named!
The second article is Dawn's The Fading of the Elves: Techno-volunteerism and the Disappearance of Tolkien Fan Fiction Archives. This article is historical in approach, looking at the rise and fall of Tolkien fanfiction archives and how these trends match with historical events in the Tolkien fandom, wider fandom world, and internet more broadly. It also considers Francesca Coppa's idea of the "archive elf," which was too easy to align with Tolkien's legendarium to not exploit to its fullest. "Archive elves" are the volunteers who keep archives running, and it is a job that is invisible by design, leading to a decline in the role as archives have faded from the fandom landscape.
New Challenge: It Comes in Threes
Posted by SWG Moderators on 13 March 2024. Last updated on 18 April 2024.
Pythagoras called the number three the noblest of all digits. Certainly, language, religion, myth, history, literature, and popular culture are littered with things that come in threes. The legendarium is no exception. Three is a powerful number in Tolkien's world, and like the Primary World, there are many examples in Middle-earth that come in threes. (The word "three" is mentioned fifty-nine times in The Silmarillion!)
For this month's challenge, we gathered 130 prompts that occur in sets of three. You can select any prompt (or prompts!) from our list to inspire or incorporate in your fanwork. Note that some prompts may have multiple meanings or interpretations. When this is the case, you can choose whatever interpretation you want to use.
We also craft our March challenge to integrate with other challenges and events (traditionally Back to Middle-earth Month!), so this is a good time for a reminder that our challenges can be combined with other events.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 April 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Thank you to Independence1776 for this month's lovely stamps and banner!
You can find the prompts on the It Comes in Threes challenge page.
A Sense of History: Seeing Stones in Dark Towers
Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 March 2024. Last updated on 13 April 2024.
In this month's A Sense of History column, Simon J. Cook continues to climb the stairs of various towers in Tolkien's works, both Middle-earth and not. This month, he focuses on the three inland "dark towers" of The Lord of the Rings and how they connect to the palantíri and other modes of seeing and imposing one's will in Middle-earth. These towers provide different insights than the tower at Elostirion, discussed last month, that looks out upon the sea. The dark towers—and later in the story, the Elf-towers as well—take on a different role that looks not outward to the numinous West but concentrates on the machinations that will come to be preserved as the history of Middle-earth.
You can read Simon's article "Seeing Stones in Dark Towers" here.
Cultus Dispatches: 10 Important Moments in Tolkien Fanfiction History
Posted by SWG Moderators on 24 February 2024. Last updated on 6 April 2024.
For this year's International Fanworks Day, the Organization for Transformative Works issued a "10 challenge" for fandom history, requesting "10 things" essays about fandom.
In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, Dawn takes on that challenge. In her own tenth year of studying Tolkien fanfiction and its history, she has selected (after much angst) ten key "moments" that influenced the fandom's history.
Tolkien-based fanfiction has existed for more than seven decades. What has kept fans interested in drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of stories about this imagined world? While, of course, a lot of it is the world itself (you're probably not reading this if you don't find the legendarium deep and worth exploring!), some of it comes from circumstances well outside anything Tolkien, his Estate, fans, and fandom had anything to do with.
You can read Dawn's "ten things" essay "10 Important Moments in Tolkien Fandom History" here.
New Challenge: Meet & Greet
Posted by SWG Moderators on 16 February 2024. Last updated on 16 March 2024.
Every year, we run a Matryoshka challenge, which is a format that, to the best of our knowledge, we invented. (If we didn't, Morgoth did!) A Matryoshka is a cumulative challenge, where you construct a fanwork using multiple prompts that are revealed as you work. Find out more about the Matryoshka format here.
This year, we've added an interactive component. Instead of the mods sending you two/three/five/seven prompt emails, you will receive a single starter prompt and then can acquire the remaining prompts from other participants or in places where you find them posted online. Complete Meet & Greet challenge guidelines (and a list of participants to contact for more prompts) are here!
If you'd like to participate, request your first prompt here.
Many thanks to Cuarthol for this month's gorgeous banner and stamps!
And if you clicked to read this? You deserve a prompt! Here it is: Something happens in the middle of the night.
A Sense of History: In the House of the Fairbairns
Posted by SWG Moderators on 10 February 2024. Last updated on 9 March 2024.
Tolkien fans and scholars like to find evidence of Tolkien's professional work as one of academia's leading Anglo-Saxonists in his works about Middle-earth. What is less often embarked upon is the search for evidence of Tolkien's Middle-earth work in his scholarly work.
For the past several months, as part of our Sense of History column, Simon J. Cook has embarked upon an analysis of the tower analogy Tolkien uses in his influential lecture-turned-essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." In his latest article, Simon applies the use of towers in The Lord of the Rings to consider how a reading of this important symbol in The Lord of the Rings can be applied to Tolkien's writings on Beowulf.
You can read Simon's article "In the House of the Fairbairns" here.
Cultus Dispatches: Things Tolkien Fanfiction Readers and Writers Like to Do (Other Than Fanfiction)
Posted by SWG Moderators on 3 February 2024. Last updated on 24 February 2024.
"Fandom" is a huge construct, and every imaginable way of engaging fannishly with a text has probably been tried by at least one person (and likely many persons). In this month's Cultus Dispatches column, Dawn Walls-Thumma looks at data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey related to how participants engage in the Tolkien fandom beyond reading and writing fanfiction.
What kinds of fannish activities are common among readers and writers of Tolkien fanfic? Less common? Does this differ whether the participant reads fic or writes it as well?
Meet & Greet Instadrabbling
Posted by SWG Moderators on 30 January 2024. Last updated on 24 February 2024.
February 15 is the International Fanworks Day, and we will be celebrating this year with an instadrabbling session the following weekend, on 17 February 2024 at 13:00/1PM until 17:00/5PM UTC (see this in your timezone) and again on 18 February 2024 at midnight until 2:00AM UTC (see this in your timezone). This instadrabbling session will also be a part of our Meet & Greet challenge and will provide one way to collect prompts for this challenge.
What is the Meet & Greet challenge? Every year, we run a Matryoshka challenge where participants receive two or more prompts, which you open one by one to create a fanwork that responds to each new prompt as you go.
This year, our Matryoshka challenge comes with a twist. We will send participants only the first prompt. It is up to you to seek out additional prompts from other participants in the challenge!
You can interact directly with other participants to pick up more prompts. SWG moderators also have prompts to give out; connect with us here! If you prefer not to interact directly with anyone, you can seek out prompts posted publicly to participants' social media.
The Meet & Greet challenge begins on February 15, but you can sign up now to get your prompts as soon as the challenge starts. Complete Meet & Greet challenge guidelines are here.
What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind).
On the SWG, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites will be posted on the dates of instadrabbling to our tumblr or can be requested at any time from the moderators. This year, we will celebrate International Fanworks Day with instadrabbling, which also offers the opportunity to grab prompts for the Meet & Greet challenge!
