Resources for Authors in the Reference Library

In order to achieve consistency in source citation and usage across the references shared on our site, we are making available the guidelines our editors will follow in preparing a manuscript for publication. This is a living document that will be updated as needed. Please note that Reference Library authors are not expected to memorize or master the information here. It is provided for your information only and to make public our editorial guidelines. We understand that most of our authors are not academics, and we are happy to help prepare manuscripts for publication. We will never reject an essay for not following the document here but will work with the author to bring it into shape for our site.

Table of Contents

British vs. American vs. International Conventions

The SWG is an international organization. We are proud to welcome members, guests, and staff from around the world.

As such, the SWG does not prefer the conventions of one English-speaking nation over another. Authors should write with the spelling, grammatical, usage, and mechanical conventions with which they are most comfortable. We will not make such edits during copyediting; should we "correct" something that is actually part of your convention, simply let us know, and we will remove the suggestion.

Capitalization and Italics

We follow the conventions for capitalization and italics used by J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien in the primary source texts. When there are discrepancies between texts, priority is given to the usage found in The Silmarillion. If a usage is not found in The Silmarillion, the author may choose which convention they use as long as it is used consistently.

  • Italics are generally used for books, essays, and major subdivisions within a text (e.g., Ainulindalë, Gilfanon's Tale, Of Dwarves and Men). Double quotes are generally used around chapter names (e.g., "Of the Flight of the Noldor," "On the Doorstep") and subdivisions within major subdivisions, though this is Tolkien and nothing is entirely consistent. Please see the Names section below for specific usage. Use capitalization conventions found in the books for subdivisions, chapters, headings, etc.
  • Names of cultural groups and languages are capitalized, e.g., Hobbit, Men, Avari, Elvish. Again, see the Names section below for specifics.

Other Usage Guidelines

  • We use the Oxford comma.
  • The SWG is a religiously diverse group. As such, we use BCE and CE, not BC and AD, when referring to historical dates.

Citation and Reference Style

The Reference Library uses an endnote system to cite any sources used. A superscript numeral corresponds with an item in a numbered list found at the end of the essay (or chapter in the instance of multi-page references). We do not strictly adhere to any style system. We use an in-house style system for references to Tolkien's books and a modified version of the Chicago Manual of Style for all other references.

Superscript numerals should go outside of all punctuation (e.g., periods, commas, quotation marks) except for colons and semicolons.

Endnotes can also include additional commentary that is not required in the main body of the essay. This commentary can also follow a reference. The latter should be used sparingly, and readers should generally be trusted to be able to use the endnote to find and interpret the information cited.

If a source you are citing is the same as the previous source cited, use "Ibid." (no italics) in place of the reference. If the source is the same except for the page number, use "Ibid., pg#" instead of the reference.

Primary Sources

Primary sources are texts authored by J.R.R. Tolkien, with or without editorial assistance.

To cite a primary source, authors should provide as much information about where in the book their reference comes from. Page numbers are not used because different readers may be using different versions, editions, or translations of the text (including e-books). Some texts include numbered sections (§); these section numbers should be provided when available. The guiding idea behind this format is that a reader with any copy of one of Tolkien's texts can narrow a reference down to the smallest labeled section possible within the text.

Title of Text, Title of Book or Major Subdivision within Text, "Title of Chapter or Minor Subdivision(s)," Section/footnote number if available.

Example:
History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, "The names of the Sons of Fëanor with the legend of the fate of Amrod."

Secondary Sources

The SWG Reference Library uses a modified form of the endnote citation style from The Chicago Manual of Style. Below is the formatting used for common source formats. Authors unfamiliar with or without access to The Chicago Manual of Style should follow the formatting below as best as they can, and the editors will fine-tune the references during the copyedit stage.

The first time a source is cited, the full citation should be used. Subsequent citations of that source should use the shortened form. (The full title should be used if four words or less.)

Shortened titles are not used with primary (Tolkien) sources.

Print Sources (including online versions)

If page numbers are not available, use a chapter number or title or other section indicator. If you are using an electronic or eBook version, include that information at the end of the full citation. Example:

Verlyn Flieger, Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2005), Chapter 2. Kindle version.

If a source has four or more authors, list only the first followed by "et al" in both full and shortened entries.

Book (no editor)

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, Title of Book (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.

AuthorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.

Example:
Tom Shippey, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 145-46.

Shippey, Author of the Century, 58.

Book (edited volume)

EditorFirstName EditorLastName, ed., Title of Book (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.

EditorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.

Example:
Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan, eds., Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien (Altadena, CA: Mythopoeic Press, 2015), 147.

Croft and Donovan, Perilous and Fair, 2-3.

Book (with editor/translator)

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, Title of Book, ed./trans. EdTransFirstName EdTransLastName (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.

AuthorLastName, Shortened Title, Pages.

Example:
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, trans. Nevill Coghill (London: Penguin, 1971), 55.

Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, 91-92.

Chapter in an Edited Book

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title" in Title of Book, ed. EdTransFirstName EdTransLastName (PubCity: Publisher, PubYear), Pages.

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.

Example:
Miguel Ángel Pérez-Gómez, "Walking Between Two Lands, or How Double Canon Works in The Lord of the Rings Fan Films" in Fan Phenomena: The Lord of the Rings, ed. Lorna Piatta-Farnell (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2015), 37.

Pérez-Gómez, "Walking Between Two Lands," 39.

Journal Article

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title," Journal Title Vol#, no. Issue# (PubYear): Pages.

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.

Example:
William Provost, "Language and Myth in the Fantasy Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien," Modern Age 33, no. 1 (1990): 44.

Provost, "Language and Myth," 50.

If a journal article is in a continuously paginated volume, you do not have to include the issue number since the page number will point to the correct issue. (A continuously paginated volume includes multiple issues where the page numbers of each issue do not restart at Page 1 but continue as though all issues were contained in a single volume. If you're not sure, include the issue number and a note to the copyeditor, and we will sort it out.)

Newspapers/Magazines

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Article Title," PeriodicalTitle, IssueDate, Pages.

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Shortened Article Title," Pages.

Example
Alan Jacobs, "Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology," The Atlantic, July 27, 2012.

Jacobs, "Tolkien and Technology."

Online Sources

The Chicago Manual of Style does not require access dates for online sources (14.7). For the SWG Reference section, when using an online source like a personal website, archive, wiki, or blog that is easily edited by the author, include a date of access. A date of access is not required for sources that are unlikely to change (e.g., articles from major online periodicals, scholarly journals, etc).

If a source has a URL where the full text or cited section of text can be read without a subscription, include a hyperlink at the end of your citation or convert the title of the text to a hyperlink. Do not link to articles behind a paywall or that excerpt only a short section (unless that section is what you are referencing).

When citing a pen name, continue using the full pen name in the shortened version of the citation.

AuthorFirstName AuthorLastName, "Page Title," WebsiteTitle, PostingDate, accessed AccessDate.

Example:
Dawn Felagund, "Tolkien Fan Fiction Genre and Attitudes Toward Fan Fiction," The Heretic Loremaster, June 2016, accessed November 13, 2016.

Dawn Felagund, "Tolkien Fan Fiction Genre."

Names

Tolkien frequently changed the names of characters, objects, and places as he was working on his drafts, and he sometimes used names inconsistently within a text. Christopher Tolkien has done the hard work for us in figuring out the latest and most accurate version of names and using that version consistently in The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion spelling of a name should be used unless discussing the character, object, or place as it existed in earlier texts. In these cases, a clear association between the earlier name and the Silmarillion name should be established. Authors should remember that the SWG welcomes members and guests with varying levels of experience with Tolkien's texts, and while we can assume familiarity with The Silmarillion, not all readers have read texts like the History of Middle-earth series. Using names from these texts instead of the more familiar Silmarillion names (e.g., Silmarilli instead of Silmarils) makes our Reference Library less accessible to newcomers to The Silmarillion.

Tolkien (and Christopher Tolkien) sometimes used a variety of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation conventions for the titles of texts and the names of people and places. Below are the conventions used by the SWG in our Reference materials. Please note that this is a work in progress.

Texts

In the first instance of mentioning a text in your article or essay, write out the name as indicated here. If you wish to abbreviate the name in subsequent uses, indicate the abbreviation parenthetically after the first use of the title, and then use that abbreviation moving forward. Not all texts have abbreviations.

The Silmarillion

We follow Christopher Tolkien's usage: When referring to the 1977 posthumously published text, use The Silmarillion. When referring to the texts that, collectively, make up the tradition used to produce the published Silmarillion, use the "Silmarillion."

  • Ainulindalë
  • Akallabêth
  • Foreword
  • Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
  • Preface to the Second Edition
  • Quenta Silmarillion (QS)
    • "Individual Chapters Go in Quotes"
  • Valaquenta
The Lord of the Rings (LotR)
  • A Elbereth Gilthoniel
Unfinished Tales (UT)
  • "A Description of the Isle of Númenor"
  • "Aldarion and Erendis"
  • "The Battles of the Fords of Isen"
  • "Cirion and Eorl"
  • "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields"
  • "The Drúedain"
  • "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
  • "The Hunt for the Ring"
  • Introduction
  • "The Istari"
  • "The Line of Elros"
  • Narn i Hîn Húrin (Narn)
  • "Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin"
  • "The Palantíri"
  • "The Quest of Erebor"
HoMe I: The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
  • Gilfanon's Tale
  • I Vene Kemen
  • Kortirion among the Trees
  • The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr
  • The Cottage of Lost Play
  • The Flight of the Noldoli
  • The Hiding of Valinor
  • The Music of the Ainur
  • The Tale of the Sun and Moon
  • Turlin and the Exiles of Gondolin
HoMe II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
  • Appendix
  • Index
  • Preface
  • "Short Glossary of Obsolete, Archaic, and Rare Words"
  • "The Bidding of the Minstrel"
  • The Fall of Gondolin
  • "The Happy Mariners"
  • The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales
  • The Nauglafring (this text has the extended title The Nauglafring: The Necklace of the Dwarves; it is acceptable to use the extended title in-text, if preferred, but The Nauglafring is the only title that should be used in the reference list)
  • "The Shores of Faëry"
  • The Tale of Eärendel
  • The Tale of Tinúviel
  • Turambar and the Foalókë (this text is also called The Tale of Turambar; if this title is used in-text, it should be explicitly associated with Turambar and the Foalókë to avoid confusion; Turambar and the Foalókë is the only title that should be used in the reference list)
HoMe III: The Lays of Beleriand
  • Canto I, etc.
  • "Fragment of an Alliterative Lay of Eärendel"
  • Poems Early Abandoned
  • The Flight of the Noldoli
  • The Lay of Leithian
  • "The Lay of Leithian Recommenced"
  • The Lay of the Children of Húrin
  • The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin
  • Túrin Son of Húrin & Glórund the Dragon
  • Synopsis I
  • Synopsis II
HoMe IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth
  • The Ambarkanta
  • The Earliest Annals of Beleriand
  • The Earliest Annals of Valinor
  • The First "Silmarillion" Map
  • Quenta (or Quenta Noldorinwa)
  • "The Sketch of the Mythology"
HoMe V: The Lost Road
  • Ainulindalë
  • The Etymologies
  • The Fall of Númenor
  • The Genealogies
  • The Later Annals of Beleriand
  • The Later Annals of Valinor
  • The Lhammas
  • The List of Names
  • The Lost Road
  • Preface
  • Quenta Silmarillion
  • "The Second 'Silmarillion' Map"
HoMe IX: Sauron Defeated
  • Foreword
  • The Drowning of Anadûnê
  • The Fall of Númenor
  • The Notion Club Papers
HoMe X: Morgoth's Ring
  • The Later Quenta Silmarillion: The First Phase (LQ 1)
  • The Later Quenta Silmarillion: The Second Phase (LQ 2)
HoMe XI: The War of the Jewels
  • End of the Narn
  • The Grey Annals
  • Of Maeglin
  • Of the Ents and Eagles
  • The Tale of Years
  • The Wanderings of Húrin
Other Tolkien Texts
  • "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"
  • The Fall of Arthur (unfinished poem)

Character and Creature Groups

Tolkien capitalized names of groups inconsistently; however, the published Silmarillion capitalizes groups of people, so that is the usage we prefer on the SWG. Names constructed from more than one word tend to be joined with a hyphen and only the first letter capitalized; when using a group name of more than one word that is not listed here, follow that construction.

  • Ainur (plural), Ainu (singular), Ainurin (adjective)
  • dragon
  • Dwarf (singular), Dwarves (plural; not Dwarrow), Dwarven (adjective), Dwarvish (language)
  • Eagles
  • Elf (singular), Elves (plural), Elven (adjective), Elvish (language)
  • Elf-friends
  • Ents and Entwives
  • Petty-dwarves
  • Great Eagles
  • Green-elves
  • Grey-elves
  • Half-elf (singular), Half-elves (plural), Half-elven (adjective)
  • High Elves, High-elven
  • house of [Name]
  • Maia (singular), Maiar (plural), Maiarin (adjective)
  • Noldo (singular), Noldor (plural), Noldorin (adjective/language)
  • Orcs
  • Sinda (singular), Sindar (plural), Sindarin (adjective/language)
  • sons of Fëanor
  • Teler (singular), Teleri (plural), Telerin (adjective/language)
  • Vala (singular), Valar (plural), Valarin (adjective/language)
  • Vanya (singular), Vanyar (plural), Vanyarin (adjective/language)
  • Wargs
  • Witch-king of Angmar
  • Wood-elves

Places

  • Dor-Cúarthol. Note that, in the "Index of Names" in The Silmarillion, it is listed as "Dor Cúarthol." It is "Dor-Cúarthol" (with the hyphen) in the Silmarillion text as well as the Narn i Hîn Húrin upon which this section of The Silmarillion is based, so we are taking that as the correct usage.
  • Dor-lómin
  • Grey Havens, Havens
  • halls of Mandos
  • Middle-earth

Time Periods and Events

  • Siege of Angband

Things/Objects

  • Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin
  • phial of Galadriel

The following terms are italicized in The Silmarillion or related texts and should be in Reference articles as well:

  • lembas
  • palantír (singular), palantíri (plural)
  • seregon