New Challenge: Bollywood
This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
SWG News
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships
As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available
The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] No Time Have I by Flora-lass
A Silmarillion acrostic.
[Writing] I called it Fate that I should fail by AdmirableMonster
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
[Writing] All of you by chrissystriped
Elrond and Celebrían celebrate their anniversary with their family.
[Writing] Lament for the Singer by daughterofshadows
A short thing about Maglor, death and grieving.
[Writing] Cosmological Poems of Arda by AaronAzrael
I would like to share my revelations of Tolkien's Universe in the form of narrative and emotional poems.
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
[Artwork] Map of Valinor by Aprilertuile
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Season's Greetings
Create a fanwork in which one (or several) of the holidays of Middle-earth plays a role. Read more ...
New in References
Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
Passing Ships by Simon J. Cook
[]The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[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.
[Writing] From whose bourn no traveller returns by losselen
[]So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
[Writing] Sand Sorcery by StarSpray
[]It is well known that Psamathos does not leave his cove. He does not like to get his feet wet, and prefers to spend his days dozing under the sun.
Around the World and Web
Fellowship of the Fics: Summer Stories 2024
Fellowship of the Fics offers four weeks of summer-themed prompts during the month of July.
Elrond Week 2024
Elrond Week is a fandom event dedicated to Elrond Peredhel that will run from July 10th to July 16th on Tumblr.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
July 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers and proposals in July 2024.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
The Condensed Silmarillion by Cheeky
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The Darkening of Valinor
Chapter 8: The Darkening of Valinor
Otherwise known as:
Exactly how Stupid ARE the Valar?
In which the Valar make a large number of mistakes, let's count them shall we.
Shortly after the elves showed up the Valar decided they really should stop wallowing and make an effort to deal with Melkor.
So they went to Middle-earth fought him and captured him. (see guys you could have done that ages ago)
They threw him in Mandos's deepest darkest dungeon. I imagine Mandos wasn't that happy about that.
Mandos: These are the Halls of the Dead and he is not dead so not my problem.
Manwë: Listen Mandos, you have spent years lazing around doing nothing while we all work our butts off. It's about time you pulled your weight. He is coming to you, end of story.
Eventually Melkor came up before the parole board and what did the Valar do?
They. Let. Him. Go.
I repeat....... They let him go.
Mistake no. 1.
Apparently Manwë wasn't evil and therefore couldn't tell that Melkor WAS.
Hello Manwë, how about the subtle hint that from the word go he has destroyed everything you guys have ever made???
When he got out he was supposed to be on house arrest. That lasted 5 minutes then they let him amble around chatting to random elves.
Mistake no. 2
They let him spend time with Fëanor, the problem child, of all people
Mistake no. 3
They let him wander and hook up with a giant evil spider
Mistake no. 4
Actually they had a giant evil spider living down the road and didn't even know it! How could they not know this?
Mistake no. 5
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, these are the guys who while they were living in their summer house in Middle-earth, didn't notice Melkor building a large underground fortress
Mistake no. 6.
Then when they captured Melkor they didn't bother searching his large underground fortress where Sauron was hiding out
Mistake no. 7. ...... Are you guys keeping up? It gets worse.
They chose the worst possible time to call Fëanor and Fingolfin together for some kind of family intervention. Too little too late guys.
Mistake no. 8.
When Melkor showed up Giant spider in tow, killing Finwë and stealing the Silmarils they didn't even know he was coming
Mistake no. 9.
They let him walk right up to Yavanna's precious trees and destroy them
Mistake no. 10
They let Melkor escape to Middle-earth and decided not to go after him
Mistake no. 11
Then when all was in chaos, Fëanor was roaming the wilds in soul destroying grief and the Noldor were plunged into scary darkness just waiting for someone to come along and work them all up into a state so they could do something foolish what did the Valar do?
Did they go down to the elves, make them feel better, say "don't worry we will sort this out for you." NO
Did they go out and find Fëanor, (or even just his sons) say "sorry about your Dad. What can we do to help?" NO
Arrange some kind of war party and go to deal with Melkor once and for all? ....well, NO
They sat.
They sat in darkness
They sat in darkness for a long long time
Are we sure these people are actually Gods?
