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.
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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?
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New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] No Time Have I by Flora-lass
A Silmarillion acrostic.
[Writing] An exercise in music... And patience by Aprilertuile
Makalaurë was sitting at the harp in his music room. He was holding a dark blindfold in his hands and was looking at it with much scepticism.
[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…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
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Pride
Create a fanwork using a prompt from an LGBTQIA+ person, choosing from music, art, poetry, and quotations. 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.
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Fellowship of the Fics: Summer Stories 2024
Fellowship of the Fics offers four weeks of summer-themed prompts during the month of July.
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.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2024
A chill Tolkien event, where artists make art, and authors write little stories in response. Begins in June and ends in November.
The Secret of Frywald by Ysilme
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Five
Five
“So will you finally tell me what this was all about?”
Glorfindel smiled gratefully at the healer who placed a new mint compress on his aching head.
“It is not a story I am keen on telling,” Thranduil admitted, “it is a rather painful subject. But I suppose you have earned the right to know. You saved my life, after all.”
Glorfindel snorted. “I did nothing of the sort! All I managed was setting that dragon contraption ablaze and killing the villain, robbing you of the opportunity to question him. Our men had him well covered when I lost control.”
“You carried me out, although you believed me dead,” Thranduil said softly. “Bregedaer said the place went up so quickly they likely would not have managed to get to me and take me in time, although they knew I was still alive.”
“You looked rather dead to me,” Glorfindel said, shuddering at the memory.
“Nothing but bruises and broken bones.“ Thranduil smiled, looking rather gruesome with a stiff bandage around his neck, yellow burn paste on his right cheek and, and a bruise in all colours of the rainbow around the puffed left eye.
“And I managed to get you injured even further,” Glorfindel added, embarrassed. When he had carried Thranduil out of the burning dragon structure, the support for the dragon’s hind leg had given way and fallen over the two of them. He had been knocked out, but their comrades freed them immediately, so they both suffered little worse than a couple of minor burn injuries, cuts, and bruises, Thranduil a broken forearm, and Glorfindel a concussion.
“I do not mind. I am alive and healing, and another broken bone is not the end of the world.” With a chuckle, he looked at his bandaged and splinted arm and leg.
Glorfindel’s mood lifted at his friend’s cheerfulness. He tried to focus on Thranduil’s animated face to disperse the horrible memory of that still, twisted figure. When he had gained consciousness again after everything was over, and had learned that Thranduil was indeed alive, if rather battered, he had needed to see the king of the Greenwood for himself to believe it. He still sometimes woke from bad dreams about the incident, believing Thranduil dead, and was rather moved when Thranduil had had Glorfindel’s bed placed in his very own sleeping chamber upon their return to his palace.
“It goes back to the siege of Barad-Dûr,” Thranduil now said, frowning at the memory. “Ethir was a confidant of my father’s, and had been my mentor in many things. I trusted him fully, and when my father fell, he was the rock at my side to keep me going. I still find it hard to believe that this was nothing but show, that all this time, he was seeking for a means to expel all the Sindar from the Greenwood …” He sighed. “Then, one day, he saved my life during an assault, but was captured himself. We could not save him, or free him again, much as it pained me. Well, you know it, you were there yourself.”
Glorfindel nodded.
“When he had me at his mercy, he told me what had happened to him. Back then, I had prayed for his swift death, so he would not suffer unduly. I have never been able to forgive myself that we could not save him. Well, he had never forgiven me either, but sought for revenge ever since. I believed him imprisoned and tortured by orcs and suffering a horrible fate. But he had been sold to the Haradrim right away, where he quickly managed to get into the good graces of some leader, rose to a position of power, and used the hate of a few individuals to set his plans into motion. Can you believe that this happened nearly a yén ago, and that he used all this time to build up his intrigue?”
“It boggles the mind. When you told me that this dragon thing had been built in Frywald right where we found it, several decades ago, I thought you were having me on.”
Thranduil laughed without humour. “I wish I were! Norphen told me it started when they discovered the skeleton of a dragon in the desert beyond Mordor. Ethir had it dismantled, and, after finding a suitable location in Frywald, transported it there and had this thing built.”
“Norphen was in on this?”
Thranduil took a deep breath. “Yes. A spy right under my nose. He was close to Ethir and knew of his fate, and took his part in the whole endeavour. Through him, Ethir knew about any news from the Greenwood, and it was he who brought certain reports of dragon sightings to my attention. He also contrived to slip mind-altering drugs to people before they reported to me, and persuaded them to give false report.”
“The same drug our warriors were given?”
“Yes, black henbane. It causes hallucinations and makes people submissive, but it also kills easily with an overdose, as it affects the breathing and the heart.”
“As it happened with Elvedui, and you,” Glorfindel said. The drug had been the reason why Thranduil had appeared dead, for it had extremely slowed his breathing, and caused his heart to stop several times.
“And all of this to get back to you.” Glorfindel found it hard to believe that somebody would come up with such a convoluted scheme.
“I believe his mind has been twisted during his time as a prisoner and slave. He had not been a fanatic before, no matter his plans for a Sindar-free Greenwood - he was not the only one with such ideas.”
“And he came up with that dragon nonsense because he thought you would quiver with fear at the sight?”
“No, I think the dragon was mostly a means of instilling terror and demonstrating power, and to lure me to the village to get hold of me. He succeeded with that, after all.”
Thranduil snorted. “But he failed at his attempt to bend my will. I do not know if he miscalculated the dose when he gave me the drug, or if he gave me too much on purpose. You came just at the right moment.”
“I am even more glad, then.”
Thranduil shifted and grimaced with discomfort. “Well, it is over now. Let us hope that these are the last injuries this thrice-cursed war has caused. I wish I could forget all about this incident, but I must not, for it is a painful lesson of what can happen when you neglect your people’s feelings and opinions.”
“Very true. But you know, I cannot wish for this to not have happened, for some good things came out of it was well.” Glorfindel smiled warmly. “Some really good things, I think. For one, I do not believe there will ever be strained relations between the Greenwood and Imladris again. Not with so many new friendships formed.”
“No, indeed not.” The smile was back on Thranduil’s face, and once again Glorfindel was amazed how much this changed Thranduil’s features.
Glorfindel scooted to the edge of his bed, stood, and gingerly moved over to a chair at Thranduil’s side. The movement caused nausea, but he refused to take any notice of it, reaching for Thranduil’s uninjured hand instead.
“More importantly, though, I have found something I would not have wanted to miss for anything in the world, including a Balrog and a make-believe dragon.”
Their eyes met, and Glorfindel leaned even closer, placing a tender kiss on Thranduil’s lips.
“So have I.” Thranduil drew his hand with Glorfindel’s closer for another, deeper, kiss.
~ finis ~
Chapter End Notes
Notes:
yén, yéni = long year. 1 yén = 144 solar years.
talan, telain = flet or platform. I’m following the usage to call the dwelling ‘talan’, but a single structure ‘flet’.
Amon Lanc was the place of Oropher’s stronghold in the Second Age and later became Dol Guldur under Sauron’s occupation. To my knowledge, nothing is known of how the spiders came to settle in the Greenwood, and I think it plausible that it might have been there.
Ephel Dúath = Mountains of Shadow
The village of Frywald is entirely my imagination, although the name is borrowed from a medieval Polish settlement of that name. It means ‘light wood’. For the purpose of this story, I’m assuming that Men were already settling more or less as they were at the time of the Lord of the Rings, although in smaller numbers and smaller settlements.
Source: (German Wikipedia) Liste mittelalterlicher Walddeutscher Siedlungen
Thranduil the Dragonslayer: it is part of my head-canon that Thranduil slew a dragon in the First Age, at the War of Wrath, and is the only surviving Elf who had ever done so. The story is told in The Wrath of Dragon Fire. Another bit of head canon form the same series, the Dragonverse, is that the King of the Greenwood is linked to his wood through a spiritual connection with every single tree, as told in my story The King of the Forest. Both stories are not related to the present one, nor it is necessary to know them in order to enjoy it. You'll find them here if you're interested, though.
Spider silk ropes and tarps: this is a new bit of head-canon of mine. At present, I don’t know if the hithlain of Lothlórien might contain or consist of spider silk. I’m keeping this open on purpose, although my ropes and tarps are very elastic, but don’t have any concealing qualities.
I hope the amount of original characters isn't too confusing; here's a quick list for your convenience:
Imladris: Bregedaer (lieutenant), Elvedui, Hatholdir, Amaron, Celechanar and Malen.
Greenwood: Arveldir (captain), Callon, Cúnir, Lónaer and Norphen.
The three groups consisted of the following members: Thranduil's of Bregedaer, Malen and Norphen; Glorfindel's of Lónaer, Hatholdir and Celechanar and Arveldir's of Elvedui, Amaron and Cúnir. Callon remained behind to guard the base camp.
Written for IgnobleBard for My Slashy Valentine 2018 for the following prompt: "Any one pairing out of the following: Legolas/Haldir Thranduil/Glorfindel Finrod/Beleg Story elements = A mystery, a surprise romance, a dragon that hypnotizes people. The author can pick one, two, or all three elements. I would prefer danger and intrigue over humor, but if the dragon is in a traveling carnival making people cluck like chickens I wouldn't say no to that. I don't want it to be the main theme though."
I had a lot of fun working with this prompt, IB, thank you very much! I'm not sure how well I managed the mystery and intrigue part, and the romance got less screen time than intended - the characters developed quite a head of their own! I hope you're still entertained by my take on your prompts.
