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
Turgon's Rock Opera
On the anniversary of the publication of "The Silmarillion," we’re reflecting on the importance of music in Arda with prompts that come from rock songs. 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 Story of Love Between Glorfindel and Ecthelion by Cirdan
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The Story of Love Between Glorfindel and Ecthelion
“I'm sorry,” Tuor said as he stared from Glorfindel to Ecthelion. “I've held my peace for years now, and at last I must ask: are you two... intimate?”
“Oh, yes, very intimate,” Glorfindel said with a nod of his golden head. “I've known Ecthelion since he was a wee little elfling.”
“No, I mean intimate as in...” Tuor trailed off.
“Lovers?” Glorfindel asked. He slipped closer to Ecthelion and encircled him around the waist with one arm.
Ecthelion laughed. “I thought it would've been obvious by now.”
“Of course we're lovers.” Glorfindel leaned in and nuzzled Ecthelion's cheek. “If you wish, we can tell you more.”
Tuor nodded. “I am a bit curious,” he said in his normal serious manner. “There is a saying that love can overcome all obstacles, yet you two are so different.”
“Different? It is you and Idril who are different, not me and Ecthelion,” Glorfindel said. “Indeed, we are even the same gender.”
“But the relationship is different from what is considered normal for Elves,” Tuor said.
“Ah, but our love began in the bliss of the Blessed Realms,” Glorfindel said. “Often have I spoken of these times, yet there is always more to say. The lands were beautiful, fairer than even Beleriand before the darkening of the shadow. Ecthelion and I spent so much time together that we were like brothers inseparable. Our love was pure, like the unclouded airs of Manwe and the clear waters of Ulmo. The Twin Stars of the Eldalie, they called us, and none suspected that our love was deeper than brotherhood.”
“Not even us,” Ecthelion said. “In those days, such close friendships were not uncommon.”
“Yes, like the ancient friendship of Maedhros and Fingon,” Glorfindel said. “But those Days of Bliss were long in years but short in memory. It was not until the crossing of the Grinding Ice that we came to understand that our feelings for each other were not simply those of brothers. It was often necessary to sleep with another for warmth, and under those sheets, our hearts stirred. As we lay with one another, our embraces became more passionate.”
“Still, we did not even kiss, for we were innocent and had heard only of the union of man and wife,” Ecthelion said.
“Ah, that first kiss,” Glorfindel said dreamily. He leaned his head on Ecthelion's shoulder. Tuor’s eyes widened, but he did not flee. “It was at the Feast of Reuniting that our lips first met.”
“We were no less awkward than you,” Ecthelion said to Tuor. “We didn't even know to turn our heads so as to not bump noses.”
“But we're fast learners, and before the night was over, we had certainly learned to kiss. Ecthelion's lips were skilled from years of playing the flute, and at times, I even felt his tongue seeking entrance into my mouth.”
“Still, we did nothing more than kiss,” Ecthelion said. Tuor breathed a sigh of relief.
“Indeed, for many years, we satisfied our love with such kisses alone, and I thought I needed no more, for Ecthelion is by far the best kisser in all the lands.” Glorfindel pushed his golden hair back behind his ear, and it seemed to Tuor an invitation for Ecthelion to kiss that finely pointed ear. But Ecthelion didn't do so, and so Glorfindel continued his tale. “We did not actually become intimate as man and wife would until after the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame.”
“We weren't in the Bragollach.”
“Oh yes, my apologies,” Glorfindel said. “It was the Nirnaeth Arnoediand, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The battle had gone badly, but we retreated successfully back to the white city of Gondolin. Ecthelion came to me the night after our return, and he was distraught, as you've never seen him. I sought to comfort him with kisses, but when that did not dry his tears, I found myself trying other methods to distract his mind from that horrible battle. My kisses strayed from his lips to his neck. My tongue explored his fair ears. My hands found themselves wandering along his sides, and then they parted his shirt as if of their own volition.”
“And yet I was too distraught even for such love, and the night passed with less intimacy than Glorfindel would have liked.”
Glorfindel winked. “I had my way though. Not that night but on another. It was before your coming to Gondolin. Indeed, it may well have been at the very moment that you and Voronwe met for the first time. Our private dinners had become increasingly passionate. On that night, our kisses and caresses became rowdy, as so often happens between us, and we ended up wrestling. Our clothes somehow became lost in the encounter, and before long, we were striving for mastery over the other with bare skin touching bare skin. I had the victory and ended up atop dear Ecthelion, and underneath me, his fountain became very great.” Tuor stared in disbelief at the Lord of the Golden Flower. “I knew then what needed to be done. I turned Ecthelion onto his stomach--”
“But I took that moment to break away from Glorfindel and wrestle him anew,” Ecthelion recalled fondly. “We fought--”
“And our passion became all the more inflamed by our game. Both of us wanted to take the other, and it seemed as if there would be no agreement as to who would be on top until at last--”
“We played rock, paper, and scissors,” Ecthelion said, demonstrating as he spoke with his fist, his open palm, and his two fingers. “I knew that Glorfindel always chose scissors first, so I chose rock--”
“And I quickly changed my choice then to paper and wrapped my paper over his rock.”
“I pulled away--”
“So I pursued and instead wrapped my paper over his fountain--”
“But then I--”
Tuor interrupted frantically with waving arms and wide eyes. “You two aren't serious, are you?”
Glorfindel and Ecthelion exchanged looks and burst into laughter. “Of course not!” Ecthelion said.
“You see, we actually decided to take turns instead, and I graciously allowed Ecthelion to go first and--”
Tuor interrupted again. “You two aren't lovers, are you?”
Ecthelion grinned. “No. No, we're not, Tuor.” Tuor breathed a sigh of relief and slumped into a nearby chair.
“But it would've made for a wonderful story,” Glorfindel said wistfully.
