One of the open secrets of the SWG challenges is that January will always be an amnesty challenge for the prior year's challenges, and we will always start the challenge early. So technically, even though this is the newsletter issue that would typically announce the new challenge (which usually begins on the 15th), it is both on time and late because the challenge opened on the first of January.
As in years past, it is an amnesty challenge—a chance to complete the challenges you may have missed during the year or finish challenge fanworks started but never completed—but this year, we've done one better. This year's amnesty challenge, Jubilee, will apply to any challenge from January 2017 onward. (If you're wondering, why January 2017? Because this is the year we started handing out stamps for completing or commenting on challenges.) Challenges never close in the sense that you can always create something for a challenge and post it on the archive, but for practical purposes, we do set deadlines for receiving stamps for creating challenge fanworks. (You can always comment on a challenge fanwork and receive the stamp.) But this month, until 15 February, we are throwing that rule completely out the window, dusting off the years-old stamps in our collection (it did take some work to track them all down), and giving them out to anyone who creates for one of the eligible challenges ... and that's more than sixty challenges, so we're confident that most creators can find something to inspire them!
The larger purpose of the annual amnesty challenge is to start each new year with creativity and community: making new fanworks and interacting with the creators who are sharing the fanworks that entertain and move us. We hope many of our creators will join us in resurrecting some of our old challenges, and we hope all of our members who enjoy fanworks on our site will take a moment to let the creators know.
If you want to try this challenge, you can find the sixty-plus eligible past challenges here. Since many of these challenge involve components that might be hard to replicate in an amnesty challenge, more details on how to collect specific stamps can be found on the Jubilee challenge page, where you can also find fifteen fanworks already created for the challenge.
Happy creating and commenting!
SWG News
New Challenge: Potluck Bingo
Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
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.
Mereth Aderthad 2025: Call for Presenters for Meta, Research, and Scholarship Open
We welcome proposals from creators of meta, research, and scholarship about Tolkien for our July 2025 hybrid Mereth Aderthad event!
A Sense of History: Doom and Ascent
In the final essay in the series about the tower allegory in Tolkien's "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," Simon J. Cook pulls together the series to give the full picture of how not just the allegory but the legendarium can be read.
Themed Collection: Orcs Are People
Cuarthol shares a collection of fiction, art, and essays that challenge the notion of Orcs as an inhuman enemy and instead consider the legendarium from the perspective that Orcs are people.
Themed Collection: Alliterative Verse for Arda
Rhunedhel shares ten alliterative poems about Tolkien's world, which build on Tolkien's own reverence for alliterative verse.
Cultus Dispatches: Why People Don't Comment
Many an author has stared at her clicks and her comment count and wondered: Why don't most readers comment? An update on a 2018 article for Long Live Feedback, this month's column uses Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to reveal three big factors: skill, confidence, and community connections.
In Memory of Oshun
We are sad to share the news that our long-time member, author, and friend Oshun has passed away. We are raising money to help her family with expenses for those who wish to contribute.
New Fanworks
The Reckless Hearts of Mortal Men by by mouse [Writing]
Two years before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Húrin and Huor journey from Dor-lómin to Eithel Sirion for a war council with their new allies from the East. A story about the stirring of hope and foreshadowing of woe. Well-peppered with humour.
Read more ...An End to All Things by by Thorveig [Writing]
Mairon stood in utter stillness for it seemed to him that the voice of his master mocked him from afar...
Read more ...Havens by by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
The Exiles of Gondolin come to Sirion. The residents of Sirion welcome them, and friendship blossoms between the last remaining loremaster of Gondolin and a young poet of Sirion.
Read more ...Hurting Tyelpë by by elennalore [Writing]
Sauron has taken Celebrimbor as a prisoner in Ost-in-Edhil. Whump happens.
Read more ...On a Night of Snow by by Elleth [Writing]
Fingon returns to Barad Eithel after a late-autumn hunt, finding someone unexpected with his wife. The night takes an even more unexpected turn for all three of them.
Read more ...Getting Dirty by by Elleth [Writing]
A collection of NSFW ficlets for the "Keep It Clean" bingo card of the 2024 Potluck Bingo.
Read more ...Collection of Potluck Drabbles by by Artano [Writing]
This is a collection of true drabbles completed for the 'Four Words' drabble bingo card.
Read more ...2024 Potluck Doodles by by silmalope [Artwork]
Assorted prompt fills for the 2024 Potluck bingo boards, to varying degrees of completion! :)
Read more ...A Collection of Maps Exhibiting the Changing Political Landscape in Beleriand by by Artano [Artwork]
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 Noldor before they went to Aman up to the distribution of the various kingdoms after the Flight of the Noldor, when they arrived in Middle-earth and settled there.
Read more ...On the Nature of the Sindar’s Hunting the Petty-dwarves by by Artano [Writing]
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.
Read more ...Indeed the Everlasting Darkness shall be our lot by by Erdariel [Writing]
Maglor sings. He wanders. Slowly, a shadow comes over his sight and mind, deepening little by little
Read more ...Updated Fanworks
Valier & colours by by daughterofshadows [Artwork]
Semi-abstract arts representing the queens of the Valar.
Read more ...Ransom of the Fairy Twins by by Rocky41_7 [Writing]
Maglor and Maedhros trade Elrond and Elros to King Gil-galad in exchange for a Silmaril, but they have miscalculated.
Read more ...Pennas Pengolodh by by AdmirableMonster [Series]
The majority of the Silmarillion was penned by a single Elf--an Elf who was so thoroughly written out as to appear only through the ways in which their perspective shaped the stories we see. This is their story, the historian's history, the Pennas Pengolodh.
Read more ...Beyond the Silmarillion Fanworks
Homage to the Song of Durin by by Flora-lass [Writing]
Legolas is inspired by Gimli's song - and by Gimli himself.
Read more ...Long-tressed Wingildi by by Anérea [Artwork]
"... the long-tressed Wingildi ... spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean."
~ a painted sketch for Scribbles and Drabbles 2024.
Read more ...
Around the World and Web
Hidden Paths 2025
Hidden Paths, an event dedicated to the celebration of smaller Tolkien canons, has released their early prompts for the 2025 event.
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.
Fluffcember 2024
Fluffcember is a Tumblr event with daily fluffy prompts during the month of December.
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.
White Oliphaunt 2024
The White Oliphaunt is a Tolkien fanwork exchange for humorous gifts.
Teitho October/November Challenge: Legacy
For October/November, the Teitho contest invites fanfiction and art around the theme of Legacy.
Acorns and Oak Leaves: A Year of Bagginshield
Throughout 2024, the Bagginshield community Acorns and Oak Leaves offers monthly prompts to encourage new creations of all kinds.
