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.
Círdan's Guide to sailing the Straight Road by daughterofshadows
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Chapter Three - Creatures of the Sea: Ainur
Yssion = Osse's Sindarin name
Plain text: Círdan's writing
Italics: Aerchen's commentary
Yssion
When the Valar forbade our people from reaching the Undying Lands after the Darkening, it was Yssion who guarded their shores and sank our ships. Many died to his wrath in those years, but rest assured that your ships have little to fear from him now.
Though he remains temperamental, Yssion rarely seeks to harm elven ships deliberately.
It was Yssion who once taught my people about the sea and its music when we still thought we would soon join our siblings in the Blessed Realm. And it was from him that I learnt how to build boats.
Of course I have made many adjustments, improved and tinkered with the original design, but at the heart of it, my ships still look like those very first ones.
But I digress. I have spoken at length about the art of ship building, I shall not bore you with it again. There are other Ainur you should learn about that you might encounter on the Straight Road.
If you were hoping to learn more yet about the art of shipbuilding, I apologise, but I could not risk him writing yet another hundred pages on the matter. We have to finish this guide before we set sail ourselves, after all. Aerchen of Mithlond.
Uinen
The Queen of Mermaids, some call her, though I personally have never seen one of these mysterious creatures.
She is the calm to Yssion’s storm, but don’t let that fool you. Should you dare to harm one of the creatures under her protection, her rage is just as terrible as her husband’s.
Stay clear of the coral reefs around Tol Eressëa. You wouldn’t want to invoke her wrath that close to your destination, would you?
Still, more often than not, Uinen quiets the seas instead of rousing them, and for that she is loved by mariners far and wide.
When Yssion’s temper flares and the waves crash across the deck, drenching all who make the mistake of staying up top, pray to Uinen and she will guide you to safer waters.
Often, Lady Uinen is accompanied by the sea people. She may only be called Queen of Mermaids, but Lady Uinen counts sea goblins and mermen amongst her followers just as much as mermaids. They are a tricksy, mischievous bunch, these merpeople, but they rarely mean any harm. Greet them politely when you meet them and treat them with respect, and they may very well agree to help you should you drift off-course.
Salmar
You may not meet this particular maia until you reach the undying lands, but that is not to say that you will not hear his voice on the journey.
For it was Salmar who made the Horns of Ulmo, those wonderful, terrible conch shells that call all those who hear their voice westward.
Theirs is the music of the sea, and it is one that lingers deep in your bones long after you have left the sea behind. Once you have listened to it, you will never forget their voice again.
And so Salmar is a part of every journey west, even if you never meet him face to face.
It is hard to believe that after all these years, we will finally follow the call. Long have we waited on these shores. Steadfast, trusting that our time will come, too. I hope I will see my sister again when I at last reach the Blessed Realm. There are so many stories I wish to tell her…#
Ulmo
You may not recognise the Lord of Waters when you meet him, for he rarely chooses to show himself with a body like you and I have. Instead, his consciousness is in the water, from the smallest stream to the wide, wide sea.
Even in the darkest years, he did not abandon us, and though his voice may have been quiet, he would lend his aid, if only you knew how to listen.
And so we still sing his praises and ask for his guidance before the beginning of any journey. I have included a few prayers and songs at the end of this book, but at the end of the day, Ulmo cares more about the intent behind your words than whether you adhere to long-established patterns. He knows many languages and will hear you no matter how you choose to speak to him.
We have done our best to translate our prayers into as many languages as we found speakers for, but I fear some words translate better than others, and we beg your forgiveness if our songs sound clumsy to your ears. Let me repeat what my lord already said: It matters little how you phrase your praises, as long as they are genuine.
