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.
From good to bad by Aprilertuile
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Exile to Formenos
All truths be told, if some of his brothers and their father seemed to suffer to be in exile… Tyelkormo didn’t find it so bad. Tirion was a viper pit at the best of times, and the less time he had to spend there, the better he felt.
Since none of the courtiers felt like speaking against their king, most of them were just useless spineless cowards unable to do their job properly. Honestly, Tyelkormo wished luck to his half uncles to deal with that one. Finwë had turned the court into a passive mockery of what court should be, in Tyelkormo’s opinion.
Not that he’d voice it. His father would hit the roof if he did. For some reason, he was more and more paranoid and with little to no reason.
He may have little social grace when compared to Makalaurë and Maitimo who were the darlings of anywhere they chose to go, but he wasn’t ignorant either, and so far a few rumours that could be quickly dispelled were nothing to fear.
Well, to be fair, his father’s prediction had come to pass technically, but Tyelkormo wasn’t blind. If his father had been less ill-tempered, nothing would have happened at all. Nothing COULD have happened at all. Finwë did pass laws that ensured the court’s complete immobility after all.
“So deep in thoughts, my little hunter.”
Tyelkormo smiled:
“Yes well… I’m just wondering how the diplomats of the family are going to manage to repair the situation this time around.”
“Oh? Not going to try it yourself?”
The blond elf snorted, turning toward Oromë:
“No thank you. I lack tact and frankly everyone’s at fault here and everyone deserves a serious time out, starting with grand-father.”
“Strangely enough I doubt we can exile the whole royal family of the noldor.” Oromë commented wryly.
“Pity that.”
Oromë smiled at that. He was well aware of his young hunter’s general opinion on the court and the noldor’s leadership.
“Would you really want everyone to come to Formenos?”
Tyelkormo’s eloquent grimace spoke for him.
“By the way, isn’t Formenos a bit out of your usual way, my lord?” He asked, changing the subject from this vision of horror.
“Just a step sideway to a Vala, my Tyelkormo. Not that big of a stretch to see a friend. How’s your father adjusting?”
“I do believe you forgot you were asking after my father. The elf who feels you lot wronged him by just generally existing in his vicinity.”
Oromë emitted a sound that meant everything and nothing and Tyelkormo sighed slightly.
“Honestly, I’m more worried about the repercussions of Grand-Father’s actions. He should never have followed us here. Better that he stayed in Tirion.”
“Oh?”
“His coming confirmed Dad’s worst fears about his place in the line of succession, as if we need one of those anyway. We’re elves and on Valinor, and the chance of Finwë of all people abdicating is abysmally low, so his need of an heir is non-existent. If he had stayed in power in Tirion he could have just kept going as usual ignoring his councillors and the rest of the family while not filling any paperwork to change his heir. Instead he chose to show support to dad, and came… Leaving the crown to uncle Nolofinwë.”
Oromë tilted his head sideways.
“I would have thought he’d appreciate his father’s support.”
“He appreciates the support, but it does mean that uncle Nolo became the de facto available heir to the crown and king of the Noldor. Let’s just say that dad is not taking that well at all.”
“You elves are complicated.” Oromë complained.
“Nah, it’s just the family that’s insanely stupid about stupid things.” Tyelkormo sighed.
“You included?”
“Not about the crown or rank, as you well know. I have merely other interests to draw my ire.”
Oromë muttered something about elves of the line of Finwë, and the fair haired elf looked at him sideways:
“I heard that!”
“You were meant to.”
They soon separated, Vala or not, Oromë did have duty and other people to see to, and if Tyelkormo came back home without the promised game or hunting plan, he knew he’d hear of it until… Oh, about the end of eternity or until he snapped and murdered his brothers. Accidentally of course.
It took not long, a few weeks no more, before Tyelkormo came to the conclusion that exile would be perfect if he was alone there. The fortress was a mess of tension, anger and suspicion.
Sadly, the more he avoided the fortress out of desperation himself, the more his father was becoming suspicious about his absences as well. It was ridiculous; they were in FORMENOS in the middle of nowhere! It’s not like he could use his absence from the fortress to go to Tirion and… Somehow betray his father in some way!
He wasn’t even the one getting letters from that damn city! That was Maitimo and Makalaurë.
And just because he was usually riding with Oromë’s hunters before this whole mess started didn’t mean that he went to find Him, or indeed would find Him even if he did look, every time he went out in the wild. They only met that one time for the love of…
It was overall pretty insulting to be treated with suspicion by his own father just because he kept to the rites and laws of the hunt taught by Oromë. It was good practice! What was he supposed to do? Become a less effective hunter just because their father decided that all Valar were a worthless species out to ruin his life? What would be the stupid point?!
Needless to say, more than once already, Maitimo and Finwë had had to separate his father and him during agitated disputes on the matter. Someone was going to die before the end of this if that continued.
