Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Eönwë Week 2024
We are pleased to announce the coming of Eönwë Week, a fandom event dedicated to our favourite Herald. The event will run from August 12th to 18th 2024 on Tumblr.
Prompts
August 12th: Genesis | Air | Almaren
August 13th: Friendships | Herald | Valinor
August 14th: War | Celeg Aithorn | Beleriand
August 15th: Romance | Mercy | Taniquetil
August 16th: Lost Tales | He Of The Sun | Son of Manwë
August 17th: Eagles | Duty | Noldor
August 18th: Freeform
Rules
- Have fun!
- This event should not be the vehicle to characters hate, bigotry, racism, transphobia and other less savoury behaviours. This is a safe event for lgbtqia+ people and behaviours reflecting any type of threats against this community will be blocked without any tolerance. it’s 2024, get over yourself.
The mods hold the rights to arbitrarily refuse someone’s participation to the event following that user’s behaviour toward others in the fandom. - Nsfw / dark content / dead dove are accepted but should be tagged properly.
- No AI generated works will be accepted, including ai generated art, writing, photo manipulation etc.
- Prompts are here as a general guidance, you are free to interpret them as you want.
- Respect other users’ entries. If something is not to your liking you are not entitled to let it known. Simply scroll down. it is that easy.
- Tag your entry with #eonweweek or mention this blog in your post to be reblogged.
Teitho August/September Contest: Do you remember ...?
Our prompt for August/September is “Do you remember . . .”
This prompt can be used for any character, any book, any timeframe in Tolkien’s work! We can’t wait to see what memories you will use for your stories and art this month!
Will you have your characters think back on good times or bad? Difficult days or ones of joy? A simple day or a fraught one?
Is it a thought going back to the Light of the Two Trees? The first sunrise over Beleriand?
The shadows of Menegroth? The caves of Nargothrond? The Halls of Theoden? Sunlight on a river?
Or perhaps three stone Trolls? A raven? Or the taste of strawberries on a spring day in the Shire?
Please do remember to submit your story/art for this prompt to teitho.contest@gmail.com by September 30, 2024!
August challenge at tolkienshortfanworks on Dreamwidth
The August challenge has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth.
The thematic challenge is: magic trees.
This could be any variety and degree of enchantment, powers or sentience: the Trees of Valinor, the White Tree, Old Man Willow, Huorns, Mirkwood, etc.
The formal challenge is: call and response.
This is essentially the idea that there is a leader or lead voice that makes the calls and a group that responds, whether in music and song, in poetry, or in dialogue and maybe other forms of prose.
Typical for call and response are all kinds of working songs from all over the world, choral music with solo voices, and some religious traditions. Think also of cheerleading and political speech-making and any kind of gathering where someone is trying to whip up a mood.
But feel free to adapt in any way you like. At a pinch, your chorus doing responses can be a group of one and you could have just two participants!
Either prompt can be filled independently of each other and combined with other challenges that allow that, such as the SWG monthly challenges.
More details at the linked post.
New participants welcome.
August 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Journal of Tolkien Research Special Issue: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Queer scholarship in Tolkien studies has made great strides in recent years, from David Craig’s “‘Queer Lodgings’: Gender and Sexuality in ‘The Lord of the Rings’” (2001) to Jane Chance’s Tolkien, Self and Other (2016) and Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor’s Tolkien and Alterity (2017). At a critical juncture of growth, this sub-field is poised to evaluate and address any gaps that exist as the field moves forward. One such gap, in both Tolkien studies and queer studies, is asexuality and aromanticism, which, while part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, are significantly underrepresented in scholarship and interpretation.
Asexuality, defined broadly as not experiencing sexual attraction to other people, and aromanticism, not experiencing romantic attraction to other people, convey a spectrum of individual experiences (ace-spectrum, or aspec). Aspec perspectives not only represent these individual identities and experiences but also illuminate and refresh understandings of love, desire, relationships, communities, and culture. Implemented within literary interpretation, an aspec lens offers insights into characters, plots, themes, narrative structures, and much more.
In order to address a gap in queer scholarship in Tolkien studies and to solicit new perspectives that can deepen understandings of Tolkien’s work, we invite submissions for a proposed special issue in Journal of Tolkien Research that focuses on asexuality and aromanticism in Tolkien’s work.
Topics can include but are not limited to:
- Aspec readings of individual characters
- Interpretations of love/relationships beyond (but not necessarily excluding) romantic, sexual, and/or platonic love
- Intersections between aspec theory and gender, disability, race, or other critical theory
- Comparative readings between Tolkien’s work and other fiction
- Amatonormativity or aspec aspects in Tolkien’s work, life, and historical context
- Reception of Tolkien’s work by aspec readers
- Aspec interpretations within adaptations of Tolkien’s work
- Interpretations focused on specific identities within the ace-spectrum, including demi-
- sexual/romantic, grey-sexual/romantic, etc.
Proposals/abstracts of a maximum of 300 words, along with a short bio and working bibliography (not included in word count), should be sent via email to aspectolkien@gmail.com no later than midnight Eastern Time on August 31, 2024.
Tolkien at Kalamazoo 2025
Hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, the International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual gathering of thousands of scholars interested in medieval studies. The Congress embraces the study of all aspects of the Middle Ages, extending into late antiquity and the early modern period, including—but not limited to—history, language, literature, linguistics, art, archaeology, religion, science, medicine, music, drama, philosophy, gender, sexuality, mysticism and technology, as well as medievalism. The 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place Thursday, May 8, through Saturday, May 10, 2025. Find more at the conference website.
Tolkien at Kalamazoo will be offering a total of eight sessions (paper sessions and roundtables), two of which are co-sponsored. The sessions are a mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid as identified below. Send 100-word abstracts or complete papers to Christopher Vaccaro (cvaccaro@uvm.edu) and Yvette Kisor (ykisor@ramapo.edu) by the1st of September.
Tolkien and Medieval Conceptions of the Sea (in-person paper session): HYBRID
The Medieval Roots of the Poems of J. R. R. Tolkien (in-person roundtable): HYBRID
Tolkien and Old Norse (hybrid / in-person paper session): HYBRID
Tolkien and Medieval Feminisms (in-person paper session)
Medieval Languages and Tolkien's Language Invention (in-person paper session)
Medieval Resonances in Tolkien's Letters (in-person roundtable)
Fire, Dragons, & Jewels, O My!: Medieval Poems & J.R.R. Tolkien (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society, virtual paper session)
Return of the Franchise: The Ongoing Reception and Interpretation of Tolkien's Medievalism (co-sponsored with the Tales after Tolkien Society, virtual paper session): HYBRID
Coming Soon: Call for Proposals for McFarland's Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies Series
We are sharing this information on behalf of Robin Anne Reid:
I recently signed a Letter of Agreement with McFarland Publishers to become the series editor for a new series, Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies. The series will open for proposals in 2025 after I assemble an advisory board.
Scholars can submit proposals in either of two tracks. The first track is for single-author or collaborative monographs and edited collections written for academic experts that should be between 70-100K words long. The second track is for shorter Critical Companions, between 40-50K words long, written for a general audience including but not limited to students and fans. Submissions for both tracks will go through a double-blind peer review process.
Proposals on topics relating to Tolkien's published works as well as to the edited posthumous publications; the adaptations for film, television, and games; the translations; and fan transformative works (textual and visual) or other reception studies may be submitted to either track.
While peer-reviewed scholarship is a professional necessity for tenure-track and tenured academics, there is also value in shorter works, informed by critical theories, that focus on an aspect of single work or a thematic group of works, especially ones that have received less critical attention than The Lord of the Rings. The Critical Companions are designed to introduce a more general audience to analytical approaches and the scholarship in Tolkien studies by situating works in their socio-historical contexts; explaining how the text or texts fit into the field of Tolkien studies; and modelling how to apply critical theories to analyze primary texts.
The primary goals of the series are to add significant original contributions to Tolkien scholarship by developing and to create and support greater diversity in the field by embracing a wide definition of what Tolkien studies includes in relation to authors, texts, topics, theories, and methods.
Both single author and collaborative works, especially those foregrounding intersectionality, are explicitly welcome from authors without regard to ability status, age, caste, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality. Approaches can include but are not limited to theories and methods from class studies, cultural studies, critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; film studies, languages and linguistics, literary studies (any period); medieval and medievalist studies; pedagogical studies, modernist and postmodernist studies, media and marketing studies; religious and theological studies; source studies; stylistics, and tourism studies.
Contingent faculty, early-career faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, tenure-track and tenured faculty in the Americas and worldwide who are trained in any discipline and period specialization are invited to submit proposals in either track and to consider applying to become m become a member of the advisory board.
The call for applications to the advisory board will be circulated shortly. Please email robinareid@fastmail with any questions you may have.
Tolkien at UVM 2025: Tolkien and War
The theme for the 2025 Tolkien at UVM conference will be Tolkien and War. The conference will be held on April 5, 2025, at the University of Vermont. Recent conferences have been hybrid and welcomed presentations and attendees online as well.
Signum University Regional Moots
These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.
Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!
Innumerable Stars 2024
Innumerable Stars is a Tolkien fandom gift exchange for all works by Tolkien or associated with Middle-earth.
People Who Participate in Innumerable Stars are:
- Interested in and excited about multiple Tolkien-based canons.
- Interested in their fellow fans’ creativity in fanfiction and fanart, and excited to explore their own.
- Open to creating and receiving any one of a number of different prompts or ideas.
- Happy to read and comment on the fanwork(s) they receive with thanks first of all, but also to read and comment on other fanworks in the exchange.
People Who Participate in Innumerable Stars will:
- Generally read and create for a variety of slash, gen, het, adventures, fluff, dark, erotica, worldbuilding, etc.
- Create their fanwork following their recipient’s prompts in good faith, and receive the fanwork(s) that have been given to them in good faith also.
- Also write or draw “treats” for others in the exchange, if their own time and inspiration permits after they have completed their assignment,. These are not required but they add to the fun and excitement of the exchange!
- Create their fanwork without the use of AI, be it in writing or art.
What Innumerable Stars is NOT:
You do not have to be open to or interested in every type of fanwork to participate. However, Innumerable Stars is not for anyone interested in just one character, pairing, or scenario. Nor is it for people who find stories or art containing material they are not interested in offensive because it exists. If either of these apply, we wish you well, but this is not the exchange for you.
Schedule
Nominations Open: Sunday, 04 August 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Nominations Close: Sunday, 18 August 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Sign-ups Open: Sunday, 18 August 2024, 11:59 PM UTC
Sign-ups Close: Sunday, 01 September 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Assignments Out: Monday, 02 September 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Assignments Due: Sunday, 6 October 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Works Revealed: Sunday, 13 October 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Authors Revealed: Sunday, 20 October 2024, 8:00 PM UTC
Tolkien Pinup Calendar 2025 Sign-Ups Open
The Tolkien Pinup Calendar compiles a calendar of risque fan art of your favorite Tolkien characters! The majority of the art is commissioned, and in that way, we are helping to support fan artists. In addition to the calendar, Commissioners can also submit fics inspired by the art! There will be an AO3 collection with the fics revealed at the end of the event. Because of the nature and content of the art, the event itself is an 18+ event. More details and rules can be found on the event's FAQ page.
If you are interested in signing up to be a Main Commissioner, click here.
If you are interested in signing up to be an Artist, click here.
If you are interested in being a Pinch Hitter, click here.
To submit any ideas or view those others suggested, take a look at our Ideas Form! Or submit your own idea!
Forgotten Ground Regained: Call for Submissions
The Fall issue of Forgotten Ground Regained is open for submissions. I am especially interested in poetry that explores themes of love, devotion, and desire – themes that are, thus far, relatively sparsely represented in modern English alliterative verse. Submissions should be sent to Paul D. Deane at the following email address: pdeane [at] alliteration.net.
Requirements
- Submissions must be in modern English, but authors should feel free to submit poems that take advantage of the diction, rhythms, and syntax of particular language varieties and communities. I do not discriminate against Scots, Appalachian English, Black English Vernacular, Indian English, or any other language variety, though I do ask that authors be prepared to supply notes to explain any terms or expressions that outsiders to their communities may not readily understand.
- Submissions should make skillful, systematic use of alliteration in ways that use alliteration to reinforce the rhythm and connect important ideas. Overall, I prefer poems that have the strongest impact on readers when they are read aloud. I therefore encourage authors to include links to audio or video versions of their poems in their submissions.
- I would love to see people experimenting with modern English versions of Old and Middle English alliterative verse, with Old Norse forms like ljoòahattr and drottkvætt or modern Icelandic rimur, or with new alliterative forms designed to highlight modern English rhythms and speech patterns. While my first preference is what traditional scholarship calls alliterative-accentual verse, I am also open to alliterative free verse or to alliterative versions of traditional forms, such as the ballad, as long as the alliteration is clearly a structural rather than a decorative feature of the form.
- I am open to work both by contemporary poets and to projects that would normally be considered to fall outside the literary mainstream, such as speculative poetry, SCA Bardic Arts projects, and fan fiction.
- There is no hard upper length limit, though poems more than five to six pages in length are likely to be published separately on the website, with links provided from the Fall issue, rather than being included directly in the pdf magazine. Note that I love both both the lyrical and the narrative turns in poetry, so longer narratives will be given careful consideration.
- Please submit your poem in the body of your email. I will not open attachments.
Submissions for the Fall Issue must be received by September 15th, 2024.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (TRSB) 2024
First conceived in 2018, the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (or TRSB!) is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event celebrating the talent of our fanwork creators. At its core, the event is about bringing together the artistic side of our fandom with the literary talents it possesses, creating bridges between the separate areas of fandom experience for the enjoyment of all. During the late spring, signed up artists submit fan art pieces in progress or finished, which is then posted anonymously in our Gallery. The Gallery is open to the pool of writers who have signed up for the event only. Each writer is then invited to claim a piece of art to write for; the minimum word count is 5000.
We are open to all characters, genres, ships and ratings, and all canons that fall under the Tolkien fandom umbrella. This includes movieverse (i.e. the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies), lesser known works by Tolkien (such as The Father Christmas Letters), and/or other works with a clear link to his life or creative output (for example, Tolkien’s translations and academic texts, the 2019 Tolkien biopic, fan-made films like Born of Hope, and game canons such as Lord of the Rings Online). Crossovers between two or more Tolkien canons are permitted.
When we started this event, one thing we absolutely agreed on was our desire for maximum inclusivity. In practice this means that:
- We encourage participation from all sections of the Tolkien fandom, whether you prefer bookverse, movieverse, game canon, smaller canons, or Tolkien’s academic papers.
- Fan creators should ALL feel safe and able to join in, regardless of experience levels or perceived ability. This means that everybody is welcome, whether they’re a professional artist/writer or a complete beginner, whether they’ve been a fan for decades or fell in love with the films last weekend.
- As far as practically possible, all styles of art and all types of fic are permitted. We do not set restrictions on genre, style, rating or ship, although we do keep NSFW art submissions behind a lock, for the safety of our younger participants.
Above all, the event is supposed to be fun. Fandom should not be a place of difficulty, conflict and stress. With this in mind, we ask participants to be kind, inclusive, respectful and welcoming at all times.
Schedule
March 17 – 2023 Gallery Opens
The Gallery for 2023 is live at last! Enjoy all the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!
March 24 – Suggestion Form Opens
This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr blog and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
April 14 – Sign-ups Open
We post links to our sign up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Signing Up’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.
May 5 – Artist Sign-up Deadline
May 10 – Discord Server Opens
May 13 – Art Draft Due
Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.
May 17 – Art Preview Opens
Our online gallery will be visible to signed up participants only. Signed up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!
May 18-19 Discord Art Talks
Repeating the fun from last year, these will be live chats on discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists.
May 20 – Author Signups Deadline
May 25 – CLAIMS – 17:00 UTC
Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first come, first served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author in the first instance; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.
TBA – Additional Claims
If a number of artworks are left unclaimed, we may allow authors to claim second and third pieces of art to write for. However, we don’t know until after claims night whether this will be needed, so this is likely to be announced at short notice – keep an eye on the blog and on your emails to avoid missing out.
June 7 – Post-Claims Check-in
The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!
June 16 – Free Rein Art Due
We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to provide finished art to their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved. See ‘Completing the Artwork’ in the FAQs for more details on how this works.
June 28 – Check-in #2
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.
June 26 – Check-in #3
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQs.
August 9 – Final Art Due
Artists should share a copy of the final art to their authors – but don’t post it yet!
Don’t email it to the mods.
August 16 – Final Check-in (#4)
Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date.
As per other check ins, except the mods will be providing instructions about promotional posts (see ‘Promotional Posts’ FAQ for more information). We will also ask you:
- Whether you have discussed posting logistics with your artist (if you’re embedding art in your AO3 story, for example)
- Whether you have specific posting needs re publicizing date/time frame (e.g. not wanting us to reblog your art/fic on Shabbat as you will be unable to respond)
August 26 – Art Can Be Posted
August 30 – Final Fic Due In Collection
Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. (If you are writing a last minute pinch hit we can be a bit flexible with this deadline.)
TBA – Discord Art Reveals Event
September 6 – COLLECTION REVEALS
September 13 – Staggered Tumblr Reblogs Begin
September 20 – Gallery Submission
October 6 – Discord Server Closes
Other Links
- Rules
- Sign-Ups
- Frequently Asked Questions
- TRSB on Tumblr | Twitter | Instagram | Dreamwidth
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 (i.e. art, fics, gifs, etc) - but don't worry, there are no deadlines. Pick and choose whatever prompts you like, and be sure to tag the @acorns-and-oakleaves blog on Tumblr so we can share your Bagginshield creations!
Monthly prompts for the Year of Bagginshield can be found here.
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
November challenge at the tolkienshortfanworks community (Dreamwidth)
The November challenge prompts have been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth.
Here is our thematic prompt and our formal challenge for November:
The thematic prompt is: "spooky" or "eerie".
The formal challenge is "children's or nursery rhyme".
As always, the two prompts can be filled independently, if you wish, or combined with prompts from other challenges.
New participants welcome!
More details on the challenge in the linked post.
Call for Proposals: Tolkien Society Seminar 2023 – The Mighty and Frail Númenor
The Tolkien Society Seminar is a short conference of both researcher-led and non-academic presentations on a specific theme pertaining to Tolkien scholarship. The Society held three seminars in 2021 (Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien, Tolkien and Diversity, and Translating and Illustrating Tolkien) and their online setting has seen increased interest with over 700 attendees from 52 countries at ‘Tolkien and Diversity’. After the seminar, all paper recordings from the seminars are uploaded onto the Tolkien Society’s YouTube channel. We are delighted to run hybrid seminars where delegates can enjoy discussions on Tolkien in person and online.
The Mighty and Frail Númenor will be held on Sunday 2nd July as a hybrid event at The Hilton, Leeds. This is a free event.
The seminar aims to examine the role that Númenor plays in Tolkien’s legendarium. Although the island was pivotal to the secondary world narrative of the Second Age, it also re-emerged consistently in Tolkien’s writing and thinking from The Lost Road (1936-37), through The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) and The Notion Club Papers (1945), to ‘Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife’ (1965) and other late essays. Númenor, then, is central to the growth of Tolkien’s legendarium and is a catalyst for seismic change in Arda.
Although Tolkien consistently refers to Númenor as the greatest human kingdom, its overwhelming military splendour and grand civilisation mask its frailty, which only grows over time. As is seen with the fractions of the King’s Men and the Faithful, Númenor’s fall may have been inevitable from its conception. However, its legacy in the Black Númenóeans and the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor evince that its legacy is still somewhat alive after its downfall.
Papers may consider, but are not limited to:
- Númenor’s historical significance
- Species, race, and hierarchy
- Gender
- Hubris, hamartia, corruption, and manipulation
- Political tension (internal and/or external to the island)
- Death and the lust for corporeal immortality
- Colonialism and post-colonialism
- Adaptations of Númenor
- Legacy and posterity in Middle-earth
- The metaphysics of time and age
The Tolkien Society invites abstract submissions of no more than 300 words, for a 20-minute paper and 5 minutes of questions. The call for papers’ deadline is midnight Friday 13th January 2023.
To submit an abstract for the seminar, please click here. The seminar welcomes papers presented in person and online.
Half-Elven Week, October 10-16
After last year, the Half-Elven Week returns to Tumblr. Half-Elven Week is an event dedicated to appreciating some of Tolkien’s beloved characters. To note – as half-elven, we count all characters who have the blood of elves and some other race, no matter if they are called so in the canon.
This week is organized by @armenelols and @yellow-feathered-faerie and is held on October 10th – October 16th 2022.
Prompts remain the same as last year:
Day 1 - Being Different; Doriathrim - Lúthien, Dior, Eluréd, Elurín, Elwing
Day 2 - The Choice; People of Sirion - Elwing, Eärendil, Elrond, Elros
Day 3 - Heritage; Númenoreans - Elros, his children and descendants
Day 4 - Power; People of Rivendell - Elrond, his children and descendants
Day 5 - Legacy; Princes of Dol Amroth - Galador, Gilmith and their descendants
Day 6 - Loss; Parents of half-elves - Melian, Thingol, Tuor, Idril, Beren, Nimloth, Celebrían, Elros’s wife, Imrazôr, Mithrellas, and others
Day 7 - Freeform
Rules:
- prompts aren’t mandatory, only a source of inspiration
- all kinds of content are allowed - art, fanfiction, headcanons, meta, character analysis, moodboards, fancast, aesthetic, etc.
- OCs are welcome - children of Caranthir/Haleth, Aegnor/Andreth, any elf/other race pair
- tag your work #halfelvenweek and tag us @halfelvenweek so we can find your post
- if you have any questions, asks are open!
October Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks (Dreamwidth)
The prompts for October have been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth.
The thematic prompt is: "bridge" or "bridges".
These could be real bridges, of which there are plenty in the Legendarium, for example, the ill-fated bridge of Nargothrond or the Last Bridge over the Hoarwell, where Glorfindel left the beryl, or metaphorical bridges that you build or burn.
The formal challenge is "inscription".
The inscription could be on the bridge but, as always, the two prompts can be filled independently, if you wish, or combined with prompts from other sources.
More details on these monthly challenges at the linked post.
Finwëan Ladies Week 2022
This is a week-long Tumblr event celebrating the ladies of the line of Finwë! There have been events within the Silmarillion fandom focused on the sons of Finwë and their descendents, and to add to the fun this week was established to give his wives, daughters, and other female descendants their own time to shine.
Finwëan Ladies Week began in 2019 and has run every year since. We are back for more in our fourth year, this time from September 19-25, 2022!
Any content and creations about the ladies of Finwë’s line are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more!
Below are some prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory, but they are here to inspire you. This page will lead to a detailed explanation for each one.
DAY ONE: Míriel Þerindë and Indis
DAY TWO: Findis and Írimë Lalwen
DAY THREE: Aredhel and Galadriel
DAY FOUR: Later Generations
DAY FIVE: Ladies Who Married In
DAY SIX: Original Characters
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
This event is being organized by mods Anna @arofili and Elle @elesianne If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message this blog or reach out to Anna on their main blog. Anna runs on Pacific Standard Time, and Elle runs on Eastern European Summer Time, so we will be active and modding on those schedules, although you are free to post your content at the time most convenient to you!
For further clarification, check out our about, FAQ, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Mobile links are accessible here.
Spook Me Multifandom Ficathon 2022
When the chill winds of autumn rattle the bare limbs of the trees, and dark clouds race across the face of the moon, the veil between worlds lifts to reveal:
The Spook Me Multi-Fandom Halloween Ficathon 2022!
Halloween is the best time of year for reading stories that offer pulse pounding thrills, blood curdling dread and hair-raising horror.
All fandoms are welcome. Stories can be Gen, Het, Slash or Femslash. All ratings are accepted.
Dates to Know:
September 5: Sign ups start.
September 15: Sign ups end.
September 17: Prompts sent out.
October 20: Reminder posted here - please friend if you want to get the reminder.
October 26: Master Post opens, stories are due!
Participants will choose a monster prompt from a list and receive two artwork prompts from the moderators.
Tolkien Short Fanworks September Prompts Posted
Here is our thematic prompt and our formal challenge for September:
The thematic prompt is: "harvest".
The formal challenge is "work song".
As always, the two prompts can be filled independently, if you wish, or combined with prompts from other challenges.
Usual reminder that although you can fill the prompts in any way you like, in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3, the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.
Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories!
Tolkien Fandom Against Gatekeeping
In anticipation of The Rings of Power bringing new fans to the fandom, this Tumblr blog seeks to stop gatekeeping behavior that has plagued the fandom in the past. Run by longtime SWG member Independence1776, it urges us to "Be like Elrond, kind as summer," when interacting with new and less knowledgeable fans.
The SWG stands with Indy in our opposition to gatekeeping in the Tolkien fandom and continues to welcome fans with all levels of experience with the legendarium and fans who came to the fandom through all means: books, games, films, shows, and other entry points. You can find our reblog of Indy's post here.
"Silmarillion Daily" Newsletter
"Silmarillion Daily" compresses the timeline of the First Age into a year-long newsletter, as a fresh way to experience The Silmarillion at the same pace as the events happen in the story.
Once you sign up, you will get a welcome email that will tell you all you need to know, but here are some highlights:
- We’ll start on September 15, 2022. A month from now, and also the anniversary of the publication of The Silmarillion
- Because we had to decide on arbitrary dates, we did some math and chose to cover everything from the birth of Fëanor to the end of the First Age - the idea is to track the tale of the Silmarils, although we won’t neglect other aspects: if Tolkien has provided a date, we’ll include it in the newsletter.
- Every week, you’ll get relevant reading suggestions that will cover the entirety of the Quenta, paragraph by paragraph. For the three Great Tales (the Leithian, the Narn, and Gondolin), optional daily reading suggestions will also be provided
- If, however, you’re short on time, don’t worry - each email should take less than five minutes to read
- Hopefully enough people will sign up that we can make this a sort of tumblr bookclub and have really fun weeks where everybody gets together to cry over a specific event! It you enjoy experiencing First Age emotions, please join us!
You can sign up for the "Silmarillion Daily" newsletter here.
Silmarillion Zine Looking for Mods
Soleil is planning a Silmarillion zine and is looking for mods to assist. The zine would involve collaborative work between writers and artists. She is looking for assistance with art, graphics/layout, organization, and writing. While zine experience is preferred, it is not required. Follow @silmzine on Twitter for more.