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.
An early draft of Tolkien's essay on "Beowulf" used a rock garden analogy to show how the critics—who were actual people whom Tolkien knew—were responding incorrectly to the poem.
Published on 7 September 2023.
The Silmarillion Headcanon Survey is a sprawling project that seeks to document where fans fall on various fan theories. Lead researcher Scedasticity discusses its inspiration, what it shows of the fandom, and what lies ahead for the project.
Published on 17 October 2023.
Fan-generated details and theories, also called fanon, are a conversation among fans about Tolkien's world. Although fanon has a fraught history in many corners of the fandom, it is growing in acceptance.
Published on 16 September 2023.
One of the gods of music in the early legendarium, Ómar is called by Christopher Tolkien "a divinity without much substance" and swiftly faded from the story. His brief existence may shed light on Tolkien's evolving sense of how his fictional universe aligns with the historical peoples that inspired him.
Published on 2 September 2023.
Firstamazon caught up with the Tolkien fan artist Ylieke to discover more about her emotionally rich character portraits.
Published on 6 August 2023.
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data from 2015 and 2020 shows that Tolkien fans have diverse views on Tolkien's authority but suggests that adherence to his authority is decreasing over time.
Published on 11 August 2023.
After the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Húrin's heroic life takes a turn for the tragic and illustrates themes of courage, betrayal, and the promises and perils of vision. Although given one of the most inconclusive endings in the legendarium, Húrin retains a heroic reputation that resonates through the ages to follow.
Published on 4 August 2023.
Ismene is a self-taught artist known for her striking illustrations, most recently the artwork depicting Varda that is featured on the cover of Tolkien and Diversity.
Published on 21 July 2023.
Annael was the foster-father of Tuor and a Sindarin Elf who played a minor but important role in his life.
Published on 27 July 2023.
A tragic figure of the Second Age, Tar-Míriel should have been the ruling queen but was usurped and forced into marriage by her cousin, leaving her to witness Númenor's fall.
Published on 5 May 2023.
A character who remained in the legendarium, largely unchanged, since its earliest writings, Húrin lives an early life defined by valor and heroism. This first part of his biography explores his heroic youth, including connections to ancient and medieval history.
Published on 2 June 2023.
The recent Tolkien Society Seminar proceedings "Tolkien and Diversity" explore both cultural identity and the international fan community and how Tolkien's fanworks and fandom represent marginalized identities.
Published on 8 July 2023.
The most recent posthumous volume of Tolkien's work contains some of his translations, lectures, and fanfiction of Old English texts.
Published on 23 June 2023.
The two oldest known Tolkien-based fanfiction works illustrate the concepts of transformational and affirmational fandom and how both approaches are vital to Tolkien fanworks fandom.
Published on 17 June 2023.
Fan responses show how complex is the understanding of the concept of "canon" within the Tolkien fandom. The first part analyzes responses around how fans navigate the complicated issue of Tolkien's canon. Update: Added responses from three additional fans.
Published on 22 April 2023.
Heavily inspired by Norse mythology, Makar and Meássë were briefly Valar early in the legendarium.
Published on 1 December 2013.
The fourth son of Fëanor, Caranthir's character leaves many questions unanswered that invite fan speculation.
Published on 1 November 2009.
The story of Arien, the Maia who guides the Sun, changed as the legendarium evolved.
Published on 1 December 2015.
Fans who joined the Tolkien fandom because of the films report that the films inspired them to read the books, encouraged them to join fandom communities, and often resulted in forming lifelong friendships.
Published on 26 August 2022.
Interview with fanartist Busymagpie where she shares a bit of her background in art, her motivations and methods, and how she came to create her alter-ego Nastymagpie's spicier images.
Published on 22 April 2023.
As one of the most beloved Silmarillion characters, Maglor is a bundle of contradictions undergirded by a complex textual history. Warrior, musician, wanderer, and survivor, Maglor brings to the fore key themes in Tolkien's early legendarium, such as the role of music, oaths, and exile.
Published on 19 February 2023.
Celebrían is one of the legion of women in the legendarium whose status suggests she should play a more prominent role in the narrative than she does. This month's biography sifts through the many mentions of Celebrían in various sources to provide a picture of this important—if canonically neglected—woman.
Published on 6 March 2021.
Salmar appeared early in the legendarium in a muddled variety of roles only to disappear swiftly, known in the published text as the artificer of the horns of Ulmo, the Ulumúri.
Published on 8 April 2023.