On a Different Page

Tolkien may have been the maker of Middle-earth, but that wasn’t all he wrote. This month we encourage everyone to explore Tolkien’s other works—prompts for this challenge will come from Tolkien's non-Middle-earth works.

Please remember that we are a Silmarillion archive, and fanworks for the challenge must have a significant basis in The Silmarillion. The challenge is to create a Silmarillion fanwork using prompts from Tolkien's non-Middle-earth texts; it is not a challenge for fanworks about those texts, although crossovers remain welcome on our archive. See our FAQ on "Silmfic" for more information on how we define Silmarillion-based fanworks.

To receive a prompt for this challenge, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, post to the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, or message us through the SWG site.

This challenge opened in April 2022 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts

On Fairy-stories

"Faёrie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold." ~ "On Fairy-stories"

"Mythology is not a disease at all, though it may like all human things become diseased." ~ "On Fairy-stories"

"There are many things in the Cauldron, but the Cooks do not dip in the ladle quite blindly. Their selection is important." ~ "On Fairy-stories" 

"The Locked Door stands as an eternal Temptation." ~ "On Fairy-stories"

"The dweller in the quiet and fertile plans may hear of the tormented hills and the unharvested sea and long for them in his heart. For the heart is hard though the body be soft." ~ "On Fairy-stories"

"Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sword the seed of dragons—'twas our right
(used or misused)."
~ "On Fairy-stories"

"Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home?" ~ "On Fairy-stories"

Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics

"A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labour, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man's distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: 'This tower is most interesting.' But they also said (after pushing it over): 'What a muddle it is in!' And even the man's own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: 'He is such an odd fellow! Imagine his using these old stones just to build a nonsensical tower! Why did not he restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.' But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea." ~ "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

"Noble animals, whose burbling is on occasion good to hear; but though their eyes of flame may sometimes prove searchlights, their range is short." ~ "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

"But let us return to the dragon. 'A wilderness of dragons.'" ~ "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

"Let us by all means esteem the old heroes: men caught in the chains of circumstance or of their own character, torn between duties equally sacred, dying with their backs to the wall." ~ "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

"As the poet looks back into the past, surveying the history of kings and warriors in the old traditions, he sees that all glory (or as we might say 'culture' or 'civilization') ends in night." ~ "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

Leaf by Niggle

"You know the sort of kind heart: it made him uncomfortable more often than it made him do anything." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

"He could not make up his mind what he thought about it, and wished he had some friend who would tell him what to think." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

"He was never allowed outside, and the windows all looked inwards." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

"He went on digging, till his back seemed broken, his hands were raw, and he felt that he could not manage another spadeful. Nobody thanked him." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

"He took a great deal of pain with leaves, just for their own sake." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

"Things could have been different, but they could not have been better." ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

“He was going to learn about sheep, and the high pasturages, and look at a wider sky, and walk ever further and further towards the Mountains, always uphill.” ~ "Leaf by Niggle"

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

"Dread shapes arose
from the dim spaces
over sheer mountains
by the Shoreless Sea,
friends of darkness,
foes immortal,
old, unbegotten,
out of ancient void."
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"Woe and evil
are woman's boding!"
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"What sails be these
in the seas shining?—
the shields are scarlet,
ships uncounted."
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"O woman woeful
in war taken,
who was thy husband
while his house lasted?
What father begot
such fair offspring?—
grey steel glitters
in his gleaming eyes."
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"In deep hollow
on the dark hillside
long there lurked he;
the land trembled."
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"As the wolf I walk
wild and lonely,
no father owning,
a flame bearing."
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

"Where the witch-hearted
walk or houses
linger not, lodge not,
though lone the road!"
~ The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

“God guide our road to a good ending!”
~ “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”

“Glory loved he; now glory earning
his grave shall be green, while ground 
or sea,
while word or woe in the world lasteth.”
~ “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”

Smith of Wootton Major

“From time to time he would go off, sometimes walking, sometimes riding, and it was generally supposed that it was on business; and sometimes it was, and sometimes it was not.”  ~ “Smith of Wootton Major”

“But some things he did not forget, and they remained in his mind as wonders and mysteries that he often recalled.”  ~ “Smith of Wootton Major”

“He never saw that Tree again, though he often sought for it.”  ~ “Smith of Wootton Major”

“On the inner side the mountains went down in long slopes filled with the sound of bubbling waterfalls, and in great delight he hastened on. As he set foot upon the grass of the Vale he heard elven voices singing, and on a lawn beside a river bright with lilies he came upon many maidens dancing.”  ~ “Smith of Wootton Major”

“The flower did not wither nor grow dim; and they kept it as a secret and a treasure.”  ~ “Smith of Wootton Major”

Roverandom

"Not every old man with ragged trousers is a bad old man: some are bone-and-bottle men, and have little dogs of their own; and some are gardeners; and a few, a very few, are wizards prowling round on a holiday looking for something to do." ~ "Roverandom"

"The blind was down; but outside the moon rose up out of the sea, and laid the silver path across the waters that is the way to places at the edge of the world and beyond, for those that can walk on it." ~ "Roverandom" Kaylee

"‘It is very kind of all these wizards to trouble themselves about me, I am sure, though it is rather upsetting. You never know what will happen next, when once you get mixed up with wizards and their friends.’" ~ "Roverandom"

"'But my word! I’ll remember this against him, till the sea is twice as salt and half as wet.'" ~ "Roverandom"

“And a strange fate is on him, that turns never home.” ~ "Roverandom" 

"I haven’t told you all their argument, of course; it was long and complicated, as it often is when both sides are right." ~ "Roverandom"

Farmer Giles of Ham

“On the fourth day they reached the Wild Hills and the borders of the dubious lands where legendary creatures were reputed to dwell.” ~ "Farmer Giles of Ham”

“They had now begun to ride along steep and stony paths, climbing upwards with toil and ever-growing disquiet.” ~ "Farmer Giles of Ham”

“They sang songs in his honour: rough and ready, but they sounded good in his ears. Some folk cheered and others laughed. It was a sight both merry and wonderful.” ~ "Farmer Giles of Ham”

Mr. Bliss

“When they came back the bears said: “Now we want a motor-ride!”
“But I am going to see the Dorkinses,” said Mr. Bliss, “and you don’t know them.”
“But we could know them,” said Archie. ~ Mr. Bliss

“Also the Dorkinses suddenly thought they might charge Mr. Bliss for hire of ponies - which was not nice of them, as they were disgustingly rich.” ~ Mr. Bliss

‘Very soon after this Mr. Day became Mrs. Knight’s third husband. She said it seemed suitable, seeing how they were both in the same line of business, and had had a lot of adventures together. So they set up a green-grocer’s shop in the village, and called it “Day and Knight’s”’. ~ Mr. Bliss

Mythopoeia

“Great powers they slowly brought out of themselves,
and looking backwards they beheld the elves
that wrought on cunning forges in the mind,
and light and dark on secret looms entwined.” 
~ “Mythopoeia”

“I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.” 
~ “Mythopoeia”

The Fall of Arthur

“Men were mustering  |  marching southward,
from the East hurried  |  evil horsemen
as plague of fire  |  pouring ruinous;
white towers were burned,  |  wheat was trampled,
the ground groaning  |  and the grass withered.”
~ “The Fall of Arthur”

Letters from Father Christmas

“Many of the pictures were done by these cave-men – the best ones, especially the big ones (almost life-size) of animals, some of which have since disappeared: there are dragons and quite a lot of mammoths. Men also put some of the black marks and pictures there; but the goblins have scribbled all over the place.” ~ “Letters from Father Christmas”

‘I wonder what you will think of my picture. “Penguins don’t live at the North Pole,” you will say. I know they don’t, but we have got some all the same. What you would call “evacuees”, I believe (not a very nice word); except that they did not come here to escape the war, but to find it! They had heard such stories of the happenings up in the North (including a quite untrue story that Polar Bear and all the Polar Cubs had been blown up, and that I had been captured by Goblins) that they swam all the way here to see if they could help me.’ ~ “Letters from Father Christmas