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.
Fanworks Tagged with Elrond
A last letter unsent by Aprilertuile
Alone on the shore, after Sauron's defeat, Maglor watches a ship leave Middle Earth and writes in a notebook a letter that he would never send.
Master of My Blood by Cheeky
A boy loses his father then spends a lifetime trying to find him. When Finrod walked out of Nargothrond what exactly did he leave behind?
The Captive by Glorified
This is a story about love's redemptive power, the restoration of hope and belief, it is a slow burn and deals with the the outcasts of society who don't fit in. When two lost and lonely people meet and fall in love they have to navigate an Elvish society that is not quite as fair minded and open as one would think, in fact its down right xenophobic and judgmental and prejudiced.
Kingdom of Flowers by daughterofshadows
A short ficlet about Elrond and Celebrían in the gardens of Imladris and their hopes for the future.
On and on and ever ever on by UnnamedElement
Elrond and Elros are left without parents; found by their folks' murderers in the ruins of Sirion; taken from the havens of their childhood to wander elsewhere and abroad. And yet, not all is lost--love grows, leaders are raised, pain is endured. Lives transform.
A character study in the key of complex trauma.
Havens rise elsewhere. e
Elrond to Maglor by Himring
Elrond, looking back.
"...love grew after between them, as little might be thought..."
Threat by firstamazon
Double-drabble written for the instadrabbling session on the SWG Discord server with the prompts: children, unlikely, discovering, weird.
This counts 200 words in Word.
Drabbles and one-shots by firstamazon
Drabbles and one-shots written for instadrabbling sessions on the SWG Discord server.
The Divine Hour by jamcake_muses
An unseasonably large snowstorm causes Gil-galad to fret about their upcoming March to Mordor.
Tattered and Split by StarSpray
The sea is huge, and grey, and loud, and Elwing hates it. She hates it and she fears it, and so once she is old enough to slip away from her nurses and her guardians, she goes down to the beach.
It'll All Be Clear by StarSpray
Eluréd and Elurín return to Imladris after their search for Daeron, but all is not well with them.
The Bowman from Greenwood by Russandol
All of my Silmfic stories featuring Legolas are in this collection, ordered chronologically.</p><p>Please heed the warnings for each individual story.
A Star Shines On The Hour Of Our Meeting by Ysilme
Maglor wanders. Elrond dreams of Maglor and goes on a search.
RAFA \'verse by Independence1776
The RAFA \'verse is a series set around \"Rise Again From Ashes,\" a tale in which Maglor returns to Valinor in the Seventh Age. The series is complete and listed in suggested reading order, though the other stories chronologically take place before RAFA. Not all are in the main Maglor-and-Elrond-centric storyline.
Please pay attention to the warnings and ratings; they vary by story.
A Wild Tangle of Stones and Vines by Independence1776
An attempt to write for all of SWG’s 2019 challenges in a ‘verse where Celebrían is rescued immediately and therefore doesn’t sail West and Maglor settles in Rivendell.
The series is complete. Nine of the eleven challenges were written in this series; the other two challenges appeared in other fics.
Series: Beyond Doubt by Keiliss
Everything that belongs in the Even Quicker than Doubt \'verse.
A Question... by Raiyana
The Life and Times of Erestor, Vampire.
Flawless by Ilye
How does one bear scars?
That all depends on who you are and how you earned them. Through an ever-growing number of standalones, the Flawless universe explores the relationships of Fingon and Maedhros, Gil-galad and Glorfindel, and Elrond and Celebrian in the context of the events in the Silmarillion.
For consistency\'s sake, the narrative uses Sindarin names. Please see individual stories for warnings and ratings, but you\'ll be pretty safe if you assume an overall R-rating and plenty of slash.
Note: Flawless originally started off, some years ago, as a story of Glorfindel\'s rebirth in Lindon in mid-Second Age. It\'s now in the process of serious revision, so please suspend all disbelief if you ever read it in its first life and treat it as an entirely new being.
Mathoms - Drabbles and Ficlets for many occasions by Ysilme
Drabbles and ficlets written for exchanges, challenges and as gifts.
Time, place and source is likely to change throughout the series.
The Dragonverse by Ysilme
Spanning the First to Fourth Age, the life of Thranduil Oropherion, King of the Woodelves and Slayer of a Dragon.
My tales mostly follow book canon with smatterings of the Peter Jackson movies, most notably in Thranduil having fought a Dragon in his youth and having the scars to prove it.
The series consists, at the moment, of the two main stories about Thranduil, The Wrath of Dragon Fire and The King of the Forest. The third story, Midwinter in Eryn Galen , centers around a young Aragorn visting Thranduil\'s Halls for the first time, and Legolas.
For obvious reasons, only The Wrath of Dragon Fire has been posted at the SWG; you can find he other stories on the Archive of Our Own.
Reading order:
1. The Wrath of Dragon Fire
2. The Best Night of my Life
3. The King of the Forest
4. Midwinter in Eryn Galen
Publishing order:
1. The Wrath of Dragon fire : late First and early Second Age, Thranduil/Gildor, written for MSV 2014. A tale about Thranduil\'s youth in Beleriand and first love.
2. Midwinter in Eryn Galen : late Third Age, Aragorn/Legolas, written for LotR SeSa 2014. A young Aragorn comes to the Greenwood for the first time to see the home of his friend Legolas, also hoping for another first to happen.
3. The King of the Forest : late Third Age, about two decades earler than Midwinter in Eryn Galen , Thranduil/Celeborn, written for MSV 2015. After the Battle of the Five Armies, Thranduil nearly breaks in dealing with the aftermath of their losses at the battle.
4. The Best Night of my Life: a little ficlet taking place after The Wrath of Dragon Fire, written for the International Day of Slash Tarot Challenge at the Library of Moria.
Maitimo and Findekáno by oshun
Stories written within the same universe and story arc. The featured characters are Fingon and Maedhros but also includes at various points most of the Finweans and their descendants. (Many, but far from all, of these stories include mature themes. Please see individual stories for ratings.)
Burning Bright by Keiliss
About the war between Sauron and the elves, the hiding of the rings of power, and the appeal to Númenor for aid. And wherever else it decides to to go next.
