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SWG News
Fanwork sign-ups are open!
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New Challenge: Birthday Bash
In honor of our twentieth birthday, we look back at twenty years of SWG history with a new poetry, image, and word prompt each day.
So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Putting Together the Presentation
Part of our ongoing series to support fans who want to present at Mereth Aderthad and other Tolkien conferences, this session will share strategies for putting together a paper and presentation.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Shadow by Himring
Himring interviewed Shadow about their upcoming presentation for Mereth Aderthad, "The Aromantic in Tolkien," and their inspiration for pursuing this topic that is rarely covered in Tolkien scholarship.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Artwork] 2025 Birthday Bash Prompt Fills by silmalope
Sketches inspired by the 2025 Birthday Bash challenge prompts!
[Writing] Clear Pebbles of the Rain by StarSpray
But at the very end of the letter she spoke of one more prisoner that Elladan and Elrohir had discovered in one of the deepest dungeons of Dol Guldur, locked away behind a door unopened in so long that the hinges had rusted.
Maglor has been rescued from Dol Guldur, and now faces…
[Writing] A Grief Ever-Worsening by Flora-lass
Maeglin writes to Idril.
[Writing] Return to the Sea by daughterofshadows
Cúrandil knows the stories, knows how their people first awoke in the water. How they came to walk the land and how the sea has called them back ever since.
It is their turn to follow the call now.
[Writing] Torchsong by Dawn Felagund, Elleth
Maglor performs the Noldolantë and the room reacts.
Current Challenge
Birthday Bash
Daily word, image, and poetry prompts are loosely structured around events and milestones leading up to our 20th birthday. Read more ...
Random Challenge
First Meetings
Create a fanwork about the first meeting between a character from Valinor and someone just arriving from Middle-earth. Read more ...
New in References
Interview with Shadow by Himring by daughterofshadows, Himring
Aromanticism is a topic not often covered in Tolkien scholarship, but many Tolkien characters can be read as aromantic. In this interview, Himring talks with Shadow about their upcoming Mereth Aderthad presentation "The Aromantic in Tolkien."
Interview with Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch by Quente by Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch, Quente
Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch has always felt deeply connected to the character of Elu Thingol. In this interview, Quente asks about this connection and how Stella sees Thingol as unjustly treated by many in the fandom.
Interview with Acha Rezak (Quente) by Shadow by Acha Rezak (Quente), daughterofshadows
Shadow spoke to Acha Rezak about her upcoming presentation for Mereth Aderthad, which reads Tolkien less as a Catholic Christian work and more as a world inclusive of many religions, especially in its focus on nature and landscapes
Featured Themed Collection
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Alliterative Verse for Arda by Rhunedhel
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features alliterative poems about Middle-earth.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Paradox of the Fourth Age by Alassante
One wrong decision can make a world of difference. When one of the Fellowship makes the mistake, the consequences are so severe that only the Valar can repair it. But will they?
Glorfindel daughter's life is in Elrohir's hands and only she remembers th eir love for each other. The fate of…
[Writing] By Mirrormere by bunn
A new Age dawns, and Moria is retaken at last.
[Writing] Beneath the Bitter Rain by bunn
The Gardens of the Entwives are fallen, but two Entwives remain.
Around the World and Web
Tolkien Ekphrasis Week 2025
This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event dedicated to the art of ekphrasis in Tolkien's worlds. Its goal is to illuminate the artistic surroundings of the places, people, and stories we love, in as many media as possible.
Feanorian Week 2025
Feanorian Week is a Tumblr event offering optional prompts for fanworks about the sons of Feanor and their parents.
C&C Week 2025
C&C Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about Celegorm and Curufin. This year, the event will run from March 16-23, 2025, with prompts featured every other day.
Teitho March/April Challenge: Mothers
The Teitho Contest theme for the months of March and April is mothers.
March Challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for March has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. New participants welcome.
Birthday Bash
On March 14, 2005, the SWG arrived in the small hours of the morning. It was still in very embryonic form, actualized only as a Yahoo! Group with no members and a series of very cringey posts on Dawn's LiveJournal (she had no idea how LiveJournal worked, having joined just that day to post these cringey posts in her insomnia-fueled effort to launch the SWG).
Twenty years later, this challenge debuted in recognition of two full decades of existence of the SWG. Each day, we will post an event that is an important hashmark on the timeline of the SWG's history along with three prompts that (at least in the challenge mods' mind) are associated with that event: a single word, a snippet of poetry (with a link to the full poem), and a public domain image. As always, you can use any aspect of the prompt to inspire your fanwork, including fragments of prompts or parts of the poem not included on the challenge page. The history snippets are fair game as prompts. You do not have to create or share your response on the day a prompt is posted. You can go back to past prompts, and you can stitch prompts from different days together into fanworks in cool and bizarre ways.
This challenge opened in .
Prompts
Choose your prompt from the collection below.
- View Prompts
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Click images to view them full-sized.
March 14
The SWG started because Dawn had insomnia on March 14. While staring into the dark and becoming increasingly unmoored from reality, she thought that there should be a writers' workshop for Silmarillion authors. The next day (well, later that day ...), she started the SWG.
Word: awake
Poem:
Wake, butterfly—
it's late, we've miles
to go together.Wake, butterfly by Bashō, translated by Lucien Stryk
March 15
In late July of 2005, ford_of_bruinen and Dawn spread the news to their friends about the SWG. There was almost no overlap, but this seemed a symbolic first step toward a group that cared less about what genre or pairing you wrote and more about a shared love for Tolkien's world and fanworks about it.
Word: gather
Poem:
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together
Ecclesiastes 3:5March 16
In September 2005, the SWG ran its very first challenge, Strong Women, which was suggested by Jenni (Digdigil), who would become our second moderator. Although there were no lofty aspirations in this choice, in retrospect, it seems apt given our later expressed aim of encouraging fanworks about groups underrepresented in the legendarium and Western culture at large.
Word: spark
Poem:
Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
Atop on the topmost twig, — which the pluckers forgot, somehow, —
Forget it not, nay; but got it not, for none could get it till now.
One Girl by SapphoMarch 17
In September 2005, the SWG newsletter began. It began with a monthly distribution, took a brief hiatus in 2021, and is now released weekly.
Word: tidings
Poem:
I used to think
I had no message, but the message is me—bloodshot and hungry,
spilled coffee down the front of my shirt. People of the future,
gather round. I have traveled through ink to greet you.
Greetings by Charles RaffertyMarch 18
The SWG was originally intended as a writers' workshop. On January 5, 2006, discussion began on the Yahoo! group about building an archive. Almost overnight, the group's trajectory and ultimately its purpose changed.
Word: transmutation
Poem:
The snow of yesterday
That fell like cherry blossoms
Is water once again
"The Snow of Yesterday" by Koshigaya Gozan
Fanworks Tagged with Birthday Bash
2025 Birthday Bash Prompt Fills by silmalope
Sketches inspired by the 2025 Birthday Bash challenge prompts!
Return to the Sea by daughterofshadows
Cúrandil knows the stories, knows how their people first awoke in the water. How they came to walk the land and how the sea has called them back ever since.
It is their turn to follow the call now.
