Solve a Problem

Tolkien's canon is challenging, not least of all because it was unfinished, leaving lots of contradictions, confusions, and details that just plain don't make sense.

For this month's challenge, create a fanwork that solves a canon problem. You can come up with your own favorite (or most frustrating!) canon problem to solve, or choose one of the member-submitted canon problems from the list below.

This challenge opened in July 2019 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts

Note that prompts below are optional.

• What is Gil-galad's parentage?
• How long did Maedhros hang or Thangorodrim … or how did Maedhros hang on Thangorodrim so long?
• Anything to do with the name shell game for Amrod and Amras.
• Who was the narrator of The Silmarillion? Was it Rúmil and Pengolodh or some Númenórean guy?
• Why does a utopian place like Gondolin have a designated place for executions?
• Is Curufin really renowned? We know what Fëanor and Celebrimbor created … but what about Curufin’s inventions?
• How do you solve a problem like Gildor? Where does he fit in, where does he live, what was his parentage?
• What was the ecosystem of Middle-earth like when there was only darkness?
• Flat world? Round world? Settle that debate or any issues to do with the shape and remaking of the world.
• What is the afterlife for the sentient and talking animals of Middle-earth?
• What is the afterlife like for Dwarves?
• Elven maturity is said to happen at 50 years. Is this in Tree Years or Sun Years? How does that translate?
• On the subject of aging, Tolkien had two ideas about the maturation of young Elves. From Laws and Customs among the Eldar (HoMe X): "The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly." From The Line of Elros (UT): "Thus (as the Eldar) they [Númenóreans] grew at much the same rate as other Men ...." So how does one make sense of this?
• What are the origins and/or afterlives of Orcs?
• Are Orcs capable of redemption?
• Defying physics and biology: anything on giant spiders and mountain-sized flying dragons.
• Did Amrod burn with the ships?
• Did Húrin's chair have a flush? … or any matters related to excremental necessity.
• And The Classic^™: Do Balrogs have wings?
• How did Elves who lost mates before the Statute of Finwë and Míriel or who were unaware of the law handle situations of new love and remarriage?
• So about all those "tallest" Elves and Númenóreans: Who was actually the tallest? (Or maybe none of them were?)
• What status or title did Maglor assume after Maedhros was captured?
• What was the relationship between Imin, Tata, and Enel and Ingwë, Finwë, Elwë, and Olwë?
• If the palantíri were made by Fëanor, why do we not see them being used in all sorts of canon situations when communications were critical?
• Coimas & lembas: The only Elven grain or just the most magical?
• Anything to do with the logistics around the anatomical and aerodynamic likelihood of a bird big enough to carry two men on its back. (Also what that might say about the bird poop issue around Gondolin.)
• Why doesn't Valinor get full if no one ever dies and each new generation of Elves keeps having children? That's exponential population growth. How do the Valar feed all these Elves on a fixed amount of arable land? Or will Aman just keep magically expanding (at an ever-increasing pace!) until the Dagor Dagorath?
• Orodreth: son of Finarfin or son of Angrod?
• The many conflicting hair colors of Celegorm.
• "Of The Ruin of Doriath": This chapter was almost entirely constructed by Christopher Tolkien and Guy Kay. Play with that idea.
• What was Daeron's relationship with Lúthien? Were they siblings, as mentioned in an early text? Something else?
• Everything about Middle-earth's man of mystery, Erestor.
• What's up with the two Glorfindels? Are they the same character?
• Anything and everything about Laws and Customs among the Eldar: its multiple contradictions with other texts, its problematic historiographical circumstances, what its laws would actually look like.
• What was the relationship between Eöl and Aredhel actually like?
• Galadriel and Celeborn are given multiple different, contradictory stories in Unfinished Tales. Wherein lies the truth?
• Did Celebrimbor actually have a crush on Galadriel?
• Is the Doom of Mandos a curse or a prophecy (or something else)?
• Was Tar-Míriel forced to marry Ar-Pharazôn or did she love him?
• Why would Fingon bring a harp when he went to rescue Maedhros?
• Who is Mandos and why, if he has such keen foresight, is he so rarely listened to?
• Why was Mandos chosen to look after the dead when other characters, such as Irmo, might be more suitable?
• Are the Silmarils living creatures, just like the Two Trees or Elves? Could they even be real children of Fëanor?