#swg challenge

[silmalope]

Laughter and Mourning, the daughters of Húrin. (Originally posted on the SWG for the Orctober challenge prompt “eyes”.)

[silmarillionwritersguild]

Tolkien's legendarium, with its roots in medieval Europe, displays all the royal drama of history: arguments over succession, regicide, kidnapping, and secret kings dashing back at the heroic last minute to rise to greatness. (Yeah you, Aragorn!) Amidst this royal rumble are kings and queens simply doing the job they were born to do. The annals of Middle-earth are filled with rulers who improved (even saved!) their people's lives, turned their realms into a disaster zone, or—most commonly—simply disappeared into the pages of history.

This month, we challenge you to create a fanwork about a king or queen in the legendarium, whether dramatic or dull, brilliant or disastrous, renowned or forgotten. Below, you will find a list of kings and queens listed in the indices of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Note that this list is not exhaustive, and you are welcome to create fanworks about kings and queens not listed. In some cases, it may be questionable whether a character counts as a king or queen, and if you decide they do, we trust your judgment. Fanworks about kings and queens who are textual ghosts or original characters are welcome as well. Finally, remember that the "Silmarillion" is much more than just the First Age. If you're not sure if a Third Age idea would fit on our site, our FAQ on "Silmworks" is here.

Because this challenge falls during Akallabêth in August, there will be a special stamp for anyone who creates a fanwork set during the Second Age.

Thanks go to Zdenka for this month's lovely banner and stamps!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

You can find the list of kings and queens for this challenge and fanworks created for the Kings & Queens challenge here.

[cilil]

Tengwar

AN: For @sauron-kraut🖤

✍ Prompt: Malta (gold) - Mairon x Nazgûl ✍ Synopsis: Mairon has become a king of kings. ✍ Warnings: / ✍ Drabble ✍ SWG archive

Rings of gold gleam against their skin, like wedding bands promising an eternal union. 

Like golden collars around the necks of beasts lounging at the feet of a king. 

Their eyes are all on him.

Mairon radiates the eternal life and beauty they desire so much, appearing almost like a spectre of gold and fire. When he lifts his hand and beckons them, many rings gleam in the twilight. 

Once-proud kings falling to their knees, lips pressed reverently against immortal golden skin. Whispered words of worship, breath frozen in time. 

Mairon accepts their affection, and in his heart he laughs. 

Thanks for reading! ♡

taglist: @angbangbaby @a-world-of-whimsy-5 @blauerregen @bluezenzennie @destinyeternity1 @edensrose @elanna-elrondiel @eunoiaastralwings @i-did-not-mean-to @just-little-human @melkors-big-tits @melkors-defense-attorney @saintstars @sauron-kraut @urwendii @wandererindreams

[mint-tea-frog]

Here's my contribution to SWG's Funky 70s challenge: A Funky Balrog!

It's our girl Nári, Gothmog's sister-in-arms and second-in-command. You better not interrupt her groove or call yourself high king around her - or else she'll chase you across the dance floor ;)

[hhimring]

Hitchhiking in Beleriand (a haiku)

Don't even bother  panicking. Run! Not that way! Any way but north.

Written for the prompt: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

For the current SWG Challenge Funky 70s (linked)

[elennalore]

Calma

A ficlet written for SWG's Tengwar Challenge prompt calma (lamp).

Celebrimbor/Annatar, T, 239 words.

Summary: Celebrimbor is reading a novel, but there's a distraction.

Celebrimbor doesn’t remember lighting a lamp. Night has fallen; he has been reading all day. It’s a horror novel about a creepy forest in the distant past, and he enjoys reading it. The doom in the story is different from his, and the horrors the protagonist faces are different from what he has encountered. Besides, it’s almost impossible to stop reading it before the end.

The lamp bothers him, though, so he reluctantly raises his head from the book. There’s no lamp; the light comes from Annatar, from his body. He’s lying in bed, close to Celebrimbor, and his whole body radiates light, so bright that it’s difficult to see the shape of him behind all that light. It’s an eerie sight, and Celebrimbor is dazzled. He doesn’t know what to say.

The light dims, and he can see Annatar again, Annatar’s real body. No, not real; the one he prefers to use with the Elves. He’s completely naked, and Celebrimbor finds himself suddenly blushing.

“I thought you needed light,” Annatar explains. “It’s getting dark here.”

Annatar gives a confused look as he sometimes does after revealing too much of his Maia-nature. Celebrimbor finds that little expression cute.

“Perhaps we can light a lamp,” he suggests, then hesitates. “Unless you want to be my lamp a little more? Does it bother you?”

“Not at all,” Annatar says happily, and his golden light fills the chamber again.

Celebrimbor continues reading.

[starspray]

Things You've Done

Summary:

They sat in silence for a little while, until Maglor finished his cup of water and sighed. “There is something on your mind,” he said. “Out with it.” To his vague surprise, Elros did not look up. He carefully plucked another flower and added it to his growing chain. “Why did you do it?” “Why did I do what?” “Not—just you. You and—everyone. Why did you come to Sirion?”

Major Characters: Elros, Maglor

Major Relationships: Elros & Maglor

Genre: General

Challenges: Secret Gate

Rating: General

[a-tehta]

SSP: The Merchant of Valinor

I have started writing something rather odd that seems to be working out quite well. It is the story of a Telerin merchant who ends up following rhe Noldor into exite. (What makes it odd is that it is being written as a series if mini-ficlets, each one an acrostic of one of the letters of the Tengwar alphabet. But in spite of that, I promise that it is actually a story.)

[chrissystriped]

Thank you all for the nice words. Fic is now published (chapter 2): https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/7519

WIP Wednesday

@cilil tagged me ages ago. I haven't been writing that much lately, but as I plan to write some ficlets for the current SWG challenge, here are a few lines from one of them:

Thranduil let his fingers slide over the bark of an oak he had seen grow from acorn to the huge old tree it was now. A lighting bolt has gone through her a few years ago, the dark scar was still visible but she had survived. "Good dreams, my dear", he said softly. She whispered a quiet answer, already drowsy from the cold and short days.

[pink-p0pcorn-art]

Various characters from a homebrew D&D campaign as different styles.

From left to right, top to bottom Lalassu (Danganronpa), Jibirl (Panty & Stocking), Rimirez (Samurai Jack) Kirk (Mob Psycho 100), Gabriel (Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell), Kuste (Adventure Time) Cocoa (Monster High), Kuste (Pesterquest), Anna (Sailor Moon) Asafetida (Soul Eater), Sull (Tim Burton), Blaar (Hazbin Hotel) Tzarina (Hellsing), Arzu (Tron Uprising), Agalinda (Toilet Bound Hanako-kun)

07 April 2022

[iceheart1417]

First set of drawings of 2023 let’s go (Also bunny fursona jump scare)

[silmalope]

A short comic for the SWG Sept-Oct 2024 Idiomatic challenge. My idiom was “jumalan selän takana” (Finnish), meaning “behind god’s back,” figuratively a godforsaken place, the middle of nowhere. 

Originally posted on the SWG here.

[silmarillionwritersguild]

Winter is stretching its bitter fingers across the lands to the north. Dead leaves rattle upon the hissing winds that bring the cold and first stinging snows to the dying lands. Listen closely, and you will hear another sound: the crackle of a feeble fire, the rustle of an old parchment map, and whispering voices, plotting.

We know the Free Peoples of Middle-earth observed the lives of Melkor's servants, and Melkor sometimes seduced (or coerced) Elves and Mortals to his service. But what about the Orcs? They too came into contact with cultures different from their own, and some doubtlessly braved Melkor's wrath to seek a better life for themselves.

This month's challenge has two parts. Prompts will be spooky-themed and associated with locations on the old parchment map discovered by a troop of Orcs braving the first bitter patrols in the icy north. Each location on the map represents a location where an Orc seeking freedom can find protection, shelter, or objects useful to resistance.

You can, of course, complete the challenge simply by completing one or more prompts. If you would like to go a step further, there is also a puzzle to solve. The whispers around the guttering fire speak of escape from Melkor's enslavement. Will you join this quiet rebellion?

Find the Orctober challenge guidelines and prompts here.

This month's spooktacular banner and stamps were created by Independence1776!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 November 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

[cilil]

It comes in Threes

✍ Prompt: Ages of captivity + the Fëanturi | Melkor, Námo, Irmo & Nienna ✍ Synopsis: During three ages of captivity, Melkor is visited by all three Fëanturi siblings. ✍ Warnings: / ✍ Triple drabble ✍ SWG archive

Námo is the first to visit him, unsurprisingly — it's his halls Melkor is trapped in, after all. 

He expects him to relay his brother's flimsy excuses or lecture him on laws and morals, but the Judge is silent. All he does is check on him and linger, as if he's quietly offering his companionship and wisdom. 

Melkor meets his silence with his own, proud and stubborn. He cares little about whatever Námo has to offer, feeling cheated and betrayed by his own kin.

The law is meaningless to him, and fate can be changed. 

He greets Námo with mocking smiles. 

Irmo appears even before his sorrowful sister does, and Melkor envies him for how easily he enters and exits his brother's halls, as if Námo's spells bend to his every will and whim. 

And perhaps they do — Irmo has always been his one weakness. 

To Melkor's surprise, he doesn't attempt to scold or preach; rather he seems curious and asks him questions. 

The fallen Vala lies and evades some, of course, but he deigns to engage Irmo in conversation.

"Why do you ask?" he inquires nevertheless, and the Fëantur smiles mildly. 

"I want to understand, and I know I can."

Nienna visits him last, and as predictable and inevitable as it seems to him, Melkor finds that he harbours no ill will towards her. 

She is perhaps the only one he cares to see, and this time he is the one to speak first. 

"How is it that you still defend me," he wonders, "even though everyone is of the opinion that I am the cause of every single tear you shed?" 

"Because you too deserve compassion, and I was never angry with you," Nienna answers.  "For I know well that, to cause such hurt, you yourself must be hurting.”

Thanks for reading! ♡

taglist: @angbangbaby @asianbutnotjapanese @a-world-of-whimsy-5 @bluezenzennie @edensrose @eunoiaastralwings @i-did-not-mean-to @melkors-big-tits @melkors-defense-attorney @singleteapot @stormchaser819 @urwendii @wandererindreams

[dawnfelagund]

I wrote this article for my monthly Tolkien fandom studies column, Cultus Dispatches as part of the OTW's "ten things about fandom" challenge for International Fanworks Day. Normally, my Cultus column begins with a gnarly soup of data, and I often don't even know what (if anything!) will come out of analyzing it. This month, due to the relative lack of data, I thought I was giving myself an easy month of writing. I just needed to come up with ten things, right?? Ha! I think this might be the most challenging article I've written for this column to date.

Here are some fun facts I learned while researching these 10 Important Moments in Tolkien Fanfic History:

Tolkien fanfic is older than Star Trek fanfic.

The first known Tolkien fanfic was an alternate-history Sauron redemption fic.

The first Tolkien fanfic archive was a slash archive.

Three out of four archives opened after the LotR films left theaters used the eFiction open-source script.

The first Angbang story was posted in 2002 (though it wasn't called Angbang yet).

Want to know more? Go read the article! And I'd love to hear what I didn't include that you'd add to your own list. (Or if you make your own list, let me know!)

Many, many thanks to all of the people who talked with me about their work for this article and to those involved in the discussion on the SWG Discord's #fandom-studies channel about this topic.

[hhimring]

SWG Meet & Greet Challenge prompt

👋 Hello fellow participants in the SWG's Meet & Greet Matryoshka challenge,

Here is the writing prompt I received today to share with you:

A fresh start

Also, here's a link to the challenge page to remind you about the rules for the challenge, etc.

You can also find information on that page about how to ask me for another writing prompt I have collected or a reminder about this one, if you would like to.

Good luck with the writing! ☘

And while I am about it, here is a heart for you, whether 14 February is a particular day for you or not (only if wanted, of course!):

💚