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A Pair of Victorian Reverse Painted Crystal Intaglio Earrings, 1870

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LOUISA JACOBSON as MARIAN BROOK THE GILDED AGE 3.04 – Marriage is a Gamble

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feeling a real sympathy with m.r. james today

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Welcoming all Tolkien fans to a brand new fandom event, Tolkien Women’s Week, which will run from January 8th-14th, 2026.

This is a week where we can celebrate all of the wonderful women from Tolkien’s legendarium by creating dedicated original pieces for them.

Rules and event information below, please take a read if you are interested in participating :)

Rules:

Each day will have four prompts (as listed in the graphic above and below), and you may choose any of them to create a work of fiction/art/headcanon list/blurb/collage/etc. with any woman of your choice from JRRT's legendarium.

Tag your works with the hashtag #tolkienwomensweek 

NSFW is allowed, it is only asked that you tag it accordingly.

Support other participants! No hate or discouragement on any pieces.

Spread the word :) The more, the merrier.

Please tag this account in your pieces as well! This is not mandatory, but it ensures we do not miss it.

Please give your pieces a title, as there will be a completed masterlist once the event is over, and each piece will be alphabetized. Again, this is not mandatory, but if your work is not titled, it will be given a simple name on the masterlist. (ex: Day Two, Artwork by @ ___ )

You have roughly six months to start and finish your pieces (from the time of this announcement), but late submissions are also welcome. However, no early submissions please. Post your pieces on the designated days unless you have late work/fall behind.

We recommend you follow this blog to stay updated on the event. If not, make sure to check the hashtag “#tww update” for posts from moderators about any new rules/changes/answers/updates.

*No work created by the assistance of generative A.I. will be reblogged on the official Tolkien Women's Week blog, and it will not be supported by the event runners. If work utilizing A.I. is posted in the AO3 collection for the event, it will be removed by the moderators.*

Prompts: Day 1: Love / Family / Lineage / Companionship Day 2: Betrayal / Curse / Spells / Enchant Day 3: Valinor / Journey / Death / Creation Day 4: Song / Language / Culture / Tradition Day 5: Fight / Sacrifice / Protest / Battle Day 6: Heartbreak / Longing / Determination / Reunite Day 7: Stars / Dream / Prophecy / Visions

Questions? If not answered below, please send an ask:

Can you create a piece for the same woman more than once?

Yes! Do not feel like you have to create a piece for someone different each day, especially if you have ideas for the same woman over multiple days/prompts.

Also, if you wish to create a single piece utilizing more than one character, you are very welcome to do so!

If I can only participate for a few days/one day, is that alright?

Yes! Participate as much or as little as you want. If you’re very inspired, feel free to submit multiple pieces on the same day. If a prompt doesn’t inspire you, don’t waste time on it!

Will there be an AO3 collection for the event?

Yes! Coming closer to the event, keep your eyes peeled . . . 

Exactly what Tolkien women are allowed in the event? 

All of them! Any character from LOTR, The Silmarillion, etc. We welcome women of all the races of Middle-Earth (human, elf, dwarf, hobbit, ainur, ent, orc, animal; quite literally any of Tolkien’s female characters) regardless of how much or how little screentime/pagetime they have. You want to create 10 works for Arwen? Go for it! You want to create 10 works for someone who was mentioned in one lone sentence in a single book who had no dialogue? Do it!!

We politely ask that OCs remain separate from this event, not because they are not valid, but because this event was created to celebrate the women created and written by Tolkien himself. However, if an OC is created for a Tolkien character we know exists in canon but was not written about, feel free to give her a voice (example may be the wife of Thranduil/mother of Legolas; we know she exists in the canon lore but we are given almost zero information about her). 

With this reasoning in mind, we also ask that characters from ROP who are not canon to the world of Tolkien be excluded from this event, but if you would like to utilize the way a canonical JRRT character is depicted in ROP (example may be young Galadriel), you are more than welcome to do so. Though we do love the ladies of ROP, we want this event to be central to Tolkien and his own works! :)

If, however, you feel very very strongly for the women in ROP or other works not created by Tolkien himself (ex, Tauriel from The Hobbit movies), we will not stop you, and will still reblog your piece to the official event blog. At its core, this event is here to celebrate your creativity.

Who is running this event?

@frodosrings and @silme-lorien :) Hi! Any questions about the event may also be sent to either of our personal ask boxes.

What can we submit?

Anything you want, as long as it is created by you. Any creative endeavour is accepted. Fics, Artwork, Headcanons, Blurbs, Crafts, Edits, Gif Sets, Collages, etc. are all welcome. 

Go by this rule: if you made it and it follows a daily prompt utilizing a female character from a Tolkien work, then it is more than welcome! 

Do our pieces have to be canonical to the lore as it is written by Tolkien?

Not necessarily! You are more than welcome to bring any of these ladies to the modern world or any au you have in mind, create a piece about experiences they may have had which were not directly depicted by JRRT, etc; or stick solely to canon experiences of the female characters as written by JRRT. All we ask is that the daily prompts are followed, and we will not limit your creativity any further than that. 

Can the submissions include men from Tolkien’s works as well?

Yes. As long as the focal point of your piece is any of Tolkien’s female characters, you are of course more than welcome to include other characters as part of your work to strengthen your piece and build your story :) 

Any comments/concerns/feedback is more than welcome, please feel free to submit any of these questions to our ask box and we will answer. Have fun, and be on the lookout for updates!

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Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell

The Gilded Age 3.04

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There is a pattern I’m picking up on in both Downton and Gilded Age that I’m side eyeing pretty hard. Where two characters are married and cheat on their either mentally or physically ill spouses because they are mentally or physically ill. And it seems like it's being framed as they both fell out of love with them because of their illnesses. 

In the Gregson case, it seemed like Michael's wife no longer recognised him, and it seems like that's the case with Mrs Bruce. It sounds like they're literally no longer in relationships with their spouses, because their spouses are no longer capable of being in a relationship. In those circumstances, while they should make sure they're cared for, I can't blame them for grieving and moving on.

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Nikita Chan, Curious sniff

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The Trouble of Éowyn: Chapter Three

Eowyn and Faramir turn the tables on Theoden and Ioreth, and a well meaning Eomer gets caught in the crossfire.

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I thought about Downton and how it's gonna be the last movie ever, and it bothered me that I didn't see Thomas in the trailer but now that I had time, I went through it again and it's only like a nanosecond long and I definitely had to slow it down, but there he is!!!!

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she's not technically hired yet but you get the idea

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Seeing people wail about the family being "cruel" to Bertha because they giggle at her and don't fawn over her wedding decoarations, meanwhile there's Gladys walking down in the aisle in tears and Bertha grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Bertha stans don't get to complain about "cruelty".

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The audio description even points out Gladys silently sobs under her vail, while Bertha is over there, seeing this and is just beaming the whole time! While in contrast Monica closes her eyes like she can’t bear to watch what’s happening.

I was reading an AMA on reddit from an extra, and apparently in filming Gladys's sobbing was really loud.

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Due to my blindness, I have to watch The Gilded Age with audio description on and during the wedding scene. While Gladys is crying as she walks down the aisle and when she gets up to the altar. It describes Bertha staring at her coldly. It goes on to describe our poor girls expressions and uncomfortable body language during the “wedding night” and the dread I was feeling got so much worse.

It was grim. And Bertha, she was chilling. Because she was smiling, and she wouldn't have been out of place at a happy, loving wedding as MOB, but seeing her at such a miserable wedding, that happiness and joy was cold.

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And while it's understandable that Mrs Bruce wouldn't want to divorce her husband, between her situation and Aurora they are really showing how important no-fault divorce is.

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I don’t think Gladys and Hector are meant to be Robert and Cora Crawley, and even if they were, I wouldn’t consider it a good thing.

I know Robert and Cora eventually fell in love and had a mostly happy marriage on Downton, but I’ve never forgotten nor forgiven that he very nearly and practically did cheat on her in s2, and the narrative basically blamed Cora for it because she [checks notes] was too busy helping the war effort while an actual world war was going on and therefore hadn’t been paying enough attention to him. 🙄

So no, it’s not a positive comparison to me.