narya_flame

These are from

1) A character you've wanted to write but haven't yet, and why?

So many!!!

I have Ideas about Ungoliant that I haven't quite managed to work into anything yet. The main thing stopping me is I need to button down my thoughts on the cosmology and creation myth as presented in the Silm, and what the 'reality' might be. Bits and pieces have crept into my 'verse but it's more hints than anything.

There are whole groups that I want to give more time and thought to but haven't made time to do appropriate levels of worldbuilding for.  The Éothéod, the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, the Lossoth, the Haradrim...

There are characters outside Tolkien I would like to write more of too, mostly from Penny Dreadful and Castlevania.

Time, really. It's always time.

2) Favourite coffee/tea/cocktail/beer/etc to order when you go out? (Or feel free to pick several from different categories if one overall is too hard)

Ooooh.

Coffee - black coffee all the way. Nothing beats a really good espresso, though finding one is a different matter.

Tea - I actually really love jasmine tea. I tend not to order breakfast tea out and about because it's never as good as when I make it at home.

Cocktail - dirty martini or Aperol spritz, depending on the weather and occasion!

Beer - I really love a black IPA, not that you see them that often.

3) Best discovery of 2023?

Perthshire!!!

I never spent much time there when I was a student; if we were leaving St Andrews we would go further afield, rather than just heading across the Tay. But we went for a short break there this autumn - completely by accident, actually The place we were supposed to go to, up in the Highlands, had flooded, so we had to scramble last minute to find somewhere - anywhere - that would let us bring the dog. It was wonderfully quiet, the hills are amazing, we visited a distillery we hadn't been to, found some gorgeous farm shops...it was perfect, exactly what we needed.

More responses from this post.

First, from

pattrose :

What is your favorite fandom and why?

Tolkien. Always has been, really, and I don't see it changing at this point. It's had a grip on me ever since I was tiny, and I first saw the Bakshi cartoon. That little film, weird as it was, grabbed at something inside me that nothing else since has been able to reach, and it hasn't let go. There's this quote by CS Lewis, which explains some of it, but those words could equally apply to Narnia, Doctor Who, and plenty of other fantasy/scifi canons. While I like - love! - lots of other books, films and shows, nothing else has had quite the same effect on me.

With Tolkien, I think - though I certainly wouldn't have had the words for it as a kid - the appeal is that the whole thing is primarily about grief, and loss, and the consolation and the very specific kind of hope that grows out of that. It was the idea of accepting that there are things in the world beyond our control, that you will lose things (friends; places; ways of life; the natural world itself) despite your best efforts, that everything won't necessarily be OK, but that you keep on in spite of that, and do what you can to make things better. You grieve for what's gone, and then you walk on as best you can, because it's the only thing to do.

From

grundyscribbling :

Favorite characters?

Maglor is the easy one! He's had a grip on my imagination since I first read the Silmarillion, when he wandered out of known canon and into the realm of fair imaginary game.

I love lots of characters, though. Most First Age Elves. The Hobbits. Weird cryptids like Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil. Characters that only get a brief mention in an appendix somewhere, but it's so tantalising (Eärnur! Faramir son of Ondoher! Malbeth the Seer!) Characters that are just echoes of possibility, like the Lady of the Blue Brooch.

Beyond Tolkien, I love Amy March, Sydney Carton, Alucard and Hector from the Netflix Castlevania show, the Eleventh Doctor, Vanessa Ives (actually basically all the Penny Dreadful characters), Lady Mary Crawley, Charlotte Lucas, Spike from Cowboy Bebop...the complicated ones, the ones whose choices we don't always agree with, but nonetheless those choices feel true to them and what life has done to them.

And how are your pets doing?

Mostly pretty good!

Balto seems to be out the other side of his stroppy teenage shepherd phase and is back to being (mostly) a total delight. He's so much fun to train and work with - desperate to please, super smart, so loyal. He can still be spooky with people he doesn't know but that's fine. I don't love everyone the first time I meet them either.

Kaspar is his usual chaotic-mischievous self. He's getting a little stiff; he's 8 now, so into the senior years for his breed. We're taking him to a new vet soon who offers hydrotherapy, so we'll see how he goes on with that.

The bunnies - we lost our oldest boy, Quill, just before Christmas. His best pal Layla, our gorgeous Belgian Hare doe, promptly fell out in lumps with Thena, the other doe she was sharing with. So now we have Layla temporarily by herself, Thena and Loki (siblings, black Dutch x Conti) together, and Peggy (mini lop) Happy (Angora x lop) and Misty (chinchilla rex) in the big aviary and run. I think Thena got jealous, having to share her brother with another doe, so now we're trying play dates for the trio and Layla to see if we might be able to bond them into a quad. I'm not super keen to go for one big group again as Thena's health is a little precarious (another reason why she can be rather grumpy) and our vet won't board more than 4 rabbits in a group, so if she needs to go in overnight for anything, we'd have to split the group up and then start the bonding all over.

If we really can't get Layla to take to the trio then we will look at rehoming another bun to bond with her, but I would prefer it if we didn't have to go that route. We never planned to have seven rabbits in the first place. It just sort of...happened.

We also have a small aquarium now, home to a betta named Curufin and a snail named Brian. And we almost ended up rehoming a gerbil recently, but decided against it. Kaspar just about copes with the rabbits, but something that to all intents and purposes looks like it should be his dinner would, I think, be challenging to manage.

From

hhimring :

Maybe talk a little bit about Hidden Paths?

<3

Hidden Paths is an annual event that I run to celebrate the smaller (i.e. non-Middle-earth) Tolkien canons. It's deliberately low key; I post two sets of optional prompts during the event, but creators are welcome to make anything they like, as long as one of the small Tolkien canons plays a significant role.

I started running it last year, mostly because I've wanted an event dedicated to the smaller Tolkien canons for some time. Plenty of other events allow and even encourage content for these canons, but matching on them is challenging. I didn't want to run the event as an exchange because I didn't want people to feel pressured and nor did I want to give myself a heap of admin work, hence the loose format and lack of minimum requirements for the event.

The Tumblr promo post this year has been reblogged much more than last year, so fingers crossed for plenty new fanworks. In the meantime, the AO3 collection (which is always open) is here if anyone wants to browse or add something.

These were from

spiced_wine - I'll come back to the others in batches!

How old were you when you first read Tolkien?

Encountered - tiny! My uncle showed us the Bakshi cartoon one night when he was babysitting for us, back in the early 90s, and that was it, I was hooked. My favourite part was where Frodo got stabbed - make of that what you will.

Read - seven or eight when I read Fellowship for the first time. My uncle (same one!) bought me the trilogy as a late birthday present to keep me quiet on a long car trip to Cornwall. I think I read The Two Towers and possibly RotK the same summer, as I remember asking lots of questions about Shelob, and worrying about finding her down a Cornish mine shaft.

What was your first fanfic?

Published - this one.

A lot of the stories I wrote growing up were basically fanfic, though - not that I knew what it was back then! I remember one about a girl named Ethel going off to an academy for witches, which owed far more to Jill Murphy's Worst Witch series than it did to Harry Potter. I'm not even sure Harry Potter had come out at that point.

I also had an English teacher whose favourite creative writing exercise was getting us to write from the POV of one of the characters in a book we were studying, or encouraging us to write what was effectively canon divergence fic - what might have happened if the friar had refused to marry Romeo and Juliet, that sort of thing. And I wrote a gothic romance when I was thirteen/fourteen that was a thinly veiled crossover between Flambards and Jane Eyre.

What was the first fanfic you read?

I used to read a lot of Harry Potter fanfic when I was at school. When we were waiting for my Mum to finish up I would obsessively scour the JK Rowling website to find clues or announcements about the next book (I feel like I shouldn't need to say this but just in case it's necessary, this was literally decades before her views on the trans community emerged). She had links to some of the more popular fan sites on there, I think, and that was my gateway drug.

I didn't go looking for Tolkien fanfic until I was into sixth form and procrastinating when I should have been studying! Dark Prince was the first one I remember reading; it may not have been the very first, but it was the first one that stuck. I also read Adora's tenth walker series, which I don't think she ever finished, and, a little later, Pink Siamese's A Dawn of Many Colours, which gave me the multiverse bug!

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring a snow-covered green bench in a snowy park. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.

I'm going to keep this pretty straightforward. I was really proud of my fic With the Dawn in his Eyes, which I wrote for this summer's TRSB. It's literary RPF, which made it quite a change and a challenge for me, but I was pleased with how it turned out. J. R. R. Tolkien and Geoffrey Bache Smith, before and during WW1. Rated T. 5k words. Choose not to warn.

Current Mood: cold

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of gingerbread Christmas trees, a silver ball, a tea light candle and a white confectionary snowflake on a beige falling-snowflakes background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy.

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is an incredible fandom-specific archive and community with a fantastic reference section, monthly challenges, a dedicated Discord server and wonderful mods. Their character bios are invaluable for quickly tracking down information spanning multiple disparate sources.

Tolkien Short Fanworks is a community for very short texts from all Tolkien fandoms (word count up to 1000 words, especially 500 words or less), such as ficlets, all types of fixed-length forms, and poetry. There are monthly prompts and formal challenges, but you don't have to follow these; all short texts are welcome.

(SSP incoming) - I co-mod the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang, which brings together artists and writers from across the various Tolkien sub-fandoms (books, movies, games, beyond). Artists submit visual prompts to be claimed by writers, who then write a piece of fiction (min. 5k words) based on the prompt chosen.

Format: Ficlet
Fandom: The Silmarillion
Rating: G
Word Count: 676
Characters: Caranthir; Original Character(s)
Summary: A prince, his butler, and a pair of unexpected gifts...

Read it on AO3, SWG, and at Tolkien Short Fanworks.

Current Mood: chipper

Poem of the week is officially back!

The year is turning; my monster event is winding down, and Innumerable Stars has commenced. That, together with today's early autumn sunshine putting me in mind of The Fellowship of the Ring, has inspired me to share this lovely and slightly spooky short piece by the man himself.

Shadow-Bride

There was a man who dwelt alone,
as day and night went past
he sat as still as carven stone,
and yet no shadow cast.
The white owls perched upon his head
beneath the winter moon;
they wiped their beaks and thought him dead
under the stars of June.

There came a lady clad in grey
in the twilight shining:
one moment she would stand and stay,
her hair with flowers entwining.
He woke, as had he sprung of stone,
and broke the spell that bound him;
he clasped her fast, both flesh and bone,
and wrapped her shadow round him.

There never more she walks her ways
by sun or moon or star;
she dwells below where neither days
nor any nights there are.
But once a year when caverns yawn
and hidden things awake,
they dance together then till dawn
and a single shadow make.

Current Mood: chipper

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring a cup of frothy coffee or hot chocolate on a plate with a piece of greenery and a cozy comforter with a sprig of baby’s breath. Text: Snowflake Challenge: 1-31 January.

Challenge #6

In your own space, rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Since Monday is my usual day for Poem of the Week, I'm combining that with today's challenge prompt; please enjoy these wonderful Tolkien-inspired poems by my fabulous fellow fans!

Mee and Shee, by Nienna. Mee and Shee dance, each watching the other.

Spring in Doriath, by Himring. Doriath welcomes the spring. Inspired by 'Spring' by William Blake.

Maglor's Lament for Ambarussa, by Bunn. A brief poem. Loosely inspired by Cynddylan's Hall, a lament for a seventh-century prince of Powys, from the fourteenth-century Red Book of Hergest.

Fast Fellows, by Elwinfortuna. Wulfmær wakes Aelfnoth on the morning of the Battle of Maldon.

Dwarven Funeral Rites, by Raiyana. A poem used in funeral rites in Khazad-dûm (and elsewhere, later). Khuzdul, with English translation.

Eight-Pointed Star, by Lferion. A travel-song sung by the Feanorian mounted forces, particularly Maglor's riders.

Teler, by Dawn Felagund. After the Darkening of Valinor, a Telerin Elf looks back at the days of light.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring a wrapped giftbox with a snowflake on the gift tag. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31

Challenge #5

In your own space, promote a canon/talk about a part of canon that you love. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Ohh, I love this one, it gives me the warm fuzzies every year! :D

At the moment I'm knee deep in worldbuilding for The City Over the Mountains, my Elemmakil/Voronwë fic which I cruelly neglected last year, so I've been re-reading the various versions of The Fall of Gondolin. This passage, from the last version of the tale, has been a favourite ever since a My Slashy Valentine prompt inspired me to pair the two of them...

But their whispers aroused the sleeping echoes, and they were enlarged and multiplied, and ran in the roof and the unseen walls, hissing and murmuring of the sound of many stealthy voices. And even as the echoes died in the stone, Tuor heard out of the darkness a voice speak in the Elven-tongues: first in the High Speech of the Noldor, which he knew not; and then in the tongue of Beleriand, though in a manner somewhat strange to his ears, as of a people long sundered from their kin.

'Stand!' it said. 'Stir not! Or you will die, be you foes or friends.'

'We are friends,' said Voronwë.

'Then do as we bid,' said the voice.

The echo of their voices rolled into silence. Voronwë and Tuor stood still, and it seemed to Tuor that many slow minutes passed, and a fear was in his heart such as no other peril of his road had brought. Then there came the beat of feet, growing to a tramping loud as the march of trolls in that hollow place. Suddenly an elven lantern was unhooded, and its bright ray was turned upon Voronwë before him, but nothing else could Tuor see save a dazzling star in the darkness; and he knew that while that beam was upon him he could not move, neither to flee nor to run forward.

For a moment they were held thus in the eye of the light, and then the voice spoke again, saying: 'Show your faces!' And Voronwë cast back his hood, and his face shone in the ray, hard and clear, as if graven in stone; and Tuor marvelled to see its beauty. Then he spoke proudly, saying: 'Know you not whom you see? I am Voronwë son of Aranwë of the House of Fingolfin. Or am I forgotten in my own land after a few years? Far beyond the thought of Middle-earth I have wandered, yet I remember your voice, Elemmakil.'

AO3

Faerie

SWG

Annatar takes a brooding Celebrimbor for a walk in the snow. Written for My Slashy Valentine 2020 as a gift for erlkoenig, who requested a tender moment between Celebrimbor and Annatar, and prompted “hot cider.”

General Audiences. M/M (pre-ship). 1.2k words. Choose not to warn.

Challenge #15

In your own space, create your own challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Get warm and dry again after surviving today's apocalyptic deluge in Edinburgh.

No?

OK, on Day 6 I wished for an event for the smaller Tolkien canons (i.e. not Hobbit, LOTR, Silm/HoME), and...if you want the thing, make the thing, right? I'm thinking along the lines of a low-commitment fic and art swap, but there are a few things giving me pause:

1) I don't see a logical space in the Tolkien fandom calendar for it.

2) I already co-mod a pretty big fandom event in the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang, which consumes my fannish life from May to September (and I wouldn't have it any other way, I love that event and I'm so proud of it).

3) Is there even any demand for an event like this or am I paddling the canoe on my own? I know that the small canons can be requested in a lot of events, Tolkien and multi-fandom, but it's rare to match on them even in Tolkien-only events.

Thoughts, Tolkien friends? If enough people are interested and I can see a way to make this happen in a fairly low-effort, low-stress manner, I might be willing to take it on.

Current Mood: contemplative

Day Will Come Again.

Fingon takes a moment to remember his cousin at midwinter.

Category: Gen
Rating: General audiences
Warnings: Choose not to warn
Word count: 207

Written for the SWG New Year's Resolution challenge. This is the fic I meant to write for the Season's Greetings challenge last year, but somehow I never quite got round to it.

Current Mood: sad

In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom, or that you'd like someone to make for you. Are you dying for podfic of your writing? Do you need icons for a character that doesn't get much fanart? Is there a story you want to read? Are you looking for new canons to get into? Would you like a collaborator for a project?

Maybe you want more people to talk about a certain fandom with, or you'd love to trade ficlets with somebody over email. Maybe you're new to a fandom and would like some recs to start reading, or communities to join. This is the time to ask!

Last year I believe I wished for fic/art/podfic of my fic, and I have been absolutely spoiled with that this year - more is always welcome but I don't think I can fairly wish/ask for it!

I think the only thing might be an event specifically dedicated to the smaller Tolkien canons. Innumerable Stars is/was the best place to request them in exchanges, we are open to them in TRSB, and I periodically (hopefully) nominate them for multifandom swaps, but it could be fun to give them their own fest - possibly with Middle-earth crossovers allowed, to increase participation, as long as one or more of the smaller canons played a significant role in the fic or art produced.

Current Mood: contemplative

Chapter 20 is now live on AO3 and Faerie.

Current Mood: creative

Chapter 17 is now up on AO3 and Faerie.

Not an easy read, this one - sorry.

Current Mood: sad

B2MeM Prompt, Card and Number: 'Golden-haired' - 97. Glorfindel (B10)
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Humour (bordering on crack...)
Rating: General
Warnings: None
Characters: Celegorm; Maglor; Glorfindel (mentioned)
Pairings: None
Creator’s Notes (optional): Arguably this is a snippet rather than a ficlet, although I don't at all promise that it or anything like it will ever appear in my 'verse. I just couldn't resist.
Summary: Sometimes we lose things in translation - and other times, we find them.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: creative

Completed another table for the One Sentence Only challenge!

16 one-sentence microfics under the cut, featuring various characters from the legendarium and a few OCs. Nothing rated above Teen. Warning for one allusion to gore.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: creative

B2MeM Prompt, Card and Number: 'Tra-la-la-lally?' - 97. Glorfindel (N42)
Format: Short Story
Genre: General; Friendship
Rating: PG
Warnings: One mild reference to gore and violence (flashback)
Characters: Maglor, Glorfindel
Pairings: None
Creator’s Notes (optional): In my 'verse Glorfindel is Lalwen's son, hence Maglor referring to him as "cousin" and "kinsman." I think this stands alone, but effectively it's a missing scene from a longer fic I haven't posted yet, about what Maglor is up to in the Third Age.
Summary: Maglor and Glorfindel sit by the fire in a cave outside Rivendell. They talk, tease and remember.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: creative

Day 2 - Rec At Least 3 Fanworks You Didn't Create

I've seen lots of recs for fics in response to this challenge (and found some wonderful new things to read! :D ) so I've decided to go for an art theme:

JRR Tolkien and Bilbo Baggins, by bunn.

A beautiful painting of the two of them in Oxford. I can smell the wet stone and feel the night air on my face just from looking at it.

Miriel Weaving, by Alystraea.

Every time I look at this gorgeous piece, I spot a new detail.

In Which Beruthiel's Cats Explore Middle-earth, by Lynndyre.

Adorable sketches of kitties causing chaos. Never fails to make me smile.

Day 5 - Promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them

Faerie.

Faerie is my fandom home. I was never comfortable on ff.net; I used lotrfanfiction.com when that was still around, but after that site went out with a whimper, most of my favourite writers reconvened over at Faerie. It's fan-owned and run, it's super-friendly and supportive, and the shout box function makes it feel like a cosy, Tolkien-themed coffee shop.

Innumerable Stars

Innumerable Stars is a Tolkien fandom gift exchange for all works by Tolkien or associated with Middle-earth. I participated for the first time this year after not being very active in fandom at all for about five years, and had such a great experience. It's very welcoming, very well-organised, and I love that it's open to fanworks based on Tolkien's non-ME writings as well as the games, films etc. associated with Middle-earth. The minimum requirements aren't scary (500 words for fic) so even if I'm time poor, I'll definitely be participating again this year.

One Sentence Only

A multi-fandom, prompt-based community; members create one sentence stories in response to prompt tables. Again, this is great for me and anyone else with a demanding, unpredictable schedule. If I'm working late in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, I can take a few minutes before bed to respond to one of the prompts, and go to sleep feeling like I've achieved something.

Day 8 - Post self-recs for at least 3 fanworks you created

This doesn't come naturally to me at all; every time I get asked to do something like this, I can hear my Grandma's voice in my head telling me not to show off!

I've gone for short-ish pieces that stand alone and don't require knowledge of any of my other stories.

Nocturne.  A chance encounter by moonlight takes an unwary student by surprise.

Gen. Maglor; original female character. 1,226 words. Rated T for one use of mild language (I could probably have got away with G).

I picked this one because I loved writing the setting and the music visualisations, and it because it shows a more mysterious, powerful, otherworldly side to my modern Maglor.

Because My Land Is Fair.  An adventure on the North Moors goes awry for two young hobbits. Luckily, help is at hand...

Gen. Fimbrethil; original Entwife characters; original Hobbit characters; Tom Bombadil. 8,653 words. Rated G.

I wrote this for the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2018 to go with bunn's gorgeous artwork (which is embedded in the fic). Essentially, it's Hobbit children meeting Entwives, with a dash of Puck of Pook's Hill thrown in for good measure. Not quite as fluffy as it sounds.

Comfort and Joy.  It's the festive season in Gondolin, and Voronwë finds himself intrigued by the Captain of the Guard of the Secret Way.

M/M. Elemmakil/Voronwë. 2,354 words. Rated M for sexual content.

Written for Sultry in September 2018. I'd never considered this pairing before I got my prompt, but I loved writing them together and will probably tell more of their story in future.

Current Mood: calm

Day 6

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

I feel guilty doing this before I've done the rec challenges...I will get to them!

1) I am currently writing a story about Maglor in modern times, set in St Andrews, Scotland. I can't draw and my digital manipulation skills are non-existent, but I would love a picture of him somewhere in the town. Maybe out on the pier, or on West Sands, or wandering through the cathedral ruins.

2) Icons, especially Tolkien-themed! I am shockingly lazy about making/finding my own (see Innumerable Stars letter and under cut for favourite characters).

3) Anything from my Innumerable Stars letter, or featuring any of my other favourite characters from Tolkien's legendarium.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: cold

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Entries tagged with tolkien

Ask Anything: Answers (5)

Ask Anything: Answers (4)

Ask Anything: Answers (1)

Fandom Snowflake: Day 8

Fandom Snowflake: Day 7

SSP: To Give and Receive

My Poem of the Week: 'Shadow-Bride' by J. R. R. Tolkien

Snowflake Challenge: Day 6

Fandom Snowflake: Day 5

New Fic: Waiting for the Thaw

Fandom Snowflake Day 15

New Fic: Day Will Come Again

Snowflake 2020 - Day 6

Fic Update: The Ways of Paradox

Fic Update: The Ways of Paradox

What's in a Name? by Narya

One Sentence Only: Food and Drink

B2MeM 2019 Fic: And Elves Are Yet Singing

Fandom Snowflake - Days 2, 5, and 8

Fandom Snowflake Day 6