tolkienshortfanworks | Recent Entries

Welcome to the tolkienshortfanworks community!

This 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.

For guidance on posting, membership, tagging, and other community guidelines, please see the community profile.

hhimring

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Tags: Please use existing tags, if they are available to you. Any missing tags will be supplied by the mod.

For more guidance, see the community profile.

hhimring

Challenge and prompt fills are optional, not required.
Challenges and prompts will be posted monthly (around the beginning of the month).
They do not expire and can be filled at any time.
(There may also be an amnesty month for challenges, as required.)

When there is both a thematic prompt and a formal challenge, these can be filled independently (you do not have to do both unless you want to) and freely combined with other prompts and challenges (including challenges from other communities).

There is an AO3 collection that you can cross-post challenge fills to: link.

Reminder that although you can fill the thematic prompt any way you like, in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3, the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.

Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Prompt list for the months of the year 2026:

Prompts for January 2026: lamp or lantern; Lanterne (poem)
Prompts for February 2026: sea; multiple of 50 words
Prompts for March 2026: spring or autumn; form of 20 parts or otherwise involving 20.
Prompts for April 2026: fool; prose + poem (haibun)
Prompts for May 2026: quotation prompts from "May Day"; multiple of 25 words
Prompts for June 2026: drink (with quotation prompts); epistolary
Prompts for July 2026: select three words or concepts; multiple of 50 words

Prompts from previous years:

Prompts for December 2020: Candle or Wreath.
Prompts for January 2021: New Year; true drabble.
Prompts for February 2021: First Flower; piece that comes full circle (e.g. a sestina or carol)
Prompts for March 2021: Balance (equinox); sonnet or piece of 14 lines/parts
Prompts for April 2021: Duck or Egg; quatrains
Prompts for May 2021: The old custom of Maying; zejel.
Prompts for June 2021: Solstice (Midsummer or Midwinter); dribble or half-drabble.
Prompts for July 2021: Sea Shell; couplets
Prompts for August 2021: Gold and silver; Welsh triads.
Prompts for September 2021: 144 or "gross"; Bilbo's verse forms
Prompts for October 2021: apple; blank verse.
Prompts for November 2021: poppy; elegy
Prompts for December 2021: prompt amnesty
Prompts for January 2022: beginnings or new start; alliterative verse
Prompts for February 2022: melting; proverb
Prompts for March 2022: new life; acrostic
Prompts for April 2022: sudden change in the weather; fixed length of 222 words
Prompts for May 2022: bonfires; songs of defiance
Prompts for June 2022: cows or similar domestic animals; bredlik poem
Prompts for July 2022: summer storms or other explosions; exposition
Prompts for August 2022: art or craft found in unexpected places; diary entry
Prompts for September 2022: harvest; work song
Prompts for October 2022: bridge, inscription
Prompts for November 2022: spooky or eerie; children's or nursery rhyme.
Prompts for December 2022: prompt amnesty
Prompts for January 2023: lamp or lantern; Lanterne (poem)
Prompts for February 2023: Glorfindel and/or Erestor; a form in 19 parts or otherwise involving 19.
Prompts for March 2023: map or sign-post; travelogue.
Prompts for April 2023: rhyming words: rabbit / habit; eggs / legs; daffodil / codicil; bun / run.
Prompts for May 2023: tax or tolls; account book.
Prompts for June 2023: unseasonable weather; traditional weather predictions.
Prompts for July 2023: temperature contrast; news report.
Prompt for August 2023: Elven Elements (image prompt, artwork: beaded strand, by Lferion)
Prompt for September 2023: Silver (with three canon quotation prompts); haiku
Prompts for October 2023: Sound and silence; tanka
Prompts for November 2023: Tree and leaf; cynghanedd.

Prompts for December 2023: Prompt amnesty.
Prompt for January 2024: building; cumulative (song, poem or tale).
Prompt for February 2024: gift or gift-giving; ballad
Prompt for March 2024: glass; triolet.
Prompt for April 2024: bread; bredlik.
Prompt for May 2024: name; acrostic
Prompt for June 2024: influenced by another work (including crossover); fixed length of 333 words.

Prompt for July 2024: original character or unnamed canon character; fixed length: multiple of 50 words.
Prompt for August 2024: magic trees; call and response.
Prompt for September 2024: wave; in-universe commentary.
Prompt for October 2024: Golden Shovel (words from Tolkien prompts in same order)
Prompt for November 2024: refuge; imitation of a sound

Prompts for December 2024: Prompt amnesty.
Prompts for January 2025: small comforts; list of ingredients.
Prompts for February 2025: recovery; story-telling
Prompts for March 2025: return; multiple of 100 words
Prompts for April 2025: wood; linnod

Prompts for May 2025: words, phrases and a song title containing may as word or syllable
Prompts for June 2025: regard - reward; alliteration
Prompts for July 2025; flowing water; shape poem
Prompts for August 2025: Tolkien's Verse (bingo card); ten-line poem

Prompts for September 2025: four-word prompts; multiple of 30 words.

Prompts for October 2025: plant name (from a list); in-universe instructions.

Prompts for November 2025: mention of sibling relationship and food item; drabble (100 or multiple of 100)

Prompts for December 2025: prompt amnesty

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: Upon a Memorial Tablet for Gilraen in Rivendell
Characters: Gilraen
Text type / Format: poem (free verse)
Source / Fandom: Lord of the Rings, Appendices
Rating: PG
Warnings: allusions to mortality
Word Count: 26
Summary: Gilraen was a guest in Rivendell for long years. She was also a Mortal among Elves. One of the Elvish names for Mortals is "Guests". The text on this memorial tablet was, I think, written by an Elvish friend of Gilraen's after her death; it's the reader's choice to decide who the author is. I imagine that memorial tablet as also being incised with a line drawing of Gilraen in profile.
Author notes: For the thematic prompt of this month's challenge.

( Read more... )

silver_trails

Author: Silvertrails
Title: The King
Text type / Format: Fixed format
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 180x2
Summary: Makalaurë and Nolofinwë discuss what to do after Findekáno is also captured by Melkor.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/90076996

Current Mood: accomplished

hhimring

Thank you very much for your engagement with this community during the past month!

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for August.

Thematic prompt:

Guests and hospitality.

This theme is just being discussed in some quarters in connection with the Odyssey and Nolan's recent film at present, but hospitality, the relation between a host and their guest, the treatment of guests and the behaviour of guests, is very relevant to Tolkien's works as well, in many places in the Legendarium and also in his smaller works.

The formal challenge is:

Write a poem of 18 words' length or with a section 18 words long. If you are writing prose, you can stick to the number 18 for flash fiction or substitute the number 180 instead.

As usual, the thematic prompt and the formal challenge can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: Will it ever be thus? No!
Characters: Ioreth
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: drabble
Source / Fandom: The Lord of the Rings
Rating: PG
Warnings: Set during the Siege of Minas Tirith
Word Count: 100
Summary: Tolkien seems to show Ioreth as somewhat single-mindedly oblivious to the siege and the battle outside the walls even as she is devotedly treating its victims. Maybe there is a bit more to that, though?
Author notes: Written for a poetry fiction prompt taken from a poem by Christina Rossetti, from which the title is adapted. As it's a drabble (and as it's 31 July already), I'm also claiming it as fill for the July challenge (multiple of 50 words).

( Read more... )

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: The Road from Armenelos
Characters: Isildur, Original animal character
Pairing: n/a (or platonically: Numenoreans & their horses)
Text type / Format: ficlet
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion (Akallabeth); Nature of Middle-earth; Unfinished Tales
Rating: Teens
Warnings: canonical mention of wounds; reference to canon-typical violence against unnamed characters
Word Count: 404
Summary: According to a text in "The Nature of Middle-earth", Numenoreans could send out a mental call to their horses, a bit like Gandalf does to Shadowfax, although probably not across quite such long distances. Inspired by this, here is a ficlet about Isildur's get-away after he stole the last fruit of the White Tree of Numenor almost from under the noses of Ar-Pharazon and Sauron.
Author notes: Written for Esoteric Tolkien Week on Tumblr. This was intended also to be a fill for the thematic part of this month's challenge here, but is a near miss on that front, as I didn't manage to include any from the list of objects.

( Read more... )

starspray

Author: StarSpray

Title: What If?

Characters: Maedhros, Maglor

Pairing: n/a

Text type / Format: drabble and a half

Source / Fandom: Silmarillion

Rating: G

Warnings: n/a

Word Count: 150

Summary: "What if we just left?"
Author notes: Written for the SWG July instadrabbles, and for Tolkien Gen Week on tumblr.

( Read more... )

starspray

Author: StarSpray

Title: Ashes

Characters: Finrod

Pairing: n/a

Text type / Format: drabble

Source / Fandom: Silmarillion

Rating: T

Warnings: reference to canonical character death

Word Count: 100

Summary: Finrod stood atop a hill, not far from the Narog, and watched the red glow on the northern horizon.
Author notes: Written for the SWG July instadrabbles, and for Tolkien Gen Week on tumblr.

( Read more... )

silver_trails

Author: Silvertrails
Title: Darkness
Text type / Format: Fixed format
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 150
Summary: What If Fingon cannot rescue Maedhros. I am posting it for the July Challenge.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/88009666

hhimring

Thank you very much for your engagement with this community during the past month!

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July.

Thematic prompt:

Here are three groups of words or concepts. Pick at least one of each. You can either use the word in your work or use the concept as your theme.

1) Land, water, sky, underground, ruins, dark, home.
2) Wander, return, demand, trammel, bargain, endure, abandon.
3) Document, music, invention, relic, art, weapon, gift.

This is an adapted version of the prompts for esotolkienweek, which is running on Tumblr from 13 to 19 July:
https://www.tumblr.com/esotolkienweek/812565673382412288/2026-esoteric-tolkien-week-prompts-have-landed-as

For this community, of course, your prompt fill does not have to involve the supernatural or mysterious, unlike the Tumblr event, although it can.

I have no special inspiration for the formal challenge this month, so let's just go with a word count of 50 or multiples of 50.

As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

zdenka

Author: Zdenka
Title: Mourning in a Deathless Land
Text type / Format: ficlet (just made it under 1000 words!)
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion
Rating: T
Word Count: 993
Summary: After sensing Lalwen's death in Middle-earth, Elemmírë goes to her parents for help with mourning rituals.
Notes: Written for the thematic prompt "Drink" and this quotation prompt from The Lord of the Rings: "...he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon." Also fills prompts from

femslashfete and

100ships.

here on AO3

zdenka

Author: Zdenka
Title: The World on Fire
Text type / Format: drabble
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion
Rating: T
Word Count: 100
Summary: Finrod has a vision of his brothers fighting Morgoth's sudden attack in the Dagor Bragollach.
Notes: Written for

tolkien100 for the prompt "The World on Fire".

( Read more... )

also here on AO3

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: Arrival in Barad Nimras
Characters: Edhellos (Eldalote)
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: ficlet
Source / Fandom: Silmarillion
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Word Count: 240 words
Summary: Edhellos, the widow of Prince Angrod, recently a refugee from Dorthonion, takes up a new post on the coast.
Author notes: For the prompt "letter" of the June challenge and Simarillion Epistolary Week. This is part of a loosely organized WIP about Edhellos, but was written to be able to be read on its own.

( Read more... )

hhimring

Thank you for your engagement with this community during the past month!

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for June.

Thematic prompt: Drink.

Optional quotation prompts (all from LOTR):

1)
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.

2)
...he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon.

3)
Your Ladyship, all we want is light and water: just clean water and plain daylight, better than any jewels, begging our pardon.

The formal prompt is: epistolary.
Your prompt fill should be a letter or include a letter.

(This is inspired by the Silmarillion Epistolary Week, which has just started on Tumblr.)

As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: Mirk No More
Characters: Thranduil
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: ficlet
Source / Fandom: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Appendices
Rating: General
Warnings: n/a
Word Count: 100
Summary: After the Fall of Sauron, Mirkwood becomes Eryn Lasgalen, a green wood once again.
Author notes: For the May Challenge. Also for a tolkien100 prompt.

( Read more... )

elennalore

Author: elennalore

Title: A meadow of bluebells
Characters: Fëanáro, Melkor

Text type / Format: fixed-length ficlet

Source / Fandom: the Silmarillion

Rating: G

Word Count: 200

Summary: Fëanáro finds a beautiful spring meadow while wandering in Aman.
Author notes: Written for the May challenge. Prompts used: carpets of misty bluebells and spring's in their voice.

( Read more... )

hhimring

Thank you for your engagement with this community during the past month!

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for May.

Thematic prompt:

Here are some quotation prompts from Tolkien's poem "May Day". Respond to them any way you like.

- pale April is fled
- come hatless
- carry no cloak
- the green spark that the meadow-grass fed
- spring's in their voice
- carpets of misty bluebells
- the crozier fronds of the fern
- a tune from the silver and gold
- the last bell has tinkled

Formal challenge:

Your piece should be 25 words long or a multiple of 25 (50, 75, 100, 125, etc.)

As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

hhimring

Author: Himring
Title: No king could ask for better
Characters: Ioreth
Pairing: n/a
Text type / Format: drabble + haiku
Source / Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Word Count: 114
Summary: Ioreth as a lass in Imloth Melui
Author notes: For the formal challenge (haibun or similar) for the April challenge.

( Read more... )

vamp_ress

Title: Stray
Author: Michelle
Email: michelle [at] waking-vision.com
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings
Summary: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, with the addition of some fantastical whimsy.
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings
Pairing: Aragorn/Arwen
Genre: Het
Rating: General Audiences
Disclaimer: I own black cats, a whole lot of them. And that’s it.
Author’s Note: Written for

fandomweekly, Prompt #297 “Unexpected Kindness”.

( Stray )

hhimring

Thank you for your engagement with this community during the past month!

Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April.

Thematic prompt:

Fool, foolish, to fool: write about somebody being a fool or being fooled or wrongly accused of foolishness.
While this is obviously inspired by the date of 1 April and you can certainly write about a prank, if you like, you may also want to consider that foolishness is a wider theme in Tolkien's works, especially in The Lord of the Rings, which often asks what is true foolishness and true wisdom?

Optional quotation prompts (all well-known and I am sure you can think of more):
1)
Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
2)
Just a fool's hope
3)
Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!

Formal challenge:

Inspired by the form of haibun, which is a combination of a prose piece and a following haiku on the same subject: write a short piece of verse (any form you like) to go along with a prose piece, for example as a summary or introduction.

As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.

Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.

Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!

silver_trails

Author: Silvertrails
Title: The Light of Ithil
Text type / Format: Fixed format
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion, Avengers
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 300
Summary: Daeron remembers the past while spending some time with Maglor and Bucky near the sea. This story is part of one of my crossover arcs. I am posting it for the March Challenge.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/81979626

Current Mood: accomplished

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A community for short fanworks from Tolkien fandom

August 2026

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Page Summary

hhimring - Welcome post
hhimring - Headers for posts
hhimring - Challenges and Prompts
hhimring - Upon a Memorial Tablet for Gilraen in Rivendell, by Himring
silver_trails - The King, by Silvertrails
hhimring - August Challenge
hhimring - Will it ever be thus? No! (by Himring)
hhimring - The Road from Armenelos, by Himring
starspray - What If? by StarSpray
starspray - Ashes, by StarSpray
silver_trails - Darkness, by Silvertrails
hhimring - July Challenge
zdenka - Mourning in a Deathless Land, by Zdenka (Elemmírë/Lalwen)
zdenka - The World on Fire, by Zdenka (Finrod & Aegnor & Angrod)
hhimring - Arrival in Barad Nimras, by Himring
hhimring - June Challenge
hhimring - Mirk No More, by Himring
elennalore - A meadow of bluebells
hhimring - May Challenge
hhimring - No king could ask for better, by Himring
vamp_ress - Stray
hhimring - Monthly challenge for April
silver_trails - The Light of Ithil, by Silvertrails

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A community for short fanworks from Tolkien fandom

Recent Entries

Admin Post: Sticky: Welcome post

Admin Post: Sticky: Headers for posts

Admin Post: Sticky: Challenges and Prompts

Upon a Memorial Tablet for Gilraen in Rivendell, by Himring

The King, by Silvertrails

Admin Post: August Challenge

Will it ever be thus? No! (by Himring)

The Road from Armenelos, by Himring

What If? by StarSpray

Ashes, by StarSpray

Darkness, by Silvertrails

Admin Post: July Challenge

Mourning in a Deathless Land, by Zdenka (Elemmírë/Lalwen)

The World on Fire, by Zdenka (Finrod & Aegnor & Angrod)

Arrival in Barad Nimras, by Himring

Admin Post: June Challenge

Mirk No More, by Himring

A meadow of bluebells

Admin Post: May Challenge

No king could ask for better, by Himring

Stray

Admin Post: Monthly challenge for April

The Light of Ithil, by Silvertrails

Profile

August 2026

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