Happy New Year! All the best for 2026
Thank you very much for your engagement with this community over the last month!
This month, I am bringing back the challenge we had in January 2023:
The thematic prompt is: "lamp or lantern".
There are many lamps in the Legendarium!
Starting from the Two Lamps, Ormal and Illuin, and the silver lamp on top of the Mindon Eldaliéva in Tirion, all the way to lamps in Lothlórien in the Lord of the Rings and onwards.
Some bonus prompts from Tolkien's verse (filched from Tolkien Gateway):
till his blue lamp magic-kindled, where flow the shadowy rills
beneath enchanted alders, found that Gate beneath the hills
(From: The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin)
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! And then to bed!
(From: Lord of the Rings)
O! the swinging lamps in the starlit globes
(From: Goblin Feet)
The formal challenge is a type of short poem of five lines also called "Lantern" or "Lanterne" (or "Lanturne"), because its shape is like that of a hanging lantern or lamp, when it is centre-aligned on the page.
The syllable count is 1-2-3-4-1.
Here are lanterne poems written for the challenge in January 2023:
Silmarils, by Narya:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/50308.htmlLamp, by elennalore:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/50640.htmlStarlight, by Starspray:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/51138.htmlSeven Lanterns, by Zdenka:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/51275.htmlAn Unexpected Find, by Anérea:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/51839.htmlWaiting, by Silver Trails:
https://tolkienshortfanworks.dreamwidth.org/52831.htmlAs always, the two prompts can be filled entirely independently or combined with prompts from other challenges.
Usual reminder that although you can fill the prompts in any way you like, 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!