silwritersguild | Entries tagged with mereth aderthad 2025

Mereth Aderthad Interview with Maglor by Shadow. Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the Last High King of the Noldor

Who was Gil-galad? One need not have even read The Silmarillion to begin reciting the answer to that, in the style of Samwise Gamgee. But who really was Gil-galad? Who was the person beyond the king we are presented in the texts?

In our latest in a series of interviews of Mereth Aderthad 2025 presenters, Shadow spoke with Maglor about his upcoming presentation on "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the Last High King of the Noldor." Maglor spoke about what draws him to Tolkien, his theories on Gil-galad as a character, and what makes fanworks so essential to unlocking the secrets of the last High King of the Noldor.

You can read Shadow's interview with Maglor here.

daughterofshadows

Mereth Aderthad 2025, July 19. Burlington, VT & online. Registration now open!

Mereth Aderthad 2025 is open to both in-person and virtual attendees, and registration for both is free. Registration will remain open through the day of the event, so there is no deadline to register!

Some key points:

You will be asked for a name and an email address at registration. Pseudonyms are fine!
We will use your email to contact you about event updates only.
Please do not register if you cannot attend, and cancel your registration if circumstances change and you are no longer able to attend. In-person seating is limited, and we pay costs per person and cannot afford to pay for empty seats. Contact a moderator if you need help canceling a registration. We are leaving registration open through the day of the event, so if you decide you can join us last-minute, please do!
There is an OPTIONAL donation to help us cover costs of the event. It really is optional! We want you there more than we want an extra few bucks! If you want more information on how donations will be used, see our Donation Policy.

Ready to register? You can register for Mereth Aderthad 2025 here!

daughterofshadows

A banner styled like a auditorium with red chairs and a whiteboard. Text on the whiteboard: So you want to present at a Tolkien Conference? Text in a black box on the bottom: Session 2: Putting together the presentation. April 12, 2025, 1pm Eastern | silmarillionwritersguild.org

Mereth Aderthad 2025 is coming in July, and we are excited to have many fans who are presenting their meta, research, and scholarship at the event! But even though Tolkien fans engage in deep research and thinking about the legendarium all the time, making the step to presenting that work at conferences can feel intimidating. Even in a field as friendly to fan and independent scholarship as Tolkien studies is, the trappings of academia remain and, unless you have academic training, these can be a barrier to participation.

To help demystify conference proposals and presentations, over the next few months, we will be holding sessions aimed at helping fans make the sideways step to Tolkien scholarship by presenting their work at a Tolkien conference. Our next session is about how to put together the paper and presentation that you will share at the event, including various approaches to conference presentations, how to structure a presentation to maintain audience interest and not exceed time limits, and tools/strategies for using multimedia. (If you missed our first session, it can be found here: So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Writing the Proposal.)

Date: Saturday, 12 April 2025
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Time (what is this in my timezone?)
Location: RSVP to have the link emailed to you

After the session, there will be time for questions, and we will stay online for a collaborative writing session for anyone who is interested.

All are welcome to attend and participate to whatever extent they feel comfortable! (In other words, you can keep your camera off and there are no breakout rooms.)

Can't make it on April 12? We will record the session so that anyone can view it.

If you need to change your Zoom display name before or while attending, learn how to do that here.

daughterofshadows

Mereth Aderthad 2025: Interview with Shadow by Himring. The Aromantic in Tolkien

Shadow's presentation "The Aromantic in Tolkien" will be featured at Mereth Aderthad 2025 in July and will discuss three characters in Tolkien who can be read as aromantic. Himring had a chance to talk with Shadow about aromanticism in Tolkien and their personal and fannish inspirations for the topic.

You can read Himring's interview with Shadow here.

And find out more about our upcoming hybrid Mereth Aderthad event here.

daughterofshadows

Mereth Aderthad Interview with Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch by Quente

Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch, who writes under the penname LadySternchen on our archive, will be presenting her paper "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist – a defence of Elu Thingol" at Mereth Aderthad 2025 in July. Quente chatted with Stella about Thingol and what draws her to his character, despite him not being widely liked by the fandom overall. As Stella notes, many Silmarillion characters are complex. What leads some to be fan favorites and others actively villainized?

You can read Quente's interview with Stella here.

And find out more about our upcoming hybrid Mereth Aderthad event here.

daughterofshadows

Interview with Acha Rezak (Quente) by Shadow. "Mythmakers vs the made myths: Exploring a reader's level of religious alienation and connection in works about and by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis

Acha Rezak, who writes under the penname Quente on our archive, will be presenting her paper "Mythmakers vs. the made myths: Exploring a reader’s levels of religious alienation and connection in works about and by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis" at Mereth Aderthad 2025 in July. Shadow sat down with Acha to ask her about her paper, its inspiration, and the topic of religion in Tolkien.

You can read Shadow's interview with Acha here.

And find out more about our upcoming hybrid Mereth Aderthad event here.

daughterofshadows

Program

We are pleased to share the program for presentations of meta and scholarship! Fanworks that will be shared as part of these sessions will be added soon as well. All times are in Eastern U.S. time (UTC -4 at the time of event).

9:00-9:15 Welcome!

9:15-9:45
"Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol" by Stella Getreuer-Kostrouch

9:45-10:15
"The Aromantic in Tolkien" by Shadow

10:15-10:45
"The Design of Dragons and Doom of the Dwarves" by cloudyhymns

10:45-11:15
"Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor" by Maglor

11:15-11:45
"Exile, Ruin and Resistance: Beleriand as Postcolonial Palimpsest" by Dr. Zara Ashkenazi-Khan

11:45-12:15
"By Guile Committed: Comparing Tolkien’s Thieves to Beowulf" by Savannah Horrell

1:00-1:30
"Mythmakers vs. the made myths: Exploring a reader’s levels of religious alienation and connection in works about and by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis" by Acha Rezak (Quente)

1:30-2:00
"Love, Grief, and Alliterative Verse in Tolkien’s Legendarium" by Paul D. Deane

2:00-2:30
"Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation" by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates a.k.a. pandemonium_213

2:30-3:00
"Twilight, Child Of: Comparisons Between Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel" by JazTheBard

3:00-3:30
"How To Make a Star From a Tree: The Science of Telperion and Laurelin" by Zhie

3:30-4:00
"'Kidnap Fam' and the Living Legendarium" by polutropos

daughterofshadows

Mereth Aderthad 2025 is a hybrid event held in honor of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild's twentieth birthday that seeks to celebrate the creativity and insightfulness of the Tolkien fandom. The event will feature presentations of meta, research, and scholarship. Each presentation will be accompanied by fanworks on the same topic or theme.

We are currently seeking fanworks creators who are interested in creating fanworks to be shared at Mereth Aderthad 2025.

Schedule/Timeline

If you are interested in creating a fanwork for Mereth Aderthad 2025, you should first complete the interest form. We will be in contact after that with next steps.
January 12 - February 15: interest sign-ups for fanworks creators open
January 15: call for meta/research/scholarship closes
February 7: presentation list sent out to all creators who have submitted an interest form
February 15: sign-ups for fanworks creators open
April 15: progress check-in
Fanwork Due Dates: TBD

Here is a more detailed breakdown of how the process will work and which fanworks are eligible.

Fanworks Creator Sign-Up

If you are interested in creating a fanwork for Mereth Aderthad, use this form to share an email address where we can reach you. You will hear from us on February 7 with the presentation list and more information on sign-ups, then again on February 15 with a link to the sign-up form. Filling out the interest form does not require you to sign up.

daughterofshadows

This is your reminder that the call for presentations for Mereth Aderthad is closing on January 15. If you are still on the fence about submitting a proposal, now is the time to make a decision!

Do you have Tolkien Meta you want to share with us? This is your chance! You can find all the info in the post I'm replying to and you can submit proposals under this link: https://forms.gle/66NWeLYTs5yZncjbA

If you are worried about presenting live, we will also accept recordings of your presentation by you or somebody else, so don't let that stop you!

dawn_felagund

So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Writing the Proposal

Our first session on "So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference?" on writing the proposal happened today and went great!

You can now find the video, slideshow, handout, and sample proposal on the SWG site.

An issue that came up in Q&A, specific to Mereth Aderthad, was various options for people who are unable to present, either in-person or online. I cannot emphasize enough that we want sharing your work at this event to be something you can do if you want to do it! We will open to pre-recorded presentations or presentations read by someone other than the author. If presenting a work of meta at Mereth Aderthad is something you'd like to try but there is some kind of barrier to doing so, please reach out to us before assuming it's not possible. We are very willing to work with presenters!

Watch this space for a date for the next session and, very soon, the call for fanworks for Mereth Aderthad ...

daughterofshadows

So you want to present at a Tolkien Conference? Session 1: Writing the Proposal

Mereth Aderthad 2025 is coming in July, and we are looking for presenter willing to share meta, research, and scholarship about Tolkien. We are specifically welcoming fans—including fans who have never presented anything like this before—to submit proposals for presentations because we believe strongly that fans have a lot to offer as we collectively read and work to better understand and interpret Tolkien's world.

But presenting at a conference feels like a big deal! And even in a field as friendly to fan and independent scholarship as Tolkien studies is, the trappings of academia remain and, unless you have academic training, can be a barrier to participation.

To help demystify conference proposals and presentations, over the next few months, we will be holding sessions aimed at helping fans make the sideways step to Tolkien scholarship by presenting their work at a Tolkien conference. Our first session will be about writing proposals. Join us in a virtual (Zoom) session to learn about how Tolkien conferences work and how to put together a proposal!

Date: Saturday, 4 January 2024
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Time (what is this in my timezone?)
Location: link coming soon! (RSVP to have the link emailed to you)

After the session, there will be time for questions, and we will stay online for a proposal writing session for anyone who is interested.

Attending the session does not require you to submit a proposal to Mereth Aderthad or attend the event. All are welcome to attend and participate to whatever extent they feel comfortable! (In other words, you can keep your camera off and there are no breakout rooms.)

Can't make it on January 4? We will record the session so that anyone can view it.

daughterofshadows

Mereth Aderthad 2025: Call for Meta Presentations
Are you a meta writer? Do you want to share your ideas at the SWG’s birthday party?

Then you should read this post!

As you might have already seen, we’re hosting our own Mereth Aderthad next year to celebrate the SWG’s 20th birthday, and as part of it, we invite you to present your meta about Tolkien’s legendarium.

Presentations will be delivered live, either in-person or virtually.

Presentations should be 15 minutes in length.
While any topic related to Tolkien's works is acceptable, priority will be given to presentations with a significant Silmarillion component.
Proposals are due by January 15, 2025.

You’ve never done a presentation like this before or submitted a proposal?

Don’t worry! We’re here to help. In the coming months, we’ll be offering a variety of opportunities where you can find resources and support for first-time presenters, so you are ready to share your ideas and get that proposal submitted.

To learn more about these opportunities, subscribe to the SWG's weekly newsletter, join our Discord server, follow us on Tumblr, or follow us on Dreamwidth.

Proposals should be about 300 words in length and are due no later than January 15, 2025. Click here to submit a proposal. Questions are welcome at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.

dawn_felagund

Silmarillion Writers' Guild - Mereth Aderthad 2025 - July 19, 2025 - Burlington, VT, and online - a celebration of creativity and scholarship inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting an event on July 19, 2025 in celebration of our twentieth birthday! The event will be hybrid, with both virtual and in-person options, with the in-person event taking place at the South Burlington Library in Burlington, Vermont. For those able to attend in-person, we will also host community meals and other outings the weekend of the event.

In the spirit of the SWG's (almost) twenty-year history, the event will involve both research/scholarship and fanworks components, as we seek to showcase and celebrate the variety of ways that Tolkien fans engage with and illuminate his work through fiction, artwork, poetry, research, scholarship and meta, music, and other forms. If you'd like to present research, create a fanwork for the event, or attend either in-person or online, we encourage you to follow us on at least one of our social platforms so that you receive updates as they come in:

Subscribe to the SWG's weekly newsletter
Join our Discord server and watch the #announcements channel for updates
Follow us on Tumblr
Follow us on Dreamwidth

In the next few weeks, we will open the call for presenters for research, meta, and scholarship.

Right now, we are looking for volunteers to help with the various tasks we will be faced with over the next ten months. You do not need to be able to attend in-person to volunteer, and there is no minimum time commitment. Anything helps! If you'd like to volunteer, comment on this post, email the mods, contact us on any of our social media platforms, or post to the #town-hall on our Discord. Let us know if you'd like to be on the logistics committee (scheduling, tech setup and testing, weekend outings, etc.) or the promotions committee (graphics design, social media, presenter interviews, etc.) or both!

Click here to see the full information that's available for the Mereth Aderthad 2025 event.