#tolkienhorrorweek2025

[tehcherrya]

It is hard to wash the blood off your hands if the water is full of it...

Some more dark folkloric Maglor for @tolkienhorrorweek !! I made another illustration of this same concept before -- but I had this other sketch in the WIP back-burner as well, and what better time to finish it but now, during the spookiest time of the year! Look at him scarily hiding in the shadows...

As always, kudos to the lovely @silme-lorien for coming up with the original concept, and for the inspiration!

[southaway]

@tolkienhorrorweek : Day Two - Ringwraith

Day 2: Angmar & Minas Morgul | lit with a fell light | specters and wraiths

You know that feeling when you think something might be behind you?

[tolkienhorrorweek]

Tolkien Horror Week is back for another year of celebrating all the terrifying and unsettling bits of Tolkien's work! The event will run from October 26th to November 1st and accepts all types of fanworks. There is an AO3 collection for the event here.

Below are some suggested prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory; feel free to combine them or disregard them entirely.

Day 1: Angband, Utumno, & Tol-in-Gaurhoth | beautiful and yet horrible of shape | captives and thralls Day 2: Angmar & Minas Morgul | lit with a fell light | specters and wraiths Day 3: Mordor & the Dead Marshes | enmeshed in shadows | spells and enchantments Day 4: The Barrow-downs & the Old Forest | cold be hand and heart and bone | mists and mires Day 5: Mirkwood, Nan Elmoth, & Taur-nu-Fuin | hunted like wild beasts | beasts and monsters Day 6: Nan Dungortheb & the Paths of the Dead | phantoms of terror | webs and snares Day 7: Isengard, Moria, & Númenor | old and forgotten | rituals and sacrifices

Please mention @tolkienhorrorweek in the body of your post and tag #tolkienhorrorweek and #tolkienhorrorweek2025 in the first 10 tags. You may also submit a post. Please tag any content warnings/gore and place any NSFW content beneath a read more/link to AO3.

For more information, see the FAQ. If you have any questions, drop them in the ask box.

Art is by John Howe.

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

"She retired to her father's house; but when it became clear that Feanor and his sons would leave Valinor for ever, she came to him before the host started on its northward march, and begged that Feanor should leave her the two youngest, the twins, or one at least of them. He replied: 'Were you a true wife, as you had been till cozened by Aule, you would keep all of them, for you would come with us. If you desert me, you desert also all of our children. For they are determined to go with their father.' Then Nerdanel was angry and she answered: 'You will not keep all of them. One at least will never set foot on Middle-earth.'" - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Names of the Sons of Fëanor with the Legend of the Fate of Amrod"

@tolkienhorrorweek day 7: rituals and sacrifices ⇢ THE DEATH OF AMROD

[J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth // Anaïs Mitchell, "Dyin' Day" // Rembrandt van Rijn, "The Sacrifice of Isaac" // Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, detail from "The Sacrifice of Isaac" // J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth // Paul Goodman, "Cain and Abel," from Five Young American Poets // Francisco Goya, detail from "Saturn Devouring His Son" // Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis, trans. by Charles R. Walker // Ilya Repin, "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan" // J.R.R. Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth]

[thescrapwitch]

I am ridiculously proud of this little horror piece for @tolkienhorrorweek Day 5: Monsters. Featuring: Maglor and Maedhros in the Fourth Age, and the wonderful trope of "came back wrong".

Here's a little snippet!

Of course Maglor is different! Six thousand years of exile, wandering alone along Middle Earth’s coasts with only the waves and wind for company. Was Maedhros not changed after only thirty years in Angband? Did Maglor not defend his right to be scarred, inside and out, to heal at his own pace, to be no less a person despite how little he resembled the Maitimo of Valinor? They called me a thrall in Mithrim and Maglor broke their teeth for it, thinks Maedhros. How can I do any less for him? He is home now. That is what matters. That is all that matters. Then he finds the first dead bird.

Read the rest here in The Thing 😈

[malfirien]

@tolkienhorrorweek - Day 2: Angmar & Minas Morgul | lit with a fell light | specters and wraiths

[justdrowthings]

Tolkien Horror Week Day 1

(And I am already behind because the truest horror is overthinking.)

Tol-in-Gaurhoth

We used to tell the children not to stray too far from the fire at night or the wolves might take them.

Now not even the weak light of day can keep them safe.

Hold hands. Go in groups. Never be far from an adult.

As if even the adults are safe now.

Walk in water where you can to dull the scent. Break no branch or the forest will hear.

Barricade yourself in before the sun falls.

When they come hunting pray it is not for you.

Pray it is not Drauglin.

Pray it is not Thû.

[tehcherrya]

Legolas beholds The Necromancer

Once very beautiful indeed... Legolas, wandering too far southwest in Mirkwood catches a glimpse of a being among the shaded trees. Tall it was, with a presence of pure darkness and malice. Something divine about it, yet that light was mutilated and twisted out of shape. Almost unrecognizable.

The being does not come close to him, but simply drifts deeper into the darkness of the night, still too weak and without body and soul to desire being perceived. Little did he know that night, but Legolas has gazed upon the shell of Sauron himself. Who indeed was once very fair... but that was long ago.

@tolkienhorrorweek

Alt. Sauron below--