Welcome to the Teitho informational post!
ABOUT TEITHO
The Teitho Contest was an initiative of Aragornwriter, and is currently moderated by Carawyn, Sian and Lotrfan.
The contest runs through our ProBoards site in two separate cathegories - fanfiction and fanart, and invites writers and artists who like Tolkien's world to join in. You don't have to be a member of any particular mailing list or group, but do bear in mind our rules.
The contest was originally created for stories containing the characters of Aragorn and/or Legolas, and their friendship, inspired by the Mellon chronicles. It has been running without interruption since January 2005. In this long time, we have moved on to include more of Tolkien's world and characters, but have kept the emphasis on friendship in the stories - this is not a rule, just a recommendation to keep the spirit of the original contest even through the changes. (Rules are listed later in this post.)
Teitho stands for "Write!" or "Draw!", which is exactly what we want you to do!
Are you a Tolkien-fanfiction writer, interested in friendship stories about Tolkien's characters? Do you like to write angst, horror, comedy, etc?
Or, are you a reader on the lookout for exciting new fics or artist looking for new inspiration?
Then look no further. Welcome to the Teitho Contest, where you can participate with a variety of other writers and artists and send in stories and pictures based on our themes.
Join us in this writing and drawing contest!
New challenge is posted every month. On the first day of the challenge, we announce a new theme on this site. You then have two months to create your entry, which has to be finished when you send it in.
After the deadline of the contest, the voting period begins. Based on the number of entries, it lasts for two or more weeks. The winners are usually announced a day or two after the end of the voting. Teitho remains one of the last prompt-based, independent, Tolkien fan-fiction/fan art monthly contests.
Send in your entries to the following email address: [email protected]
Do NOT send in your entry to any other list or email address or it will not be eligible! This contest is unique!
All the entries will be posted anonymously, so you will not know which author you are voting for. The voting is individual for both art and fic, and you can vote for just one or both of them, if you want. We will announce the winners on this site and our social media pages.
RULES:
Contest Entries
-The contest runs in two separate categories - fanfiction and fanart.
- Ratings may go up as far as M, but please keep in mind that our audience consists of different age groups.
- The entry must feature character mentioned by Tolkien in any of his works set in Middle-earth.
- You can only participate with one entry per challenge.
- The entries will be displayed on the website anonymously to give everyone a fair chance of winning. Therefore, you may only repost your entry elsewhere after the voting is over and the winners have been announced. The anonymity is one of Teitho's unique features, don't spoil it!
- Of course you can use the Teitho theme as inspiration for a story or picture, even if you don't send it in as a submission. As a courtesy, we would ask you to not post your story until the contest is over as to not influence voters.
- Please use only [email protected] to send in your entry. Entries sent elsewhere will not be eligible for the contest. Send your stories as an attachment in a text file (doc, docx or rtf) and pictures as jpg or png. (If we can't open it, we'll get back to you, don't worry.)
The header information for stories must contain:
- story title
- penname (revealed only after the voting period)
- challenge
- summary
-characters
-warnings (AU, violence, character death and other potentially disturbing elements to some readers)
- rating (we follow the scale provided by fictionratings.com, which can be found here.
(Please be aware that stories which are graphic to the point of being explicit or inappropriate for readers under the age of 18 cannot be accepted, per the Terms of Service set forth by Proboards. This is not a Teitho rule, but one set by our hosts.)
The header information for art must contain:
- picture title
- name or nickname of the artist (revealed only after the voting period)
- challenge
- technique of creation
- optional: description of the depicted scene
There is no minimum length for stories, or required form - you can write poems or drabbles, submit traditional and digital art, or even artisan crafts. The recommended maximum length for stories is appr. 20 doc-pages.
Types of challenges
A new challenge is posted on the 1st of every month, and every challenge runs for two months (two challenges are always active at the same time).
- Regular challenges - a word or phrase
- Picture challenge - twice yearly, typically in March and September
- Joker challenge - in December, allows you to pick any of the past challenges—from any year—and submit an entry inspired by that prompt
- Other challenge - in June (music, a list of random words or some other type of prompt)
- Illustration for a Teitho story - we have a special artistic challenge running for the entire year (deadline is December 31st) to illustrate one of the stories posted in that year. Due to the long period of this challenge, the entries will not be anonymous and will be allowed to be posted elsewhere and one artist can participate with several entries.
Voting:
- The voting period starts with posting of the entries. To enable the voters to have enough time to read all stories, the voting period will be two weeks for up to 5 stories, and an additional week for each 5 more stories (3 weeks for up to 10, 4 weeks for up to 15).
- If you would like your vote to be as objective as possible, please refer to our voting guide at the ProBoards site.
- The voting is done through a poll, separately for the writing and artistic cathegory. You can vote for 3 entries, ordering them from 1st to 3rd place.
- Please do not solicit votes. Teitho is about creativity and displaying a wide array of entries for a given theme. It is not focused on a race first place. We would like to keep this contest fun for everyone.
- Please note that despite the voting guide, the voting might still sometimes reflect the voter's favourite characters and story genre rather than quality of writing or art. We would like to emphasize that it's more important to participate than to win, and to increase the number of quality stories available to fans of Middle Earth.
If you still have questions about anything, feel free to drop us a line at [email protected]. We'll be happy to answer!
HISTORY:
The Teitho Contest was an original idea by Aragornwriter, inviting authors to tackle monthly challenges and "write, write, write!" Because that's what teitho means in Sindarin.
Throughout the years, different moderators have inherited the maintenance of the contest, all of them sharing a passion for Tolkien and for writing:
Aragornwriter January 2005 - August 2005
Alina August 2005 - March 2008
Michelle August 2005 - February 2010
Valante February 2010 - June 2011
Marethiel February 2010 - August 2011
Nautika February 2010 - April 2013
StarLight February 2010 - February 2014
Mirach July 2011 - Present
Karri January 2018 - July 2019
Carawyn January 2018 - Present
Sian22 January 2018 - Present
Lotrfan January 2018 - Present
Suggest a prompt!
We always love to use prompt ideas that have come from our participants! If you have a suggestion for the future challenge, please leave it in a comment below, and we'll be sure to consider it.
It helps to keep a prompt as general as possible, so that it can be used in any culture. For example "A picnic in a forest" would leave out any cultures in Middle Earth that doesn't have forests; Harad, for example, or Erebor. But "Picnic" can be used in any culture, and in any age!
We ask that prompts themselves be rated K, even if the stories they inspire may be rated up to M.