August 2019 Challenge: Notion Club Revival
Tolkien loved to play with the idea that his Legendarium was not based purely on his imagination, but was in fact historical material that he merely compiled and translated. In many cases, he presented them as the work of in-universe historians, gone through many hands until they somehow ended up in his own. In other cases, he created intricate scenarios in which his characters - or even just his languages - travelled through time and space, interacting with history in strange ways.
Perhaps the most intriguing experiment with this mode of transmission is The Notion Club Papers, in which a member of an Oxford-based writing and discussion group unexpectedly dreams up fragments of Adûnaic and Quenya. Supposedly set in the imaginary 1980s and peopled with parodies and avatars of the real Inklings, full of dream-journeys and inherited memories, the meetings of the Notion Club unexpectedly uncover the final days of Númenor.
In the spirit of the Notion Club, this month's challenge presents you with several (more or less) mysterious "historical" documents. What's the story behind them? Well, that's up to you! You can select any (or several) of the documents and let them feature in your fanwork for this challenge somehow. Fanworks don't have to imitate The Notion Club Papers, nor do they have to be about time-travel, dreams, or Númenor (although we traditionally like to celebrate Akallabêth in August, and there might be a special stamp for contributions set in the Second Age of Arda). Let our collection of strange documents (discovered, perhaps, in the same sack of waste paper in the Examination Schools at Oxford that contained the records of the Notion Club...) inspire you in whichever way works for you!
Fanworks are due September 15 in order to receive a stamp. As always, late fanworks are welcome (they just don't receive stamps), and there is no deadline for stamps for comment challenges. (If you need a comment challenge stamp for a challenge before June's "Pride" challenge, please email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org to request it.) Complete challenge guidelines are available on our website.
Prompts (click images for full-size)
Alchemy Apparatus
Description: A book page illustrating laboratory equipment for alchemy.
Image Credit: British Library (public domain)
Cave System Map
Description: A parchment fragment of a cave system map with labeled features.
Text Transcript: List of map features
Image Credit: Richard Ellsworth Call (public domain), modified by Dawn Felagund
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Diary Page Fragment
Description: Part of diary page, describing the writer's garden, torn along the edge and splattered with a red substance.
Text Transcript: Transcript
Image Credit: Dawn Felagund
Dwarven Botany
Description: An ink drawing of pewterwort (Equisetum arvense), accompanied by a description written in runes.
Image Credit: Lyra
Erotic Poem (NSFW)
Description: A n erotic poem, done in calligraphy in red ink on parchment.
Text Transcript: Transcript
Image Credit: Dawn Felagund, based on "The Love Song of Shu-Sin," translated by Michael R. Burch
Map of "Oronto" (the Uttermost East)
Description: A navigational map of "Oronto" or the "Uttermost East" in the Second Age, probably Númenórean in origin.
Image Credit: Lyra, based on a map from Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth
Musical Notation
Description: Two drafts of the notation for a musical composition. In one version, the notes are represented as harp strings, with different symbols on the strings evidently denoting tone length. In the other version, the notes have been assigned Tengwar numerals from 0 to 11, and each tact is represented much like a duodecimal number, with symbols for tone length underneath.
Image Credit: Lyra
Recipe Collection
Description: Four recipes: for bottling currants, brewing ginger wine, and preparing pigeon and venison.
Text Transcript: "To Bottle Currants" recipe transcript, "Ginger Wine" recipe transcript, and "Pigeon and Venison" recipe transcripts
Image Credit: Wellcome Library (currants and ginger wine) and Art of Cookery (pigeon and venison, public domain)
Star Chart
Description: A star map on a scrap of papyrus, illustrating well-known constellations such as Valacirca, Menelmacar, Wilwarin etc.
Image Credit: Lyra
Tower Diagram Fragments
Description: Fragments of an architectural drawing of a tower.
Image Credit: Drawing by Florentin Granholm (public domain), modified by Dawn Felagund
Trebuchet Diagram
Description: A page from a notebook, depicting a "stone-slinger" (trebuchet), along with an explanation in Quenya. A scribbled cartoon illustrates the “stone-slinger” in action.
Image Credit: Lyra
Special thank yous this month to Lyra for the original artwork and Grundy for assistance with developing prompts!