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Category: Silmaril Awards

The Hour Has Come… (Silmarillion Awards presentation schedule)

Tracey Dyck 4 Comments

The hour has come, fellow questers! You have raised your swords; you have let your voices be heard. Ten winners have emerged victorious because of you, and the time has come to unveil these mighty victors.

But we are all fond of dramatics, so rather than parade them out all at once, our suspense will be heightened as each category’s winner is announced one at a time. It began on July 16, and shall continue until July 28. (That’s more than ten days, the mathematical among you say? There’s such a thing as weekends off, you know.) Even I don’t know any of the winners, besides my own and the two that have been announced at the time of this writing!

Each of us hosting the Silmarillion Awards will have a distinguished “guest” present on our blogs to present the awards. So far, it’s been great fun to meet guests such as Arwen and Aragorn, and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the presenters and discover who all the winners are!

I’ll be updating this schedule as the posts go live.

Sat. July 16 // E. Rawls with Best Fantasy Weapon
Mon. July 18 // Madeline J. Rose with Most Epic Hero
Tues. July 19 // Abbey with Most Nefarious Villain
Wed. July 20 // J.L. Mbewe with Best Redemption Story
Thurs. July 21 // Jack Lewis Baillot with Best Fantasy Mount
Fri. July 22 // myself with Riddling and Poetry
Mon. July 25 // Zachary Totah with Wisest Counsellor
Tues. July 26 // Deborah O’Carroll with Strangest Character
Wed. July 27 // DJ Edwardson with Most Faithful Friend
Thurs. July 28 // Jenelle Schmidt with Most Heart Wrenching Death Scene
Fri. July 28 // Tolkien Party!

See that last item on the schedule? That’s the time where everyone and anyone who wants to can join us in celebrating the birthday of Lord of the Rings! Blog posts, Facebook/Twitter/anything else posts–you can celebrate anywhere you like, however you like. Show your love and appreciation for this epic fantasy story that has touched hearts and helped shaped the genre into what it is today. Jenelle is going to try to include a linkup on her blog so you can share your links and we can all have a big ol’ party worthy of Gandalf’s fireworks.

In the meantime, make your way to each stop on the list during the coming week and a half, and be sure to congratulate the winners!

Tenna enta lúmë!
[Until that time in Quenya.]

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2016 Silmarillion Awards: Voting

Tracey Dyck 8 Comments


Over the past two weeks, nominations have poured in across all ten blogs hosting the Silmarillion Awards. We asked you to tell us your favorite fantasy characters and items, and your response was thrilling. So many worthy nominations from so many awesome books! (My TBR pile is growing ever larger thanks to this event.)

But only the top five nominations in each category have moved forward to this round: the voting stage. And now it’s up to you to pick the best of the best!

I’ll include the link to the voting form below, and so will the other nine bloggers. You only need to vote once. So you don’t have to check out everyone else’s posts, but why wouldn’t you want to? Some of us will be talking about the top five in our respective categories, and of course you’d like to read them . . . celebrate those who’ve come this far . . . speculate who will win . . . all that fun stuff. Right? Right.

Before we get to casting our votes, I am pleased to introduce to you . . .

The Top 5 Riddling and Poetry Nominations

Curdie Peterson (The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald)

Curdie is the heroic young miner in The Princess and the Goblin, fearless, resourceful, and skilled at singing rhymes he makes up on the spot. The goblins in the story hate songs or rhymes of any kind (the author observes that perhaps it is because they can make none of their own) and so verses are the chief defense against the goblins for the miners under the mountain or other people who are out after dark. Curdie is very inventive with his rhymes, which not only are very effective weapons, but also often relevant to the story. He drives off goblins and even rescues the princess with the aid of the power of his fearless riddling songs.

Gummy (The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall)

Gummy is one of Them, one of a handful of Minipins in the very orderly Slipper-on-the-Water who doesn’t line up with everyone else and isn’t afraid to be different or creative–in fact he revels in it. With his yellow cloak and cone-shaped hat and absent, cheerful manner, he’s like a perfect, lazy summer day. He has a heart of gold, is a brave friend in a pinch, and practically breathes poetry. His “scribbles” he calls them. Many of the chapters of The Gammage Cup start with a poem from Gummy’s Scribbles (Collected Works). Everything’s poetry for him and you’ll hardly catch him talking without rhyme.

Sir Eanrin (Tales of Goldstone Wood series by Anne Elisabeth Stengl)

This immortal faerie bard is known both Far and Near for his eloquent verse, often penned in honor of his true love. Even in normal conversation, Eanrin speaks with drama and attitude, and is very conscious of his own fame. (He’d better not hear of this Silmarillion business, or his head will get even bigger.) Whether in the form of a man or a cat, Eanrin wields words with ease. For him, they are weapons with which to strike, gifts to bestow, tools to be used. But, more often than not, they are a means of entertainment, and an expression of “higher emotion,” as he calls it.

Leonard the Lightning Tongue (Tales of Goldstone Wood series by Anne Elisabeth Stengl)

Prince Leonard wears many hats, not least among them the self-bestowed title of jester. He juggles balls and words with equal skill. Often he will spontaneously produce a rhyme or song, some of which are parodies of the great Bard Eanrin’s works (much to the faerie’s distaste, of course). These performances tend to ruffle the feathers of dignified people while delighting the less stoic at the same time. He cobbles together entire songs in the space of a breath, unraveling them lyric by hilarious lyric. Yet underneath Leo’s joking, carefree exterior lies a broken young man struggling to set things right.

The Sorting Hat (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)

This enchanted brown hat has a tear in its brim, which it uses to talk and sing in rhyme. It decides which of the four houses best suits incoming Hogwarts students. Before the sorting ceremony begins, it always sings a song about each of the four Hogwarts houses. It can also speak telepathically to whomever is wearing it, and it can take into account a student’s preference for which house he or she wants. The Sorting Hat’s prowess must be great indeed to make it into the Top Five, nonhuman as it is.

It’s time to cast your votes!

This link will take you to the voting form. Be sure to hit submit when you’re done.
Voting will be open from today (July 4th) until July 14th. Take a look around the other blogs to see the top five in each category, and then pick who YOU think is the very best! May the best characters–and items–win!
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