The Barrow-Downs Fan Fiction Forum

[Mithadan]

Thank you Barrow-Wight!

A while back (more than 10 years ago) we maintained a separate bulletin board for the posting of Tolkien-related fan fiction. There were a large number of stories posted by a variety of members, many of whom are not presently active.

Several years ago the Barrow-Downs Forum went down as a result of malicious content posted or linked by bots or persons. It took a while to get this site back up. Around the same time, the Barrow-Downs Fan Fiction Forum also went down. It was not resurrected.

I recently was able to access the now defunct Fan Fiction Forum. This new Forum is an experiment to see if there is interest here in posting stories so that everyone can enjoy and comment upon them. This Forum will be moderated. Stories posted MUST BE TOLKIEN-RELATED.

As I mentioned, a lot of material was posted to the old Fan Fiction Forum. I am not entirely comfortable taking material from that old Forum and posting it here without input from the authors. I would like to hear members' thoughts about this.

If you posted a story to the old Forum, please PM me and I will let you know how to access it to recover your writing. Members, for now, should not post stories written by others and, obviously, should not claim authorship of other peoples' work.

[Huinesoron]

I wasn't around when the Downs wrote fanfic, but I have a lot of my own. I personally wouldn't have any problem with someone re-archiving any stories of mine that dropped off the internet (and in fact, I've acted as 'unauthorised archivist' for a few stories myself); and I would be interested in seeing what the Downs created. I can certainly understand your discomfort, though, and will happily accept whatever you go with.

Can you clarify whether the Red Book is solely for people (the authors or yourself/other moderators) to repost old fanfic from the Downs bulletin board, or whether it's also supposed to be for people to post their own old fanfic from other sources? I'm getting the impression it's the first, but am not quite sure.

hS

[The Barrow-Wight]

For now we will be posting only old Barrow-Downs Fan Fictions to this forum, but we may expand that to include other Fan Fiction once we get everything situated.

[The Barrow-Wight]

The fan fictions were submitted to the Barrow-Downs with full permission for us to display them to the public, so I think that we will have no issues if we repost them from the Wayback Machine to here.

I haven't looked at that location, so I don't know how many stories are there that would need to be moved. I think the easiest thing to do would be to have volunteer(s) bring them over and post them to the Red Book forum, which moderators will screen and publish. That leads me to a few questions.

- How many stories are there to move?
- Who will move them?
- When do we start?
- When do we finish?
- Do we start accepting new stories after the old ones are posted?

[Mithadan]

It's hard to determine how many stories were posted on the old Forum, because later versions of the site were filled with spam. As of August 11, 2011, it appears that there were more than 100 stories posted. I have not tried to view them individually, and some may be corrupt.

[Urwen]

Originally Posted by The Barrow-Wight

- Do we start accepting new stories after the old ones are posted?

If you're accepting user input on this one, I say 'yes'.

[Bêthberry]

If there is a forum for Downers to post new fan fiction--and not just to carry over the things from the Fan Fiction site-- I would be inclined towards making it stuff solely from Downers and not from other sites. Nothing against stuff from other sites, but the Downs did have a unique ethos and it would be valuable, imho, to maintain that.

[The Barrow-Wight]

I'm inclined to agree, Bethberry. There is some great Middle-earth Fan Fiction out there across the Internet, but keeping The Downs pure to it's wightish nature has always been a priority here. We probably don't want to become a repository of copies of stories found elsewhere. Instead, it would be great to see some new stories.

First, let's get the old tales into a new home. Then we can see about firing up the printing presses for new ones.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by The Barrow-Wight

I haven't looked at that location, so I don't know how many stories are there that would need to be moved. I think the easiest thing to do would be to have volunteer(s) bring them over and post them to the Red Book forum, which moderators will screen and publish. That leads me to a few questions.

- How many stories are there to move?
- Who will move them?
- When do we start?
- When do we finish?
- Do we start accepting new stories after the old ones are posted?

I have some experience digging stuff out of the Wayback Machine, so if that's the source I'd be willing to volunteer to help out.

Is it permissible to post comments or reviews to stories that are reposted? I'm thinking particularly of the ones where the original author is still around, like Mithadan's Tales from Tol Eressea, but an answer for orphaned stories would also be appreciated.

hS

[Mithadan]

I personally have no problem with comments.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Oh dear - digging out my fanfiction would bring to light the fact that it has been unfinished for many years! I still know where the plot was intended to go, but I doubt that I will take the time to do the writing in this lifetime...

[Mithadan]

My present goal is to post one "new" story from the old Forum each week. I have a few requests already. Any suggestions or nominations from those who recall the old Forum?"

[Mithadan]

I am posting stories first from authors that I recognize as members of this forum. Otherwise, they are being posted in no particular order.

If an author objects to their story being posted, let me know and I will remove it.

[Snowdog]

Cool this is being done. The few stories I had in the old FF Barrow I had also posted to Henneth Annun when they were operating. They have been roll into Archive Of Our Own (AO3) so are preserved there under my account.

Look forward to reading stories again!

[Mithadan]

First, I apologize for getting mired in the COVID mud (no, I have not caught it) and falling behind on this project. I will get moving on it shortly. One of the issues is that the works need to be edited after they are copied over. another issue is the length of many of the stories.

Second, to those who have asked if comments are permitted, the answer is yes. And I am sorry I did not see Huinesoron's comment. It is appreciated.

[Mithadan]

I have posted two new resurrected stories.

In some ways, they are thematically similar.

Recollections of a Dunedain Ranger by Snowdog is an account by a Ranger awaiting, with hope and concern, the return of Halbarad after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Orophin dreams of the Waters of Awakening by Davem captures the sadness of an Elf bemoaning the difficulties of Arda Marred and the death of another.

Both are sad and beautiful.

[Mithadan]

For all those following along on this effort, my apologies. This is obviously taking a LOT longer than I expected.

Recovery of the stories is more challenging than I thought. When I first undertook this project, I had not really explored the Fan Fiction Archive in many years. I had forgotten how many stories had been posted. As a result, I resolved to begin by posting tales written by folks that still stop by here from time to time. This required some sorting.

I had also forgotten how long many of the stories were. Some are divided up onto separate pages. Copying them takes time. And, of course, one of my first selections was a story that was missing its final chapters. While the authors have been willing to help recover missing pieces, this required them to locate their original versions of the stories (anyone remember discs?). More delay.

Oh, and converting from html to word, then posting onto this board, requires a lot of editing. Line spacing, fonts, page breaks... For those who are fans of the Oxford comma, well, forget it, I'm not getting into editing original writing.

And, of course, I have a day job and other things to do and...

Enough excuses.

I am posting today the first part of The Fairy Wife by Mark12_30. This is one of the LONG ones. It was also a favorite of many of its readers. This will be posted in multiple segments. Enjoy!

[mark12_30]

Mithadan, I am having such fun reading TFW. It’s been a long time. I will try to get you some reasonable word docs tomorrow (or the next rainy day.). Thanks so much for bringing it back.

[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

I'm so pleased the fanfiction forum has been resurrected on the Downs. We had such a collection of stories that stayed close to canon and efforts to stay true to Tolkien's voice. Are we accepting new fan fiction stories yet?

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

I have posted two new resurrected stories.

In some ways, they are thematically similar.

Recollections of a Dunedain Ranger by Snowdog is an account by a Ranger awaiting, with hope and concern, the return of Halbarad after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Orophin dreams of the Waters of Awakening by Davem captures the sadness of an Elf bemoaning the difficulties of Arda Marred and the death of another.

Both are sad and beautiful.

Thanks for posting this. I have several edits of this, and have rolled it into an overall Hanasian character story which I wrote out in RP on the Shadow Over Arnor forum with my wife Elora who occasionally haunts the Barrow Downs now and then. We did post one of our RP/Story projects over on the Tolkien Fanfic site Many Paths To Tread so won't copy it here.