The Silmaril Awards are here! In celebration of Bilbo and Frodo’s birthdays, the awards are held in September. Tolkien and Lewis characters present the award at the end of the month. Someone said it’s like the Tony or Oscars, only it’s for Fantasy Characters from Books.

What are the Silmarils:

The Silmaril Awards are all about celebrating fantasy fiction. But whereas most awards go to authors or books, these awards go to the characters themselves!

Started in 2016, these awards are a four week online celebration of all that’s best in fantasy literature. There are several awards in various categories given every year. The characters who receive them have to be from books generally considered to be in the fantasy genre. And a given character cannot receive an award more than once. These are lifetime awards.

Also, as Tolkien is, for us, the gold standard of fantasy, his characters are not eligible to be nominated. That’s because they’ll be the ones presenting the awards in this cross-dimensional online ceremony. 

Nominations are submitted on the websites of each of the presenters for that year. Anyone can submit a nomination and you can second (and third and fourth, etc.) any number of nominations besides your own.

After the nomination period (lasting one week), the five characters receiving the most nominations will make it onto the ballot and you’ll have one week to vote. After the votes are tallied, the winners will be announced, one per day, over the final two weeks of the awards.

Who to look for

Since each year, the different bloggers host different categories, you’ll find last year’s Most Faithful Friend on my blog.

This year, I get to hang out with none other than all the wisest counselors! That means that Gandalf and who knows who else will be hanging out in my 1880’s old stagecoach home. Maybe we can pretend it’s a castle?

But how does it work? I’m glad you asked. Starting September 7, you’ll be leaving comments on my blogs as well as others to nominate your favorite characters.

Rules for nominations:

Characters must be fantasy characters from books. This means no sci-fi, no contemporary, AND no webcomics, graphic novels, movies, and so on. If the story was a book first, but then got its own webcomic, graphic novel, characters from said story are eligible, but otherwise, sadly, they are not permitted. If there’s a book which might be seen as sci-fi, contemporary, or something else non-fantasy but you think has enough fantasy elements to count (for instance, The Lunar Chronicles, for the sake of the Silmaril Awards, count as fantasy, though they are rather sci-fi-y), make your case in the comments, and we will certainly consider it. 

Tolkien’s and Lewis’s characters are not allowed. Given that, in the awards ceremony at the end of the month, one of Tolkien’s characters (and potentially a few of Lewis’s) will be presenting this award, you really don’t want the conflict of interest that might result from the presenting characters being nominated for the award. Especially if they don’t win the final vote. It can get ugly, y’all. 

An author may not nominate (or second) his or her own characters. It’s just undignified and unprofessional, guys. Don’t do it. However, you of course may send your hyped-up readers to nominate and/or second your characters. (Winning a Silmaril would be really good publicity, just saying.)

Rule-breakers are sent immediately over to Rachel A. Greco, who’s hosting the dragons this year, to be eaten. Look, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them. If you don’t want to follow these rules, prepare to be a dragon’s lunch. And vice versa–if you don’t want to be a dragon’s lunch, prepare to follow the rules. 

Former Wise Counselor Winners

Silmarils are a one-time thing, so a character may only win a category once. Here are the characters who have already won this award:

-Helmer (The Green Ember)
-Queen Irene (Princess and the Goblin)
-Nia (The Wingfeather Saga)
-Merlin (Arthurian Legends)
-Puddleglum (The Chronicles of Narnia)
-Halt (Ranger’s Apprentice)
-Remus Lupin (Harry Potter)
-Professor Kirke (The Chronicles of Narnia)
-Professor Hamilton (Dragons in Our Midst)
-Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia)

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Well, I’d best get to cleaning. We have enough room in this place, but my guest will expect some cleanliness. Let’s see how well this year’s Silmaril Awards go. Who knows, I may meet a new friend, or get to spend time with an old one. Who do you want to see win?