Let the 2021 Silmaril Awards Commence! Nominations Open for Most Silver Tongue
As I stroll up the lane of beautiful little hobbit holes, I find myself nearing a grassy hill with a round green door. A curly-headed hobbit looks up from his pipe and smiles pleasantly.
“Good morning!” His greeting is noncomittal. A thing you say to passersby.
I pause. “Good morning, Bilbo.”
He frowns around his pipe. “Did Gandalf send you? I’m not in the mood for another adventure at present.”
“It’s that time of year again, Bilbo.”
At this, his eyes spark with interest. “September already?” He pulls out his pocketwatch and inspects it. “You are early,” he accuses.
I grin. “Maybe. But I thought it might be fun to chat with you a bit about the logistics a bit before we really get started. We’ve had a few rather… unruly awards ceremonies lately, and I thought maybe we could work together here at the front end to keep things a bit more under control this year.”
He waves his pipe. “Not your fault, not your fault, I’m sure. You’ve had to host henchmen and villains in the past. The Silver Tongues are a far more peaceful group.”
I purse my lips. “Well, there was the year the Lady of the Green Kirtle showed up and won and there was some havoc that time.”
He frowns at the memory. “True. Too true.” He sighs. “Well, I can’t deny that some of those villainous types can be fairly silver-tongued as well. Take old Smaug, for example. He could certainly wordplay with the best of them.” His eyes open in horror. “He doesn’t know about this award, does he?”
“No,” I assure him. “We’ve got him totally focused on the Most Magnificent Dragon award.”
“Good.” Bilbo pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his brow. “I never did consider how much of an effort these events must be for you. I usually just show up, present the awards, say a few clever things, and leave.”
“And we very much appreciate you taking the time to do so.”
“Well, I’ll give some thought to the arrangements,” Bilbo says. “I think the Party Tree is a nice place to have the ceremony. It’s got plenty of open space. Maybe we could convince Gandalf to attend, his presence tends to be a bit sobering for any who might cause… trouble.”
“Those sound like some good ideas,” I agree. “I look forward to being back here later this month.”
“Good good.” Bilbo nods absently, lost in plans and thoughts. “Might need a sign,” he mutters to himself. “Party business and all that.”
“Well, I’ll let you work on that,” I say. “I have to go play host now.”
“Yes, yes. Good morning.” He waves a hand of dismissal my way, but I can tell he’s a thousand miles away.
I smile a little. Yes, I think things will go quite smoothly this year, with Bilbo giving the party details his full attention. Doesn’t mean there won’t be some excitement, of course… but maybe we can prevent a full-scale invasion of any of the realms like we had that one year…
Well, good morning!
I’m so excited to be presenting the SILVER TONGUED Silmaril this year. And super excited to be hanging out in the Shire with Bilbo and all the hobbits. This is definitely the place I feel most comfortable and like myself in Middle Earth.
The Silver-Tongued Silmaril should go to a fantasy character who has a way with words. Words should be one of their defining characteristics. Perhaps they can wield words like a weapon, or perhaps they use them as a healing balm. Perhaps they are uncommonly good as a poet or writer. Maybe they are a fantastic story-teller. Maybe they have uncommonly magical reading-out-loud skills. But whatever they are… they are wordsmiths. They are word-wielders. They are SILVER TONGUES.
Previous Winners (no longer eligible for nomination)
The Sorting Hat (Harry Potter)
Mo (Inkheart)
Howl (Howl’s Moving Castle)
The Lady of the Green Kirtle (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair)
Eanrin (The Tales of Goldstone Wood)
NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!
For those of you who are new around here, let me just go through those pesky rules:
Nominate favorite silver-tongued characters by leaving a comment on THIS post. (To nominate characters in other awards, please go to each nomination post, do not simply nominate characters for all the awards in one post, that makes it impossible for us to tally up the votes)
Tolkien characters are the absolute gold standard for these awards, and as the honored hosts of the Silmaril Awards, they are ineligible for nomination.
The awards are Lifetime awards, and therefore winners from previous years (listed above) are also ineligible for nomination.
Fantasy characters only. If you are unsure of whether or not a character is from the fantasy genre, go ahead and nominate… we presenters have deep discussions about where the lines in this genre are every year and it’s one of my favorite conversations every year.
If you are an author, you may not nominate your own character. However, you are more than welcome to tell your fans to come nominate your characters!
Seconding. If you see someone has already nominated a character you love, feel free to “second” that character. The 5 characters in EACH category with the most seconds will advance to the voting round next week. You may “second” as many characters as you like.
You may not nominate and second the same character (you can’t vote twice for any one character… sorry).
Characters have to be from fantasy fiction books. If the book came first, the character is eligible. If the movie or tv show came first… sorry… there are other awards for tv/film, and this isn’t one of them! grin
Have fun!
To get the full Silmaril Awards experience, please visit each of the participating blogs this week and nominate and second your favorites in the following categories:
And this year, introducing the new award