Nominations Open for 9th Annual Silmaril Awards: Mischievous Imps

Good morrow, dear Reader!

I have some exciting news for you today, which I’m sure will just absolutely make your day.

The Silmaril Awards hath returned!

And for the 9th year in a row!

Forsooth, and has it been 9 years already?

Well and truly, it has! And as nine is a rather auspicious and important number in the Tolkien-verse, I think it only fitting that we take a minute to pause and reflect on the years that have gone before. On the shenanigans that have occurred here and on so many other blogs. And how grateful we all are that this continues to be such a fun little blogging celebration. Myself and 9 other bloggers have banded together to host these awards (and also the characters you nominate).

This year, I am so excited (and a wee bit nervous) to be hosting the Mischievous Imps! Which… um… is always a bit of an overwhelming prospect. I’ve actually never hosted the Imps, but from what the other bloggers have said, it sounds like it will be both a riot of a good time and also I might want to make sure that my house has extra insurance on it this month.

But then, where are my manners? Because some of you are newer faces and you would like to know: what are the Silmaril Awards?

Well, first let me say, “Welcome!”

If you like dragons, talking swords, elves, dwarves, fairy and fae, and all things fantastical in general, then you have come to the right place!

The Silmaril Awards is an annual event in which readers like you vote for your favorite Fantasy Characters across 10 different categories (and 10 different blogs).

From magnificent dragons to nefarious villains to wise counselors to the most heroic of heroes and heroines, this event celebrates all the characters we know and love (and some we love to hate).

But it doesn’t happen without a very important ingredient: you.

So for the next 5 days, your mission—should you choose to accept it—is to travel across cyberspace to each of the various blogs and nominate your favorite characters in each category and “second” any characters you love that have already been nominated.

The TOP FIVE characters in EACH CATEGORY (those with the most “seconds”) will advance to the second voting round.

But wait… I can see your fingers itching to type, but… there are a few RULES you must follow first. Please read the following rules to make sure that ALL your nominations and seconds count!

The Rules

  • Only literary fantasy characters are allowed to participate for the Silmaril Awards. Characters from sci-fi, contemporary, romance, dystopian, etc are not eligible. We love these characters too, but this is a fantasy awards event. Also, if a character is from a TV show or a Movie, they are ineligible unless the tv show or movie is based on a book that came first!

  • On that note: NO characters from Lord Of The Rings can be nominated! LoTR characters are to us the Gold Standard of fantasy characters, and they also co-host and present the awards, so make sure your nominations aren’t from Tolkien’s universe!

  • As of two years ago, all Narnia characters were granted lifetime Silmarils and are thus ineligible to be nominated. They have often swept the awards and they were getting a little embarrassed by all the attention, so we had a special ceremony and granted them Silver Status. Some of them may still show up at the ceremonies to help present awards, but that is up to the characters and their hosts to decide.

  • You can nominate as many characters as you wish for each category! The sky’s the limit! Nominate to your heart’s content! You can also second as many characters you wish for each category! (or third, fourth, etc…. though you don’t have to keep track, if you see a character that has been nominated, you can just say you “second” them, even if you’re actually fifteenthing them… it’s up to us hosts to count up all the nominations and seconds)

  • If you’re a Fantasy Author, we would love to have your character in the Silmaril Awards! Our only request is that authors don’t nominate their own characters. However, please feel free to let all your fans know about the awards, and which characters you feel might do well in which categories, and direct them to nominate and second! (If you bribe them with cookies, we won’t tell)

  • Please mention which book/series your nominee is from within your nomination! We hosts/bloggers read a lot, and we even read a lot of fantasy, but we haven’t all read ALL the fantasy (sadly) so we may not always know who you’re talking about. We would like to know who to give the vote to, but you’d be surprised how many fantasy characters actually have similar or even the same name (and some characters even have more than one name… it’s fantasy, it’s confusing, we love it… but we also need a little help sometimes!)

  • Please make sure to keep your nominations for the correct categories on each blog. For example, I am hosting the Imps. I do not want Dragons invading my house and banding together with the Imps to help burn the place down. I will not accept dragons who show up at my door unless they are ALSO imps and being nominated for the Imp category. If you want to nominate dragons for the Most Magnificent Dragon category, please go do so on the blog hosting the dragon category!

  • Silmaril Awards are lifetime achievement awards. This means that previous winners cannot win again. So for the mischievous imps, the following characters each already have a Silmaril of their very own hanging on their wall:

I believe that is all the fine-print. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Now. Go forth and nominate!

Nominations are open starting TODAY until September 6th. Tallying up the nominations is a big job, and late nominations will not be counted, so make sure you vote early! And get your friends involved! Please help us spread the word about this fantastical and fun event!

Silmarillion AwardsJenelle Schmidt82 Comments