Silmaril Awards 2020 Nominations Are Open: Most Faithful Friend
NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED!
Today is the day! The Silmaril Awards have returned for their fifth annual showing, and what a showing it will be!
Now, before you start squinting at me and scratching your heads, if you’re new here… you’re probably wondering… “What are these Silmaril Awards you keep speaking of?”
I’m so glad you asked!
What Are the Silmaril Awards?
Basically, they are like an Oscars Awards Ceremony…. but for FANTASY FICTION CHARACTERS!
That’s right. It’s a chance to rant and enthuse and discuss your favorite fantasy fiction characters, AND make sure they get the love they so richly deserve.
Back in 2016, DJ Edwardson had this brilliant-beyond-brilliant-idea, and the rest is history. Each year, we con… er… wrangle… er… enlist… eight other amazing bloggers into hosting one of the ten fantastical categories (without telling them up front that all the nominees will be coming over to stay at their homes for the duration of the event) and then we let YOU, dear readers, nominate the characters you love best in each category. Yep, for a week, you get to nominate and second to your heart’s content.
The top 5 nominees in each category go on to the final round, where you get to vote for one winner in each category to take home the coveted Silmaril.
Named THE SILMARIL AWARDS in honor of the father of modern fantasy himself, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Silmaril Awards are presented by The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings characters whom we hail as the best-of-the-best in all of fantasy fiction. Each of the awards is presented by the Lord of the Rings character who embodies the ultimate standard of that category.
Basically? It’s a super fun time to geek out over all our favorite fantasy books and characters and is hands-down my FAVORITE online event of the year. I love it even more than February is Fantasy Month… and I love that quite a lot.
The Important Details and Dates
Nominations Open: August 31 - September 1
This is the time to get your nominations in by commenting on the presenter’s blogs (full links to all the nomination posts can be found below) and make sure you second the characters you want to see continue on. You may nominate and second as many characters as you wish, but you may only give ONE vote to any single character. For example, if you nominate Dobby, you cannot also second Dobby. Does that make sense?
Also, this part is important. On each blog, please nominate the characters for THAT CATEGORY ONLY! Counting up the nominations is fun, but also a bit tricky and we want to make sure that all the nominations and seconds are properly counted. So please don’t nominate characters for all ten awards on a single blog, because each blogger will only be counting nominations for THEIR category! You must go to each blog hosting the awards to nominate characters in each category.
Voting Begins: September 7 - 11
Once nominations are closed, we presenters will madly tally up all the nominations and seconds to find the top five in each of our categories who will be on the ballot this year. You will be able to choose your favorite of the top five in each category via the voting form we will make available to you. (You will be able to vote for all the characters on any of the 10 blogs, you do not need to visit each blog in order to complete this portion of the event).
Award Ceremonies: September 14 - 25
My favorite part of the awards (though it’s a close call between this and the nominations week)! Each of the host bloggers will hold an awards ceremony on their blogs revealing this year’s winner in their category. These events can be solemn or filled to the brim with hilarity… but they are always epic and exciting and fun!
The Rules
1) Tolkien’s characters are not eligible to be nominated. We see them as the gold standard of fantasy fiction, and as such, we choose to honor them above all others by having them present the Silmaril Awards. Basically, what we’re saying is: they already won forever. This is a chance to let other characters shine.
2) Previous winners cannot be nominated again. The Silmaril Awards are LIFETIME awards, so characters who have already won them once cannot win again. Otherwise, these awards would probably end up being the same every year, and that might get boring. For a list of the previous winners, check out the HALL OF FAME on our official website.
3) Only characters from LITERARY FANTASY are eligible for nomination. We love fantasy movies and tv shows as much as the rest of you, and yes, we love sci-fi and dystopian and other speculative fiction genres… but this particular event is for FANTASY. If a character is from a fantasy book FIRST, they are eligible. If they are from a movie first and then books were written about that story/character… they are not eligible. (For example: if this were a Sci-Fi event, Star Wars characters would not be eligible, unless they had only shown up in books first: e.g. Thrawn for Most Nefarious Villain).
4) We ask that you please mention the book that a character is from when nominating. While the hosts of the awards are well-read, particularly in the fantasy genre, we have not read EVERYTHING ….. yet. And we may not always be familiar with even well-known characters from well-known books. Please help us out by letting us know where the character you are nominating is from!
5) There are no limits to how many characters you can nominate or second. Remember, only the top 5 nominees in each category go on to the second round! So go crazy and nominate and second as many as you like!
6) With that being said, we do ask that authors refrain from nominating their OWN characters. I know this is hard, guys, as an author, I always want to nominate my own characters… but we feel that this is the only way that the awards can be fair. The winners are chosen by the readers. (But if one of your characters makes it to the ballot, you may of course vote for them!)
7) Have Fun! This is 100% non-negotiable. This event is supposed to be a blast, and I really hope all of you enjoy it even half as much as I do!
My Category
This year, I am super excited to be hosting….
The Most Faithful Friend Award!
“Sam: I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales.
Frodo: What?
Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, 'Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say 'Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad?' 'Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying a lot.'
Frodo: You've left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam.
Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn't make fun; I was being serious.
Frodo: So was I.
Oh Sam. Dearest Samwise. We could scour all of literature far and wide (and in any genre) and I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a friend more faithful and true. They stick by you through thick and thin. They encourage you. Support you. Sit by you quietly when you’re sad. Give you a pep-talk when you’re discouraged. And when the road gets too hard and you can’t go a single step further… sometimes they even carry you.
Our heroes wouldn’t get far without their faithful friends, indeed.
Comment below to nominate your favorite faithful friends!
Previous Winners in this category:
2019 Iko from The Lunar Chronicles
2018 Little John from The Adventures of Robin Hood
2017 Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride
2016 Reepicheep from The Chronicles of Narnia
The Other Categories
Make sure to visit each of the blogs in the event and nominate and second your favorite characters at each stop along the way! You can find them all easily at the links below!
Most Faithful Friend - right here!
The Giveaway
This year, because it’s the 5th Annual Recurrence of this event, and 5 seems like an auspicious number, and also because… let’s be honest… 2020 has felt a little like we’re stuck in all the awful parts of a dystopian novel… we hosts thought we’d make an awesome event even AWESOMER (is so a word… hmph) and have an EPIC GIVEAWAY running alongside.
We are giving away FIFTEEN epic prizes to FIFTEEN separate winners! (Including a $50 Book Depository gift card, a custom fantasy map, bookmarks, and some epic fantasy books!) We will announce the winners after the awards ceremonies have all concluded. Make sure to check out the awesome prizes and enter the giveaway below!
