The 2018 Silmaril Awards: Nominate the Best in Fantasy

By Zachary TotahAnnouncements, Characters, Fantasy, Silmarillion Awards
Silmaril-Awards

Nominations are now closed. Thanks for all the fantastic suggestions!

Sound the trumpets, light the festivity bonfires…it’s time for the third annual Silmaril Awards!

The fantasy awesome has arrived.

In the words of Oskar N. Reteep, former proprietor of Books and Crannies in Glipwood Township, “It’s about time!”

If you’re not familiar with the awards, this has been a labor of fandom love for me and a group of diehard fantasy bloggers (fondly known as Silmarites, wizards, Balrog slayers, or boisterous hobbits—depending who you ask). The Silmaril Awards is our way of celebrating how epic the fantasy genre is by hosting a competition. And it’s for readers, by readers.

Which means this is really our gift to all you fantasy fans. Aren’t we nice? 😉

Ahem, anyway…

This year we have a nifty Silmaril Awards website thanks to resident web wizard (take that, Gandalf!) DJ Edwardson.

You’ll find more background about the awards, a complete list of all the previous winners, and other delightful tidbits. Definitely stop by for a visit.

And now, the main event.

Strangest Character Silmaril

This year, I have the honor of hosting the Strangest Character Award. It’s proven to be an entertaining romp in the past, so get those pet dragons ready. You never know what chaos may come crashing through your front door.

(Although I can almost bet it won’t be as bad as when Bilbo’s unexpected houseguests dropped by for a gluttonous visit.)

Before we get to the nominations…

Oh wait. I hear something.

**faint singing, growing louder**

Merry ho, away we go, the river is a ringing!

Down the path I come at last, and rules do I come bringing!

Ding-a-dong, sing a song, hear the bells a dinging?

‘Tis the sound of jubilee, the Silmarils are singing!

**Tom Bombadil skips into sight**

Right. I forgot to mention, Tom Bombadil has the distinct pleasure of presenting this choice award. #surprise

And let me tell you he hasn’t stopped babbling about it for 273 days. So delighted to get the awards underway he nearly popped out of his boots with joy.

**a loud burst of song interrupts**

Here I am, come again, merrily I greet thee!

Listen close to things I share, coming to thee sweetly!

That’s enough, Tom. Your turn in the spotlight’s coming soon enough. But first we have to nominate and vote for the characters. We’ve talked about this, remember?

Anyway, this character should be… *raises eyebrow at Bombadil and lowers voice* I think you get the idea. A character blessed with the gift of odd, quirky, or the unexpectedly peculiar.

Silmaril Awards I love, fairer than the sunshine

Glowing in the sky above. Hark, the jewels so fine!

Let me sing to readers now, tell them of the going!

How the nominations work, quick water flowing!

All right, apparently this is a thing. But Tom has an unfortunate way of missing vital details. *casts sidelong glance at Bombadil, who’s still humming softly to himself*

I’ll run through them quickly so you know the important parts.

**Tom’s singing swells again**

Nominate your favorite one. Or two, or three or four!

While whistling a merry tune and skipping through the door!

**speaking louder to drown out Tom’s verse**

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS.

Nomination Rules for the Silmaril Awards

⇒ As the Silmaril Awards are for fantasy, nominations are allowed only for characters from fantasy books. (You can nominate a movie character, but only if the book came first.) What counts as fantasy is a gray area sometimes, so if a good argument can be made for the fantasy elements in a story, we’ll allow that nomination.

⇒ As Tom said, you’re welcome to nominate as many characters as you want for each award. Just don’t forget to mention which book the character’s from.

⇒ You can also second as many characters as you want. The more “seconds” (and thirds, fourths, etc) a character receives, the more likely they’ll be one of the top five most nominated characters for that award and move on to the voting round next week.

⇒ You can’t nominate and second the same character—one vote per character.

⇒ The Silmarils are lifetime awards, meaning a character can’t win the same award twice. The winners for my category were Puddleglum and The Mad Hatter, making them ineligible to be nominated for the Strangest Character this year. They can be nominated for other awards, though.

⇒ Tolkien characters are the standard for these awards and therefore also ineligible to be nominated—including *cough* Tom.

⇒ If you’re an author, we’d love to have you participate. The only restriction is you’re not allowed to nominate any of your own characters. But your readers can, so be sure to let them know about the awards so they can join the fun too!

⇒ For this award, post all nominations and seconds in the comments below.

⇒ Our official hashtag is #SilmAwards2018.

And here’s a handy infographic with dates, website addresses, and look. A DRAGON!!!

Thanks to Jenelle Schmidt for creating this!

Nominate Other Characters

Last but not least, there are 10 awards total.

Which means lots of fantasy fun, so don’t stop here. Check out the awards my fellow Silmarites are hosting:

And now, once again in the words of the scholarly Oskar N. Reteep, “Oh good, it’s time for dinner!”

Er…

Begin the nominations!

131 thoughts on “The 2018 Silmaril Awards: Nominate the Best in Fantasy”

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  5. Let’s see…

    I nominate:
    -Dustfinger from Inkheart
    -Nidawi from Goldstone Wood
    -Peet the Sock Man from Wingfeather Saga

    Reply

    13. *grins* So happy to see all the love for Peet!!! I’d desperately like to feature him in a blog post, but we’ll see what happens. 🙂 (And I may be biased since I’m currently reading Wingfeather for the first time.)

      Reply

      1. IKR?! He’s so loyal and he has such a fascinating history. Not that I know it all yet, since I only just started Monster in the Hollows.

        Reply

          1. Yes, Tracey! Wingfeather is amazing. My sister and friends bugged me for like two years to read the books and I wish I hadn’t waited so long.

            Reply

      1. I desperately want Peet to win this year. LOL
        Because just yes, and because it would be so much fun to write about him in a blog post. 😀 😀

        Reply
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  8. I nominate Bramble from Where the Woods Grow Wild by Nate Philbrick! (Mustn’t eat a puffernut… mustn’t tell lies… mustn’t make Nayadu angry…)

    Reply

    3. I havent’ read “Where the Woods Grow Wild,” but just that little quote makes Bramble sound like a great nomination.
      Also…what in the world is a puffernut? A Hufflepuff kid with a disturbing fondness for macadamias and almonds? 😛

      Reply

      1. It’s a cool little nut that if you throw it it explodes into a cloud of dust. It’s a lot like a smoke bomb. Super useful. *nods*
        (The book is free on the author’s news-letter. XD)
        Also, I second Bramble! 🙂

        Reply

  9. My husband nominates Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle
    My daughter nominates Spiller from The Borrowers.
    Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.

    Reply

    5. I’m not the only one who knows about the Borrowers?!? WUT. 😮
      Loved those books! But…not entirely sure they would count as fantasy, so I’m checking into that with the local SCC (Silmaril Classification Committee).

      Reply

  12. I nominate *takes a deep breath* Winter from the Lunar Chronicles, Salazar from Paper Crowns, Lucinda from Ella Enchanted, and Hatter Madigan from The Looking Glass Wars! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Just an FYI here…on further review, it’s been decided by the Silmaril Classification Committee (SCC), that A Christmas Carol doesn’t qualify as fantasy, despite its ghosts and supernatural feel. Sorry about that, RJ. :/

      Reply

    1. Even his name is odd. o_O

      We’re getting quite the mix…a sock man, a dog man, and a cat-dragon so far. 😮 😀

      Reply

    1. Great choice! Wit’s one of the strangest and most intriguing characters I’ve encountered. And I still haven’t figured out the whole connection to Hoid yet (but I’ve only read the Mistborn fantasy trilogy and the first two Stormlight Archive books, so maybe I’ll find out).
      Quick FYI…he was actually nominated for another award too, so I’m just gonna check to make sure he can be nominated for two awards.

      Reply

  25. I’m not sure if my comments this far have been eaten by WordPress, but I’ll check back later to see!

    Anyway, I nominate:

    -Hugh from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Hugh literally keeps bees in his stomach, and they may fly through his mouth and attack if he so chooses)
    -Wizard Fenworth from the Dragonkeeper Chronicles by Donita K Paul (he turns into a tree when asleep, and has an obsession with making sure participles do not dangle)

    Reply

    1. Haha, no fear. Your comments haven’t been eaten, Tracey. 🙂 I just didn’t have time to go through and approve them all last night.

      Reply
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  35. Oh my goodness! I thought I had read all the posts last week, but … although I commented with seconds… apparently I missed the post itself! *hangs head in shame* THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! How nice of Tom to pop in and help introduce his award 🙂 hahahahaha, have fun wrangling him… maybe you could send him over to entertain my houseguests… these henchmen are getting a bit out of hand!

    Reply

    1. Hahaha, I have to admit that’s rather amusing. 😂

      So glad you enjoyed the post! It was rather fun to write, and I’ll do my best to keep Tom in line. I would send him over to help you keep those henchmen in line, but I fear he might cause even more chaos. 🙄

      Reply

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