Aims
To honour excellence in fiction, poetry and critical essays relating to The Lord of
the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and other works by
JRR Tolkien freely available on the web in English.


Disclaimer
The Mithril Awards reflect the organisers' abiding love for the works of JRR
Tolkien. The characters, settings, places and languages used in the works
referenced are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and
possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to
the author of the said work. No author will receive any money or other
remuneration as part of the awards.

The Awards Process
Fiction, poetry and critical essays will be nominated by fans within the award
categories. The works nominated will be reduced to a list of semi-finalists per
category by a team of reviewers, based on the quality of writing. Four to ten
finalists in each category go forward to final judging. Winners and runners-up in
each category will be selected from among the finalists by a panel of three or
more Judges.

One or more Judges’ Choice awards will also be given to semi-finalist works, at
the discretion of the Awards Committee and Judges.

The Awards will have no financial value.


Rules & Eligibility: Nominations
1a. Material must have a clear basis in The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings,
The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales or other works by JRR Tolkien.

1b. All entries must be freely available on the web at the time of nomination and
judging. Temporary web-hosting for non-fiction only is offered on the awards site
(e-mail mithrilawards@yahoo.com). The awards site will not host fiction; this
should be archived at any of the numerous non-selective fanfiction sites.

1c. Material may relate to the books or to the movie versions of the Lord of the
Rings.

1d. Fiction, poetry and research articles/critical essays are all eligible for the
appropriate categories.

1e. Works are eligible regardless of rating, genre, category (gen, het-adult and
slash) and subject matter (Elves, Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, Valar/Maiar, Orcs,
Ents and other races). Some categories restrict nominations to works of a
particular type.

1f. Works set in alternative universes (AUs) or involving original characters
(OCs) are eligible in all categories, provided there is a clear connection with the
works of JRR Tolkien, in the opinion of the Awards Committee.

1g. Actor fic/RPS (real person slash) is NOT eligible in any category, regardless
of rating or genre. This is defined as any work in which any actual person
appears, whether living or dead, with the sole exceptions of the author of the
work, and of well-known historical figures who have been dead for at least 50
years.

1h. Material not originally written in English is eligible provided that a translation
into English, which is authorised by the original author, is freely available on the
web.

1i. All work must be completed to be eligible. Stories that are part of a series
may be nominated ONLY if they make sense out of context of the series and are
available at an individual URL. Individual chapters in a story are NOT eligible.
Works in progress (WiPs) are NOT eligible. Serials must be completed to be
eligible; serials which are still ongoing are NOT eligible.

2. Material with frequent grammatical or spelling errors, or which is poorly
formatted, or which, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, is not appropriate
to the category nominated, or lacks adequate connection to the original text or
movie, will be eliminated from consideration.

3. All nominations will be subject to consent of the author for the work to be
considered for the award. Works where a functional e-mail address for the
author is not clearly listed within the story and is not provided by the nominating
person will not be considered. Where the work has joint authorship, the first
listed author will be assumed to speak for all the authors, unless it is
clearly stated otherwise within the story headers.

4. The Awards Committee reserves the right, at its discretion, not to make an
award in any category in which fewer than five works of adequate quality were
nominated. Works nominated in such categories may, at the discretion of the
Awards Committee, be transferred to other categories, but this cannot be
guaranteed.

5. You may nominate your own material or material by others. If you are the
author, you may submit an unpublished piece for consideration, as long as it is
thereafter made available on the web. You may not submit unpublished work that
is not your own.

6. Material must have been first published on the web in complete form between
1 April 2004 and 1 September 2005 to be eligible.

7. You may make a single nomination in each category. You need not nominate
in all categories.

8. Nominations should preferably be made using the online nominations form at
the website. In case of problems, e-mail nominations will also be taken at the
address: mithrilawards@yahoo.com. Nominations received at other e-mail
addresses will not be accepted. The Awards Committee regrets that
nominations will not be taken by post.

IMPORTANT: Please see the e-mail nominations page for instructions on
formatting. Incorrectly-formatted e-mail nominations, and those with missing
information, will NOT be accepted.

9. If you are under the age of majority in your country of residence, you may not
nominate adult-rated material.

10. A particular work may only be a semi-finalist in two categories. In the event
of a work being nominated in more than two categories, the author will be asked
to determine which categories are preferred for consideration.

11. Authors may only have a single semi-finalist work in any one category. In the
event of more than one work being nominated in a category, then the author will
be asked to determine which work should be considered in that category.

12. Nominations must be received by 31 October 2005, 12:00 Midnight, Eastern
Standard Time. Nominations received after this time will not be considered.

13. Actions designed, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, to unfairly bias
the results either for or against a particular work or works will lead to the
disqualification of that work, the author, or the person taking the action, as
appropriate. Such actions will include, but are not limited to, nominations
rigging, contacting one or more Judges in an attempt to prejudice their
decisions, or direct vote solicitation.