Henneth Annûn Story Archive

This is an area to provide resources to writers, but it has plenty of tidbits that may interest the curious non-author as well; you can find information to help you write your stories, contribute information you know, or simply learn more about the Tolkien universe.

The heart of Resources is the Research Library, an amazing compendium of facts and citations from the Ardaverse. There are detailed write ups on people, places, things and the events that tie them all together. All of this is painstakingly researched and cross-referenced.

There is also a URL library linking to sites of interest to the JRRT fandom. There are research articles and critical essays written by our members, and a discussion forum on wide ranging topics.

It is awesome.

The Reference Library is designed to gather the facts about various subjects in one easily searchable area. It currently consists of Character Biographies, Events, Places, and Things. Each entry is referenced to a quote in Tolkien, so the member may refer to the original source. Members who are authors can link their stories to any of the Research Library entries.

The Reference Library is one of the best, most engaging parts of HASA. Just start clicking on its links, and then following those links to other entries, and following an interesting reference to another page, and then another, and then... before you know it, hours have gone by.

All the listed characters have simple fact sheets, containing very basic information such as date of birth and death when known, close relatives, and physical description.

For some characters the fact sheets are a starting point, in contrast to some of the minor characters where the fact sheets contain everything that is known.

A number of fact sheets are associated with essays that are more detailed, and which may contain speculation supported by references.

Essays on characters are very welcome, some subjects of interest to many members would be: relationships between characters, discussion of controversies about characters, and speculation on gaps in information.

There are also separate Research Articles which contain chapters on Minor Canon Characters which are not listed in the Character biography section.

Timeline events are cool. There's no other way to describe them.

You can look them up alphabetically, by event type, by era and by date range. They are presented in chronological order, and are cross-referenced to other research library entries.

If you want to know exactly who did what, when, where and how, timeline events can probably provide the answer.

Places contains information on locations mentioned by Tolkien, whether in the text or on the maps he drew. Our goal is detailed information on the complete list of places, with accompanying references.

Currently there are over 650 entries in Places.

The Things section contains detailed information on various objects, from the physical such as ships or weapons, to songs, to constructs such as the White Council. It is the most heterogenous part of the Research Library.

The URL Library is a collection of web page links, organized by general categories, covering both Tolkien's works and other topics of general interest to HASA members. Members are encouraged to submit interesting links.

These are non-fiction works about a particular subject useful to fanfic writers or reviewers, or to those who simply want to know more. Current articles and essays range from personality traits of horses to in-depth character studies to geopolitics. Any subject involving Tolkien's writing, fanfic, or life in Middle-earth or the West is fair game.

HASA members write them.

Many authors have done research in preparation for a story and then contribute their knowledge in the form of an article or Reference Library entry. There are several articles posted and HASA is always eager to expand the section. If you write a reaserch article or a critical essay, please link it into Resources by going to the Articles & Essays pages.

A-Z Index - This part of the site provides alphabetical lists of all the Research Library entries. Each kind of research item (People, Places, Things, Events) also has alphabetical listings.

Full text search - This takes a little more practice. This search can do complex Boolean free text search of the contents of all the research library entries.

Each library entry type has a search available to sort, slice and dice on its main categories for quick filtering of entries.

This is the gathering place for the Resources geeks and anyone who wants to pick their brains.

You can discuss just about anything to do with Tolkien's works, what life might have been like in Middle-earth, or the intricacies of writing about it. Geography, character speculation, daily life, grammar, economics... You think it up, someone will probably want to discuss it.

Many discussions start as research questions. This is the place to ask questions, and bring your expertise to answer others. This is also a place to discuss the nuts and bolts of writing, beta reading, and associated issues.

Be sure you are logged in to the site before you begin.

1. Double check your story - Is it spell checked? Are all the chapters set to "Published" status and do they all have chapter numbers set to something besides "0"? Is the story set to General or Reviewed status?
2. Mouse over the Resources button in the main navigation bar and select "Articles & Essays" from the drop-down menu.
3. On the main A&E page, look in the side bar for the box "Articles & Essays Search". At the bottom of that box you should see a link "Add your work to the Research Library here."
4. Click and go to the add page.
5. There will be a form with a drop-down list of your stories that have been categorized as either Research Articles or Critical Essays, and with a multi-select box of research topics.
6. Choose your story and select topics which apply to the work.
7. Click "Add".

If you have already added stories, you will also see them on that page. If you want to change topics for any of them, click the "Edit Story Topics" button.

1. Be sure you are logged in - only members can contribute links.
2. Go to the URL Library in Resources.
3.  Find the "URL Categories" box in the navigation column.
4. In the box below the form will be a link to add a URL.
5. In the URL form, fill in:
   •  the URL address (be sure to add the http:// part!)
   • the web page name
   • the URL category for the site
   • a brief summary
6. The summary must be under 250 characters long (this includes blank spaces), and any Adult content should be indicated.  
7. Click on the "Add URL" button.

Your URL will be added in draft status and the Resource Manager will be notified there is a URL waiting for review.

Accuracy is crucial as authors will use the information here in their stories. Entries are spot checked, but errors can creep in, so please help us correct anything inaccurate that you see. To point out a place for correction, email the Resources managers or post in the Resources forum.

Some particular discussions for specific subjects:

• English Grammar Discussion - the place to check the correct way to say what you want.
• Geography and Maps - ask those place related questions here.
• HoME Reference Requests - Members who own the History of Middle-earth series will take requests to find mentions of a character, place, thing or event.
• Languages in Arda - some of our members who are familiar with Sindarin, Quenya, Adunaic or Old English monitor this one and will respond to requests.
• Research Questions - the grand-daddy question thread. Any question is fair game, cooking to legal issues.
• Writer's aids - anything to do with writing.

  These are some of the larger topics, but there are other threads and subjects as well.

Certainly, and starting one is extremely easy to do.

1. Go to the appropriate discussion.
2. If you don't see your subject, click 'Post New Topic' to start a topic.
3. If there is no appropriate discussion, go back up to the Resource Folder, and click 'Add Discussion.'
4. After the Discussion is created, click 'Post New Topic'.

That's all there is to it.

Great! There are a variety of ways to contribute to the Resources section:

1. Enter data - Timeline events, Character Bios, Places and Things can always use entries. If you would like to enter data directly, send an email to the Resource Managers and you will be given Researcher access to enter data.
2. Email data - If you prefer not to enter data directly you may send it in an email to the Resource manager. This will be slower, as the manager will enter it as time permits. Anyone who is interested in contributing a large amount of information should request Researcher access; your contributions will be very welcome.
3. Write and link a research article or critical essay - see details in the How Tos.
4. Add a URL link - see details in the How Tos.