Do you love reading fantasy?

Are you a fan who can’t stop talking about your favorite characters and loves geeking out with other fantasy fanatics?

Then you’ll love the second annual Silmarillion Awards.

The Awards have returned this year, ready for another grand time of celebrating, talking about, and generally enjoying all the amazing things we love about fantasy characters. Co-creators DJ Edwardson and Jenelle Schmidt (along with our fantastic Silmarite group of bloggers) have been hard at work to make the Awards even better than last year.

If you’re new and wondering what in Middle-earth I’m talking about, the Silmarillion Awards are basically the Oscars for fantasy characters. How cool is that? If you want to read more, you can check out Jenelle’s introductory post.

The nomination week ended this past Friday (and since last week was July 4th, my regular post didn’t go up to alert you about the commencement of the awesomeness). BUT…this week we’ve begun the voting phase. Five finalists in ten different categories ranging from Least Competent Henchman to Most Epic Heroine.

In addition to voting for your favorite characters, you can also enter the Grand Prize Giveaway—aka One Grand Prize to Rule Them All. Which happens to be none other than a fantabulous Tolkien-themed package…that may or may not include a map. (Because maps are amazing and beautiful and necessary.)

If you want to get involved, you can join the scavenger hunt running this week on our blogs.

I’m one of the participating bloggers, and we’d love to have you stop by, join the fantasy fun, and make this year’s Silmarillion Awards one for the ages.

You know…since ages and Middle-earth kind of go together.

Here’s a quick reference list of the awards:

• Most Magnificent Dragon Silmaril—hosted by DJ Edwardson
• Most Nefarious Villain Silmaril—hosted by Jenelle Schmidt
• Wisest Counsellor Silmaril—hosted by Tracey Dyck
• Silver Tongue Silmaril—hosted by Madeline Rose
• Most Epic Hero Silmaril—hosted by Abbey Stellingwerff
• Most Mischievous Imp Silmaril—hosted by E. E. Rawls
• Least Competent Henchman Silmaril—hosted by Kyle Robert Schultz
• Strangest Character Silmaril—hosted by Savannah Grace
• Most Epic Heroine Silmaril—hosted by Deborah O’Carroll
• Most Faithful Friend Silmaril—Zachary Totah (aka me)

The voting ends this Friday at 11:59 pm CDT.

Beginning next Monday, we’ll start announcing the winners.

It would be grand to have as much participation as possible. After all, these are fan-based awards, so it’s all about having fun and showing our love for fantasy along the way. So spread the word!