Welcome to the Silmarillion Writers' Guild

New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt. In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.
Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts. Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.
New Challenge: Everyman. Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy. The fan studies column Cultus Dispatches returns with a history of how Tolkien fanworks fandom has reacted and resisted generative AI by drawing strong boundaries in a way that is not typical for the fandom.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June. Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.

Latest News

New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.

Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.

New Challenge: Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.

Newest Fanworks

show me the limits of your deceit by skywardstruck

In an effort to worm his way into the ranks of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, Annatar makes moves to seduce Celebrimbor and his partner Narvi, hopefully without the other's knowledge. Things don't go according to plan... or do they?

summon forth the wounded night by skywardstruck

Maedhros is left behind by his family after the Kinslaying at Alqualondë after falling beneath the waves. Fingon, in a chance return to Alqualondë, finds an unconscious Maedhros and brings him to camp. The two will discover anew what their love means for them after the lies that split them apart.

Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna

Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring. 

Add Another Stone by StarSpray

The thing about forgiveness, he thought, was that it was so much easier when the object of it was far away—or dead. It was so much easier to let it all go when those responsible were far away and unable to do any more harm. 

I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel

In his old age, Isildur's former esquire Ruinamacil, known to later histories only as Ohtar, writes his own account of his escape from the ambush at Gladden Fields and journey to Imladris, and the history of his friend whom Isildur ordered to flee with him.

New in References

Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy

By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.

Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma

In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.

Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates

This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the parallels between the concept of abnegation in the scientific work surrounding the atomic bomb and in The Silmarillion. The relinquishment of self-interest in favor of the interests of others, abnegation was identified by Tolkien as a powerful act of spirit and reason. The legendarium has many examples of the complexities of abnegation, which…

Newest Artwork

More than Memory by StarSpray

"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory." - The Return of the King

 

Stitched for the Famous Last Words challenge for the prompt: "And with that, they stepped into the gateway, together." - Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi

Rating: General
Warnings: Character Death

He chanted a song of wizardry by elennalore

Sauron defeats Finrod in their song battle.

Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed

Ancient friendship by wisteria53

Maedhros and Fingon from the Years of the Trees to re-embodiment, across five pieces of Maedhros' calligraphy (hand-lettered, with decorative elements) [artworks for the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (TRSB) 2025]

Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed

Around the World and Web

Silmarillion Epistolary Week 2026
Silmarillion Epistolary Week is a Tumblr challenge dedicated to creating fanworks to tell the story of the Silmarillion in the style of an epistolary novel.

Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.

April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."