Founded in 2005, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild exists for discussions of and creative fanworks based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion and related texts. We are a positive-focused and open-minded space that welcomes fans from all over the world and with all levels of experience with Tolkien's works. Whether you are picking up Tolkien's books for the first time or have been a fan for decades, we welcome you to join us!
New Challenge: Bollywood This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Holiday Party
No matter if you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, it's a time of year to think about holidays. Whether you're bundling up in blankets or slipping a swimsuit into your suitcase, we invite you to an SWG holiday party! Read more ...
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
Elrond Week 2024
Elrond Week is a fandom event dedicated to Elrond Peredhel that will run from July 10th to July 16th on Tumblr.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
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Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.
So much better than the original. (I know. I am a complete heretic when comes to Beren and Luthien.) Adored Finrod in this one too. "Not to change the world, but to understand it": both the weakness and the strength of Finrod very well described, whether or not that was your intention.
Thanks, Oshun! An evol part of me wants to do a longer story someday about the \"real Beren and Luthien.\" Only it\'s not a story I\'m overwhelmed with to start and I don\'t know if I have the strength to put up with the inevitable, \"You\'ve gone and ruined the magic, you heretic!\" that it would generate. ;)
Also, I want you to know that I got your last email. I\'ve been very busy with this upcoming SWG project (that should be revealed in the next couple of days, maybe earning me a bit of a reprieve), but I\'ll get the story back to you ASAP. I\'m chomping at the bit to read it!
Ah, ha! I recall that discussion surrounding Luthien and the BoLT2, and I see that it bore fruit. As usual, your exquisite detailing brings the characters alive and highlights their humanity. Your humor shines through. At the risk of tossing too many spoliers in the review, I'll leave these tidbits for other readers to discover, but I will say that I heard Thingol say "Oy!" rather than "Ai!" ;^)
Finrod's characterization is great, but it's Luthien who really does it for me. Here, you've captured an appealing combination of self-deprecation and striking introspection on her part.
Often, it is ordinary that becomes all the more remarkable.
I agree completely. That is part of the reason that I wrote this because, to me, the Beren and Luthien story is less compelling because I can\'t relate to them as real people. But once I start believing that I could be Luthien (and Bobby is Beren? :^P), then I am all the more compelled; their deeds do seem remarkable and they do become heroes.
Of course, I know that there\'s another school of thought on this where the story\'s magic lies in ... well, its magic.
Thingol saying \"Oy!\" rather than \"Ai!\"--lol, I can hear that too, now that you mention it (and have probably forever changed how I will hear that part of the story!)
Hehe, I liked your humor, and felt the magic was only partially taken out. After all, even with Finrod's role here, the meeting of Beren and Luthien has more than a touch of fate to it. And the mead they drink sounds just like how Tolkien describes elf-wine like miruvor ;). No one can ever live up to the legend about themselves.
The Noldor being such show-offs that they cannot have enjoyable parties seemed all too appropriate - poor Finrod! And his inquisitiveness and desire to understand fits his character so well.
I did miss Melian from your story, though. Is she also 'ordinary,' or does she still retain a bit of the supernatural, being a Maia?
Much as I love the Noldor, I love also to make fun of them, their seriousness, their ostentatiousness. Actually, Finrod is frequently my comic muse for this (and Finarfin, too, to a slightly lesser extent).
I didn\'t give much thought to Melian for this story, to be honest. I should definitely account to her in some way--I see that now--even if to excuse why she might not be present. One day, maybe ten years from now, I would like to really study the Beren and Luthien story and write something longer on it, along these lines (sans stabs at humor and bad puns ;), a more realistic version of the story.
Thank you for reading and taking the time to review! :)
Thank you! I am occasionally guilty of interpretting requests in a way that I don\'t think the requestee intended ... but I hope that the finished product makes up for that. :) In this case, I\'m really surprised by the positive response this piece has generated so far ... so thanks for that! :)
Dawn, this is such a delightful story! Beautifully written, as only you can do. I love the descriptions of the characters, such as Daeron. Hee!Hee! The humour in it is wonderful. You show how well peoples' expectations can become much too high of "celebrities" or of people whom one thinks one should revere or admire. Your Luthien is very refreshing. She's an ordinary woman, maybe, but not at all common-place.
The surprise ending was also a delight. Thank you so much for taking on the task of writing this story. It has surpassed all my expectations.
Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.