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
Naturalist's Guide to Middle-earth
Sneak a peek into notebooks of the scholars and explorers of Middle-earth, with prompts that are images from historical naturalist publication. 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.
Oh this is an unique form that I also never encountered before. What I like so much about this poem is that it conveys the chain of actions and reactions so well, but also her emotions in a way! The metre is immensely well done, every sentence is connected and yet the next line read as a stand alone. :) Does this make any sense? What a wonderful piece!
Thank you so much, Rhapsody! Yes, it makes perfect sense. :) I wanted each of her actions to also represent something larger; for the poem to work on two levels. And this is one of those forms, I think, where the form should fit the subject, and this seemed the perfect subject to try my hand at \"dribbling\": the escalation of her panic as she tries to reach the Meneltarma fit the shorter and shorter word-count constraints as the poem progressed.
I think I\'m haunted, too. Now she\'s whispering to me to write another poem about her, considering what would have happened if she\'d reached the summit ... ;)
So immensely powerful in just a few words. I absolutely love it, Dawn! The imagery is amazing. The idea with Miriel having blood on her hands is both interestin and very powerful and deep. I would not mind reading more of these dribbles in the future. :-)
Thank you, Roisin! Well, as I told Rhapsody, it seems Miriel is here to haunt me for the moment; I have another idea for a poem from her PoV pondering what would have happened if she had made it to the Meneltarma. She\'s tugging on my sleeve right now ... ;)
I wanted each line in the poem to have two meanings, and the blood on the hands is one of them. Literally, of course, she is in haste and has literally cut her hands; figuratively, the blood her people has spilled have cost her the divine favor that might otherwise save her. I\'m so pleased that you noticed this and liked it. :)
And, you know, you are partly to blame for this. ;) All this talk of Akallabeth in August, and I have the Second Age on the brain!
Thank you, Naltariel, for reading my poem and for such a kind review. :) I must confess relief that the poem has been liked so far. I don\'t think of myself as a poet; I usually end up writing them because they won\'t let me do otherwise! ;)
Thank you, Moreth! I felt that the form fit the subject as well (these sorts of \"novelty\" forms irk me unless they serve the poem and aren\'t just used so that the author can show off her counting skills!). I\'m glad the poem worked for you. :)
I love this because it looks like a rock, albeit one which is pointing downwards. It feels like... slipping down the poem. I also like the lack of complete sentences, the abruptness (slicker wetter sharper). It fits the subject matter, which is why it works so well.
Thank you again for the comment! :) When my friend Dreamflower introduced me to this particular form, it seemed a given that it should be used to write about Miriel. I was definitely going for the effect you mentioned in keeping the lines abrupt and avoiding complete sentences at the end of the poem, so I'm happy that it worked! Thank you again. :D
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.