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.
Spoken very much in Tolkien-style verse and woven with clever poetry. I like the fairytale aspect of your tale and the way you portray the passage of time. You also have me imagining Arien's ship on cruise control so she can take the occasional nap.
Oh noes, don\'t give me any ideas! :D Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Cirdan. Also, a belated welcome to SWG; my apologies for not saying hi sooner, but I was away this weekend past.
I loved this, Dawn! The idea of irreversible change has been on my mind since writing "Wrong Way to..." I like how your character ponders on it, too, and how she comes back to look at that horizon in older age and feels that same stirring she felt as child. You've managed to say so much with this piece, I think new meanings will come every time I read it.
(I'm so sorry I haven't responded to this till now. I came to reply to another comment and realized I had left several unanswered. Bad 'gund! :( )
I have to say that this comment is giving me that happy butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. :) Of all the stories on my list here, this is one where I feel it doesn't yet reach what I want it to be in my mind. I had a lot going on in my mind, too, as I wrote it, but poetry is and probably always will be difficult for me. I'm so glad that it worked for you, and that you liked it. Thank you for your comment!
(I came here to respond to a new comment and realized I never answered you! I'm so sorry! :( )
I am still very wincy about most of my poetry. I am so happy that it worked for you! I remember writing it in my parents' car on our way to Williamsburg. I had such a clear idea of what I wanted to do and don't feel I'm quite there yet, but it's very encouraging to think I'm on my way, at least. :) Thank you for your kind comment!
I thought this story was great! (As is everything you write, of course). I loved how it was written in a way that almost made it feel like a fairytale, and also the poetry that you interspersed was gorgeous. The ending was especially powerful.
Thank you! I'm not fully happy with this piece ... I'm not fully happy with my poetry, full stop, in the vast majority of instances! :D But you've mentioned here two things that I was definitely trying to do, which is give it a fairy-tale/folkloric feel and make the poetry work with the link pieces. I'm thrilled that these things came through for you. Thanks so much for your kind words and encouragement!
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.