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…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
New Year's Resolution
Our annual amnesty challenge allows you to complete and receive stamps for challenges you missed in the past year. 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.
The gem he had returned to the Valar was poor recompense for his family’s sacrifice.
Oh, this line in particular was interesting. I liked this new perspective of Earendil as a father and husband first and a "chosen one"/emissary second. That's obviously not something we see in the Silm.
One thing, though, "thine brow" should be "thy brow". :)
I appreciate your words and your approval of my focus on Earendil, a character who often gets maligned a bit for his "desertion" of home and family.
I was uncertain about the Old English, but actually did look up the usage and thy/thine are interchangeable and dependent upon preference of the writer. I chose to use thine in this particular usage.
Well, I have the knowledge of the telescope already present. I had Helyanwe making one for Idril a few months ago in a story. So it seemed likely that it was something she learned when she was apprenticing with Lord Aule and that he could give such an item to Earendil. After all, if you were flying above lands that you used to know, wouldn't you want to take a closer look? LOL. Thanks for your comments, they are appreciated as always!
Perhaps. I doubt he will be able to see them every night. There will be clouds, the pathway he may take may need to be varied, and Maedhros and Maglor probably move often to avoid being discovered. But I do think that he feels more relief at having his sons in their care, with a dash of common sense. The two kinslayers probably are fairly conversant with how to take care of young boys having had so many younger brothers that they undoubtedly helped care for while they were growing up in Tirion
I love the contrast you have here: the first paragraph is so gentle and lyrical, with beautiful descriptions that make us feel like we're watching the stars. And then, the second is so much darker, with sinister atmosphere of the approaching war. So well done!
Thanks, Ellynn, I am quite fond of the stars (as are you, if I recall correctly) and can just imagine learning all about them as a young child. Then, having the opportunity to sail among them would be marvelous. But Morgoth lurks in the North and he was responsible for the death of his mother and his city. It was Earendil's coming to the Valar that started the machines of war in Aman and, indeed, they will bring war to the gates of Angband. Thank you so much for your words :-)
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.