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.
I really loved this small story that delves into the minds of these two characters that you write so beautifully and who I love so much. Congratulations on a story well turned.
Thank you very much for all your support during the writing of this story, Erulisse, and I'm glad you like the finished product! I was hoping you would enjoy the parts you hadn't seen yet.
I loved the additions to the story! Maedhros noticing how much thought Fingon put into decorating their house and charming Fingon’s staff (even if he doesn’t notice) shows how much progress he’s made since he was released from Mandos.
To Findekano, for a brief sunlit moment, it seems that Russandol is saying: But of course, Findekano, don’t you know I would trust you with anything, anytime, anywhere?’ Only he cannot really be saying that, can he?
Oh, but he can. I really like that part.
‘There is no way you are going to blow away’, declares Fingon, ‘because I am not going to let you!’, and holds his cousin tight.
I'm very glad you like the additions! (I hope the bits in Tirion also work for people who haven't read as much of the series as you and Erulisse have...)
The ending is perhaps a bit self-indulgent, but I felt that after all that Fingon and I deserved something nice!
Almost imperceptibly, Russandol’s hand, having lain completely inert on the bed sheet all the while, flexes slightly and begins to move. It seems to move independently of the rest of his body, small, searching movements, like a mouse looking for crumbs among the folds.
Reading this, I am reminded of how the strength of his painful memories kept burning as bright and hot as solar flares in the Halls of Mandos for so many eons....
No wonder that he can hardly believe that he is with Fingon for good now, in Tirion.
Thank you! I'm thrilled that In Time, Stronger than Silima seems to have left such a strong impression on you. At least that is how I am interpreting your comment--unless it was something else you were thinking of?
Yes, Maedhros does find it quite hard to believe that he is with Fingon for good and also that Fingon has been waiting for him, all this time.
In my review of "No Way You Can Fall," I pulled out my favorite line from the story for commentary. This story had no shortage of lines that I loved, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be this one:
When exactly did you decide, cousin, that making fatal errors is a strictly Feanorian privilege?
The build up to that line was filled with so much truth about the characters. While you aren't the only Silm writer who constructs fantastic stories, you have a special knack for constructing these sentences that are so perfect for how much they reveal both about the world and characters that Tolkien constructed and about the world and characterizations that you further construct around those.
Thank you very much! I've had somebody else comment favourably on this line, also, and it really pleases me because, actually, I was a bit anxious about the build-up to it. I'm very glad to be told it works!
Also, to be told the ending is squeeable is wonderful!
You write these two sublimely-and it is so nice ot have a happy ending. The delicacy and fragilty of Russandrol- and I like that you use thisname and not yet Maedhros- is very well portrayed and Fingon's struggle with it. Masterful writing as always.
Thank you very much, Ziggy! Glad you enjoyed the ending!
And I'm happy that my take on Russandol's recovery process works for you--I think it must have been a lengthy and rocky one, despite the strength of character of both cousins, which I think should not be underrated either!
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.