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.
A very well thought out piece of work, the historical aspect I am sure would have pleased the Professor greatly. For myself it is the world weary narrative and lack of song in the once great singer's voice that strikes home...
I imagine for that 'Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile...' would be a difficult song for Maglor to sing; or perhaps not in a moment of resignation and/or communion...
Thank you, and again sorry for the delayed response. I know Tolkien didn't care for allegory and I think I share his belief that it can often be crass, but I do think being a young man in the trenches certainly put its stamp on the history of the Feanorians. (Perhaps a less informed 'Mythic' reading of their history would have celebrated their tennacity in holding to the family vow, after the Somme, such determination can only make them tragic.)
I love this story. The genre of Maglor in history is a very hard one to nail and you do it here. Out of the hundreds written there are only a few that I can really lose myself in. This is definitely at the top of list. Maglor has such a strong voice. The fondness and protectiveness he feels for Lieutenant Beowulf is incredibly moving. For me, it has to be redemptive. No good deed goes unpunished in life either. Not even the hardest-hearted of the Valar could read this an not turn their gaze back on Maglor and want to gather him back into their world.
So thrilled that he told Lieutenant Beowulf those glorious heartwrenching stories.
Thank you, I am sorry it took me so long to reply but until today I wasn't aware this story was archived here. I remember writing this just as the second Iraq war was beginning, and I think the events of the time seep through. I also think Tolkien doesn't get recognised enough as a First World War writer, even though his own quote: "...to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead," is still one of the most sparse and chilling testiments to the time.
I liked this story a lot, and I would have even if I weren't such a sucker for elves-in-modern-times stories. The characterization of Maglor was brilliant- cynic, brooding and almost snarky, yet ready to warm up to "Beowulf". I remember reading some stories with a similar premise, but this manages to have a unique flavor to it. The writing itself made it very realistic, and there were some really nice turns of phrase. Very well executed.
Thank you! I am sorry it took me so long to reply but until today I wasn't aware this story was archived here. This was written back in the day in response to a 'Maglor in history challenge' Silm fics mailing list challenge, which was enormous fun, and sparked some great stories which I hope have all found safe homes now HASA is due to close. 2003 was an incredibly creative year in Silmarillion fanfiction and I still get nostalgic for it. I'm glad you enjoyed.
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.