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 ...
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 loved this story! I think you wrote both Elrond and Earendil really well, and their discussion seemed very in character - I loved Elrond's lines, especially when he was challenging Earendil's beliefs. The writing was also very good!
I really liked this piece. The tension is built nicely at the very beginning and I particularly like how you conveyed through physical reactions the mixture of hope, nerves and sheer stubbornness Elrond feels while waiting on his father's doorstep. As for the description of the house itself it is beautiful and now I cannot stop imagining Ingwë's pompous portrait. As for the encounter itself I loved it. It manages to convey a multitude of emotions at once nicely unraveling, bit by bit, the tension built in the beginning, moreover the dialogues sound very realistic, quite a difficult feat given the subject of this fic. I kept feeling Eärendil was fighting more with the part of himself that agreed with Elrond than with his son (who is right shamelessly Fëanorian opinion).
As for the ending is almost cathartic and the figure of Celebrían fits it perfectly with her calm and quieting presence.
Wow! Thanks so much for the detailed review. :) I really appreciate it. You're fairly right about Eärendil struggling with himself, even as he struggles with his son.
Wow! You write tension really well. Haha, it was almost hard to read without getting anxious myself :)
I really like the descriptions you put in of Elrond's movements and the way he notices small details. It really got accross how tense and conflicted he was feeling.
I can't help wondering what was going through Earendil's head here, though. He seems to be trying very hard to be formal (I mean, he hasn't seen his son in 6000 years, and doesnt come and meet him at the door himself?) and is clearly nervous as well. The part where he slips up and doesn't know if Elrond likes tea or not was especially touching. Elrond's reaction (and then insistance that he does like it, even though he doesnt want any when it comes out) is even more so.
Sorry to write you two reviews on the same story, but I realized at work that I forgot to mention the parts I liked best in your story!
These lines:
"I wait to feel some innate bond of kinship. I felt it with my brother. I felt it when I married Celebrían. I felt it when my children were born. I even felt it – Eru forgive me – when I grew close to Maglor."
"I clench my hands. Calm down. He's your father, he's your father, he's your father don't be angry fool youarethelordofImladrisandthisisadisgrace..."
I think they just showed so much emotion and personality and struggle. The second one was poignant, but the first was very insightful (that feelings for someone don't exist because they "should") and touching.
Also the part where he switched into loremaster mode and drops all pretenses was great :)
Again, sorry to write two reviews...I couldn't figure out how to edit my other one. This is why I shouldn't write reviews at two am...and possibly why I shouldn't be allowed on the internet at all, haha.
Anyway, I really like your story....I'll stop babbling now...
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.