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: Potluck Bingo Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo Our November-December challenge will be Potluck Bingo, featuring cards created by you! If you'd like to create cards or prompts for cards, we are taking submissions.
Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14 We will be hosting a Tolkien Meta Week in December, here on the archive and on our Tumblr, for nonfiction fanworks about Tolkien.
New Challenge: Orctober Orcs on a quest for freedom seek a place sheltered and safe from the Dark Lord. Fulfill prompts to gather the clues needed to bring them to freedom.
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
Created for the 'Geography/Maps/Places' prompt on the "Tolkien meta" bingo board, this is a collection of maps marked with the various people groups showing how they arrived and moved about Beleriand. This collection focuses specifically on the time from the arrival of the Teleri, Vanyar, and…
This is an analysis on whether the Sindar ate the Petty-dwarves during the years they hunted them, completed for the 'Literary Analysis' prompt on the "Tolkien Meta" bingo card.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Inspiration
Your characters inspire you--but what inspires them? Consider what inspires your characters to act and create. Read more ...
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
A reworking of the 2018 article for Long Live Feedback that includes data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, pointing to a lack of comments as related to skill, confidence, and community connection.
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
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.
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
LotR SESA has been ongoing for twenty-one years and is running again this year as a prompt meme hosted on AO3 for all genres of Tolkien-based fanfiction.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic prompt: refuge. Formal challenge: include imitation of a sound. As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges. New participants welcome!
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.
And already I'm choking up. I'm loving Maglor's importance as storyteller and, it seems, as someone his people rely on to provide a sense of identity:
"Explain things to us, Makalaure. Tell us what we did. Tell us who we are, now."
That would be heartbreaking in any sort of circumstance, but even more so considering what the Fëanorians just went through, and that Maglor seems (at least temporarily) at a loss to provide for them. Very bleak, but a very promising start.
I was wondering where you were going with the second chapter, but it makes a lot of sense now - what a wonderful (and painful) resolution to the fic, and still probably the closest approach to comfort this could be - and what a gorgeous last paragraph to end on. *slinks off to wipe eyes*
Wow, I really enjoyed this. (I am reading your SoWD stories, trying to choose one to work with for your prize--what a difficult decision it is proving to be, to choose between them! :) I like the idea that Maglor, the bard, is the one who makes sense of the clutter of history to the rest of them, who extracts meaning from otherwise senseless events. I have spent the past few hours working on a paper about the Ainulindale and Tolkien's concept of subcreation, so this is really tickling my muses right now ...
Thank you very much, Dawn! I'm excited to hear that this story of mine is tickling your muses!
We always rely on the stories we construct for ourselves, but the more desperate the situation, the more I think the Feanorians would come to rely on Maglor in this way.
I had been carrying most of this story in my head for quite a while, but as I was finishing it I also had some of your recent comments on the Heretic Loremaster site about characterization in mind.
I hope the paper on the Ainulindale is going well!
I've encountered stories in which Maglor is upset because Daeron is canonically better than he is and others (slash) in which Daeron and Maglor become lovers.
But I prefer to see it this way--simply musicians who have a subject in common they are passionately interested in, but are divided by history and politics.
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.