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.
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Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
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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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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.
Ohhh, this is going to be a great holiday read under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate!
I'm looking forward to seeing the Valinorean equivalent of a burglar getting knocked down by a suspended iron while standing atop a flight of stairs...
There will naturally be a chapter done in colored pencil, showing the whole scheme! :D I haven't written that part yet, but I'm concocting in my mind the various ways that the Ambarussa can torment my baddies Iniðilêz and Dušamanûðânâz ...
I hope you enjoy the story! And the hot chocolate! :D
It's been on my mind for two years! This is just a ridiculous time of year to get significant writing done, and it's not a story I want to work on during the summer. I made myself do it this year if only so I could stop having to watch the movies every year.
I've got quite a ways to go to finish, so hopefully this missed day matters little in the larger scheme of things. (Though I'm rolling my eyes at my timing ... I *would* choose one of the only days out of the year that you don't have time to read ...)
I *would* choose one of the only days out of the year that you don't have time to read ...
OMG! You nailed me! Almost nothing keeps me from reading--holidays do: with family, Christmas presents, cooking, a tree we haven't decorated, and work still to be done on my Yuletide fic which MUST be totally squeaky clean before our Xmas Eve dinner tomorrow night.
Good luck with everything! It's just Bobby and me this year, so I am enjoying a rare bit of leisure that comes when there's no pressure to impress or please anyone. (I have been crushingly exhausted by work and lack of daylight, so it couldn't come at a better time.)
I'm pretty sure I don't even come close to the chaos in the films, which actually manage to have more people involved! :D Thanks for reading and commenting!
I think the fact that you're asking it says that you know me pretty well as an author! :D
I don't want to spoil the story but will say that one of the things that saves the Home Alone franchise for me--because I'm not terribly enthusiastic about schmaltzy tales of the Power of Christmas Spirit--is its theme about not just tolerating but embracing people who are different. So you might get your wish ...
Thank you! This story is proving more challenging than I expected if only because film does convey certain quick visual elements that I'm finding taking *a lot* of words to write ...
My older brother used to talk to me and our younger siblings like this (not the exact vocabulary--but, you know, exact tone!):
“I would not pack your trunk for you,” he says with the pointed enunciation of the deliberately cruel, “if I was filling it with your dismembered, wolf-mangled corpses.”
In his defense, he has been awesome to me for the last several decades!
It was a parody of a line from Buzz, Kevin's older brother, in the first movie, which goes something like, "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!"
Tyelkormo is my Buzz stand-in in this story, but yes, I recall well (being the older sibling) these kinds of exchanges!
The details of the chaos are hilarious and perfect. Carnistir's hair oil. Curufinwë's books. Turukano's tattling. Tyelko so attuned with nature. Irissë and her Tyelko fascination. Macalaurë and impractical instruments and dear Nelyo trying to impose order.
lost gold hair clips. But oh this Maia rubs me the wrong way!
Thanks! I am realizing that the task of writing a crossover of this movie is not as straightforward as I thought because details like the chaos in the house--shown in a couple of scenes or as background to dialogue--requires much more development in writing.
The characters are a little caricaturish, but I hope it's forgiveable given the nature of the story! :D
Your description of Tyelko's face--nose, pimples and the hope that he may someday be handsome made me laugh! Poor guy. I loved the description of his room--any little boy's dream! Imagining Macalaure with a squirrel in his hair is worth a chuckle. now I'm fascinated with the Wight and irritated by this annoyngly unctuous Maia.
Leave it to Tyelko to tell a ghost story and be distracted by being gross!
This. This. Endlessly traipsing Tyelko. Fëanaro's cooking frenzy and increasingly short temper. His wish to ride in the wagon with the smelly children and tell Findekano of his shortcomings. 😂
Pat keast he recognizes Nelyo's goodness!
What a tableau you've woven for us--I can see the while scene playing out in this too crowded kitchen!
Thank you! The story is turning out much longer than I anticipated (words I have uttered more than once in my life as a writer ...), so I'm pleased to hear that all those words are at least working for you! :D
(There are odd details from my usual verse thrown in here and there. Feanaro's insistence on cooking for his family is one of them. One of my favorite details from L&C--that Elvish guys do the cooking! [My husband also does the cooking in our family, which might be part of why I connect so well with this.])
Ahhhhh!!!!!!! I love this! I love Home Alone (though it's been years since I watched it) and putting a Silmarillion spin on it is amazing. I'm looking forward to the rest of it!
Yay! I suspected it will be appreciated most by Home Alone fans (although I hope not *only* by Home Alone fans), so this is good to hear. Thanks for letting me know!
The next chapter will likely be up within the hour.
I'm so far three chapters ahead in writing. Which is probably good because the "obstacle course" chapter(s)--one of which will naturally be a drawing--will probably use up at least that many days! Not being a plot writer, those will challenge me, I expect ...
Tyelko didn't even get an "I told you so" in the rush!
The driver's unease and his way of presenting the situation To Nolo as a way to avoid being stuck at Feanaro's house days on end was well done. As was Nolo's comment on the house being like a beehive if the kids woke up suddenly!
I also love how you highlight the differences between Nolo and Fëanor (carriage vs wagon, wine poured by attendants etc) but how at their core they are so very similar (much to their mutual dismay!)
He didn't! Although I suspect he enjoyed more the drama and attention he was causing than he had actual concern over safety. :D
You know my verse well enough to know that the differences in how The Noldor and how Feanaro approach matters of pomp and servants and the privileges of "royalty" are different in my mind. Even though I can get lost in other authors' verses and stories that see things differently, this is one thing I don't think I could write differently myself; it is such a core to my vision of the Family Feanor and how they came to occupy nondescript realms in Beleriand, distinguishing themselves through service rather than building opulent hidden realms.
Ahh, here we go! Let the heroic Defence of Formenos begin. And poor Nerdanel...
I rewatched the movie when it came on on Christmas Day and found that it had aged well. Some of the jokes were still as funny as when I was a kid myself. I'm looking forward to the Elvish polka band and the "Angels with Filthy Souls" equivalent!
The Maiar with Filthy Feär are already written! :D I'm not sure what the equivalent of the polka band will be; I haven't written this quite yet but am getting there.
I also still enjoy the movies (1 and 2, anyway), which my husband and I have watched annually, partly because I kept wanting to start this story and needed to see them before I could begin ... I also find they age well!
Yes, essentially! In the original, Kevin wants to watch a gangster movie called "Angels with Filthy Souls" but is deemed too young to do so. After his family, "disappears," he pops in the VHS tape and watches a scene where mob boss guns down a man who comes to collect his cut on a job. Kevin is horrified. (Watching it as a kid, I thought it was scary too!)
This is my attempt to parody that in the Ardaverse. :D
I love the details you weave of their disparate personalities here. Nolo organized and efficient. Anaire calm and collected, Feanaro his practical any problem must have a solution self and Nerdanel just " I need to get back to my boys" which tugs at anyone's heartstrings.
Thank you! They're simplified but also based on years and years of thinking and writing about their characters, which makes me feel not-bad about maybe making them a little caricature-y at times in service of the story. I'm glad they work for you! :D
Yes, of course they have to be buffoons! Although I am enjoying immensely making them slightly icky buffoons too (not really an angle in the original but then there aren't Elves in the original either unless one counts the girl taking the candy canes to her boyfriend ... ;)
Thanks for continuing to read and especially to comment! <3
This story continues amazingly readable and involving even if you don't know the films!
Author's Response:
Of course he does! :D (I was inspired by the book collection because a friend of mine has the entire collection of those truncated RD novels. They look beautiful, but I can't help but wonder who would want to read the classics in Cliffs Notes form??)
Thank you for such a kind compliment! I like to think that the movie isn't essential, since I'm essentially laying Silm characters/setting on top of the Home Alone plot, not really entwining the canons in any meaningful way. But I'm thrilled that, even as a non-Home Alone fan, you find the story engaging! <3
Poor little Ambarussa! It's not easy to be the youngest, least gifted members of such a large and talented family. I like the idea of the "glimmer of shared thought" between their heads.
I've never seen the Home Alone movies, but I'm sure I don't need to; this is fun! So much energy and color bursting through the lines.
Aww, thank you, Hazel! I really appreciate this comment. I don't think Home Alone is essential to understanding the story--all I've done is put Silm characters and setting on top of the plot of the first and second in the series--but I DO worry that it is needed to *enjoy* the story. I'm trying to make that not so and am glad that I've succeeded so far for you! :) I hope you continue to enjoy it.
I enjoy Feanor in this scene - his appreciation of Nerdanel, his culinary genius, his spotless apron, his intolerance of other people's intolerance of spicy food, scouting out an inn where his brother's family can stay ... I'm a little surprised he blamed the twins when he might have chosen Fingolfin or Aredhel, but everything else is pitch-perfect.
You bring out the chaos very well; I can feel it. My favorite part (after Feanor) is Fingolfin's rescue of the carpet, which is futile even though it succeeds.
I think the response to the twins was just that they happened to be the culprits when he reached his snapping point. Kind of like when a decision above me is made that my students don't like, and by the time I hear it complained about for the 10th time, I snap ... and then feel bad about it afterward.
Feanor in this scene, actually, is based a lot around me and how I interact with the world, namely feeling overwhelmed in large social situations (and maybe a little bit thinking that people that don't eat spicy food are a little bit wimps ... ;)
I'm glad you liked the chapter! :D Thanks for reading and letting me know!
I feel for all three of them. We've all had family incidents like this, when some minor thing spun out of control and ended up hurting everyone's feelings.
I love the idea that Feanor interrupted Nerdanel once and never made that mistake again. I also like the distinct personalities you give to Ambarussa and Ambarto, their differences in behavior/thinking.
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.