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
Start to Finish
Choose one of the famous first lines from the list below and use it to start your story. If you are creating a fanwork other than writing, you may use one of the first lines to inspire your fanwork. 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.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate your commenting here, too!
It must have been really traumatic. I guess it is one of the reasons why Elemmire's poem about it later became so popular--it helped them deal with that memory.
This was a very charming piece. Estë knows her job! I can imagine her arranging things so that they would look familiar and comforting (if not wholly so) to Celebrian. I also loved Celebrian's observations: That she does not want to have the painful memories removed magically, and that she welcomes the sensation of homesickness. I think that already shows that some healing has taken place: the pain is no longer between Celebrian and her feelings for the place she left behind. And of course, everything is easier with tea!
Thank you very much, Lyra! I'm glad you liked it. Of course everything is easier with tea!
I downplayed this a little in the ficlet itself because of my recipient, who hadn't read the earlier story, as far as I know, but my own thoughts were that some healing indeed had taken place already--Celebrian experiencing Finrod's support and managing to trust him is the first step in Valinor before she is able to engage with Este, even with this unexpectedly familiar and comforting Este. Thus we find that some healing has taken place already and it opens the door to further healing, as it were!
WOW! The idea of the early Eldar not only consciously hearing, but actively analysing and discussion the echoes of the Ainulindale, is already fascinating... but writing it so effectively in so few words is actual genius. You even manage to characterise the Unbegotten through what little they say! And Tata's final question is a real killer. Absolutely love this!
This came to me while I was having a real struggle with my main piece for Silmarillion40. I guess Dawn's previous posts about the Ainulindale were churning somewhere in the back of my mind.
Aww, Gil-galad is such a sweetheart! And Finarfin's initial naivety and later disillusionment are very believable and quite heartbreaking. I like that among his difficult tasks you listed keeping the people on their side talking to each other. That can't have been easy with all those easily ruffled tempers and (sometimes justified) animosities!
Yes, I think it was difficult to keep people talking to each other and it was also one of the things in which Finarfin did not quite succeed! Because of people's tempers and the sometimes justified animosities, because of the cultural divides (more than one), and because of the chaos of war that kept cutting communication and supply lines. (We don't hear of him in that final episode with Maedhros and Maglor and maybe that is because he is worn out and overwhelmed and distracted, by then, although alternatively maybe, of course, his reaction has just dropped out of the narrative.)
I'm glad you found his disillusionment believable! And I wanted someone to appreciate nevertheless how hard he had tried!
It is an odd thing, how Halloween and it's train of horror movies and the like follow so closely in the footsteps of the actual meaning of the holiday, which is and has always been remembrance of the dead. It is fitting that Remembrance/Memorial Day falls around this time, and it is fitting that you write about it now. You said that my work adhered to the prompts and their source, and that might to an extent be true, but this little vignette more closely resembles what I believe to be the true spirit of this time of year, and that took a great deal more skill. Thank you for sharing this.
This feels very honest and raw. Sometimes that happens, that fiction is too close to reality, or history, for comfort... and yet we find continue to find comfort in it. A sad, but lovely and very fitting story at this time.
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.