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.
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.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2024
A chill Tolkien event, where artists make art, and authors write little stories in response. Begins in June and ends in November.
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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.
Oh my! Well, they should have known what they were getting themselves into when Nerdanel announced that she insisted on being allowed to follow her artistic vision! But then, your Ingwe doesn't seem to be the sort of person who actually realises that other people's vision might differ from his. I love that you made Osse so sympathetic and reconciliatory. And Finarfin is willing to think and listen, at least. (I also can't help but notice that the Valar do not appear to take offense!)
Meanwhile, the sculpture you describe is utterly compelling! Again, I found it surprising (and fascinating!) that you made Námo one of the Valar who have their eyes open, since he tends to be depicted as a complete killjoy who ignores those Noldor who are alive and looks down on those who come to his halls. So the idea of him weeping over a dead elf is intriguing! And Varda with her sickle, and the (blindfolded!) dancing ladies... I wish I could see the sculpture in real life!
Thank you so much. I have always had a great deal of sympathy for Lord Namo - it's a rather thankless job that he holds. I think he cares for each soul who comes to him with love and respect. I also would love to see this sculpture in real life, it would be intruiging, to say the least - LOL.
I very much apprediate your reading and your comments. *hugs*
Really liked this piece. Especially the description of Namo. I can see that image of him, burdened with the countless deaths that occurred after the Separation and how, in a way, each one was another layer of guilt, another failure, another soul requiring a healing touch--perhaps never to recover and be re-embodied. And he was in charge of them all. He had watched them set out, warned them of the Doom and in the end he was the one they came back to, he was the one that had to see/experience their pain, he was the one who had to heal them--absorbing in a way all that came before. Quite a heavy duty.
The blinfolds and choices for that were also fascinating, as were the ones with unbound eyes.
Thanks so much for your words and review. I admit I have a soft spot in my heart for Namo. He seems to get the blame so often but his job is a very tough one, as you summarized. It was fun to allow my little sculptor to run freely through the Valar.
Thank you! I quite firmly support the idea of artistic independence and integrity. Often artwork can give insights into behavior that are hidden in other venues. Your review is deeply appreciated. Thanks!!!
Oh, this is wonderful! I love how you depicted who Nerdanel chose to leave with eyes unbound and why- it has such poetic description and feels true to the Valar as well. As my name gives away, I love Nienna. I think in one simple line you so perfectly described her. "While her brother weeps for the dead, she weeps for the living." Likewise, the depictions of Ulmo, Námo, and all the others was spot on. And your Nerdanel is wonderful too. Such determination to share her vision.
It is such an interesting way to put it, the Valar with their eyes bound. And I know I've said this before, but everything about your descriptions seems so true to each Vala.(And likewise for Nerdanel.) Really all your characters seem true to themselves, in a way I cannot quite explain, considering how little we see of some of them in canon. But it all just feels right.
I loved this fic so much! As a fellow artist I perfectly know Nerdanel feeling of a) not wanting to be disturbed by other people while she is working and b) the imperative importance of finishing your art remaining true to it and not bending it to the will of other people.
I wasn't expecting this rapresentation of the Valar but I have loved it! And I love how Nerdanel has stood her ground with Ingwe and all the other man... she is great! the best! We all have to learn from Nerdanel!
Again, great fic! I enjoied it a lot! Good work!! <3<3<3<3<3
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.