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.
Fingon returns to Barad Eithel after a late-autumn hunt, finding someone unexpected with his wife. The night takes an even more unexpected turn for all three of them.
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…
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
Heroes
Create a fanwork about a hero, whether the typical saves-the-world type or the unlikely, unsung, and accidental, those who have been forgotten or perhaps were never noticed at all, who made their worlds a better place. 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.
I like the way this investigates one of the really missing areas of the text! The potential for stories about the early relations among Dwarves and Elves is so broad, because so little is there in the canon. It makes sense that Celeborn might be the one to do the ethical thing, and confess what happened.
Thank you! I'm glad you like it. The possible stories are endless, depending on how the author handles it - I mean, you can have the elves reveal it, you can have the dwarves discover it then, you can have the dwarves not discover it, you can have it told after the First Age ends, etc. But I felt like it added to the later betrayal the elves of Doriath must have felt when they realized the Finarfinions hadn't told them about the Kinslaying, because hey, they told the Dwarves, and the Dwarves aren't even their kin. I'm glad it made sense that Celeborn might be the ethical one.
This also throws an interesting light both on what we later see of the attitudes of the elves of Doriath to the elves of Aman and the attitudes of the Dwarves of Nogrod to Thingol and Doriath.
The Elves of Doriath have a reason for believing that the Finarfinions should have told them about the kinslaying. Same for how the Dwarves of Nogrod feel about Thingol and Doriath. :P (The other option is it has no effect ever, and I'd really like to believe that killing almost an entire group would have some effects).
"If something was to happen to them, I would prefer to know the truth instead of pretty lies about their fate. Not speaking of it would only compound the guilt of having killed them, in my view."
Uh-oh...
Very well written account of something that may have gone on behind the scenes, but is never adressed in the book. The parallels between the killing of the petty-dwarves and the Kinslaying make it especially painful.
Wow. Even with the calculation that they're unlikely to be killed, it's still fairly brave of the elves to walk in unarmed to confess their (sins? mistakes? I don't quite know what word to go with here.) I like that the elves acknowledge that there cannot be a sufficient recompense for what they did, since the dead cannot be brought back. The actions of the elves of Doriath also throws a new light on Thingol's anger at the omission of the Kinslaying from the Finarfinions' tale of how they left Valinor.
Thank you! It is brave of the elves - after all, if it goes badly, the fact that there are numerous elves in the forest isn't going to make them any less dead.
Thingol's feelings about the Finarfinions (who he greeted as his own family) not telling him about the Kinslaying are definitely affected by the fact that he allowed Celeborn to go in and tell the truth to the Dwarves, who are not his family and who could have easily killed them for telling the truth. He's not very pleased with lies.
It is a corageous-- and necessary-- thing the Elves did, and yet, as Gunnvör said, it can neither fully repair their relationship nor heal the wound. Very well done and you've given me something to think about.
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.